OpenAI's ChatGPT: Hype, Hurdles, and High Stakes

0:00It's April 1st, from your city to your ears. This is Sydney News Today, powered by AI. I'm Cory with the story. Open AI's Chad GPT is on track to hit 1 billion users in the coming months, smashing records as the fastest consumer app ever to get there. It took just 3 and a half years since launching late in 2022, beating Facebook's 8 years and TikTok's 5 Plus. Meanwhile, the company's valued at $850 billion but plans to burn through $115 billion and losses by $20.29. High costs for energy-hungry AI, sky-high researcher salaries, and massive data center plans are fueling doubts. Open AI's already pulling back, shutting down its video tool Sora in a TikTok-style app because they're too pricey to run. They scrapped an erotic chatbot project, ditched a multi-billion dollar oracle deal, and delayed UK data center work. Experts and investors are sounding alarms, with some like economist Sebastian Malibu

1:00betting open AI runs out of cash in 18 months. Rivals like Amphropic are closing the gap, their clawed bot now outpacing Chad GPT encoding in other areas, sparking worries the AI hype could lead. To bankruptcies, Sam Altman called a code red in December, shifting staff to courts tech and pausing flashy side projects like AI Hardware, with Joni Ive, and Custom. Chips. Recent funding up to $120 billion from Amazon and SoftBank comes with strings, like hitting milestones before cash flows. Open AI is spiting back with ads on its mostly free service. 95% of users pay nothing and eyes of public listing this year at over one. Trillion dollar valuation. One outstripped supply, so their prioritizing compute for max value, but one slip could shake investor faith fast.