There are over 100 million people using OpenAI’s ChatGPT and more people are in the waiting list to use the conversational AI. The long queues of users waiting to use the AI has made OpenAI to launch a subscription AI for those who don’t want to stand queue. Hence, births ChatGPT Plus. So, What is ChatGPT Plus? This report explains just that.
What is ChatGPT Plus?
Details about ChatGPT Plus had been emerging from insiders for weeks, but the official news finally broke on February 1 via a blog post from OpenAI, the company behind the popular generative text AI.
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“We launched ChatGPT as a research preview so we could learn more about the system’s strengths and weaknesses, and gather user feedback to help us improve upon its limitations,” the blog post states.
“Since then, millions of people have given us feedback, we’ve made several important updates, and we’ve seen users find value across a range of professional use cases including drafting and editing content, brainstorming ideas, programming help, and learning new topics.”
Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) has become an AI (and investment) darling.
It’s a complex and highly accurate machine learning assistant that’s able to carry out natural language “chats.”
The latest iteration from its creator, OpenAI (co-founded by Elon Musk), was trained on massive amounts of data gleaned from the internet prior to 2022.
But as people began hitting “at capacity” notices when trying to access it, it became clear that OpenAI needed a solution for those who’d be willing to pay for it.
How much does it cost?
According to the blog post, ChatGPT Plus will cost $20 per month.
That’s despite rumors that it would cost much more. Of course, the free version of ChatGPT remains in place, so paying won’t be a requirement to use the service moving forward.
What does ChatGPT Plus include?
According to the blog post, ChatGPT Plus will provide three specific features:
- General access to ChatGPT, even during peak times
- Faster response times
- Priority access to new features and improvements
Having access to ChatGPT during peak times is obviously the major benefit of paying for ChatGPT Plus.
With some people having to wait hours to get in, that alone should ensure the popularity of the subscription model.
The idea of getting first access to new features and improvements is interesting too, even if what those new features will be remain a mystery.
We do know that ChatGPT-4, which claims to be a massive improvement on the previous generation, is supposed to launch sometime in 2023.
It’s possible that OpenAI could reserve the improved language model for paid users only.
Why does OpenAI want you to pay up?
ChatGPT has high running costs — for hosting, upkeep, upgrading hardware, updates, satisfying its investor, etc. — while its own popularity has led to an immediate need to improve its accessibility and speed to a greater user base.
Some estimates peg daily running costs at $100,000, or up to $3 million a month! The premium subscription should help to cover server upgrades.
It’s safe to assume that a premium tier will let OpenAI control bandwidth issues, especially during peak times of the day.
Can I subscribe to ChatGPT Plus now?
No, not yet. Currently ChatGPT Plus is in early access phase, which means it’s by invitation only to a select group of users on its waitlist.
That fact that we got an official announcement could mean that ChatGPT Plus will be available widely soon, but OpenAI has not provided a timetable on when that will happen.
Culled from Digital Trends
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