Is This the Beginning of the Enshittification of AI?

While that is not a word, if you Google it, you will see that it is a term probably coined by writer and tech critic Cory Doctorow in 2022.

He says it describes the systematic degradation of online platforms over time. He says there are three stages to this process:

1. Good to users – high quality and free or subsidized services
2. Good to business customers – platforms prioritize advertisers and vendors, degrading user experience with ads and algorithmic manipulation and
3. Good to shareholders – platforms exploit users and business customers to maximize profits, resulting in a “giant pile of shit”

So lets look at OpenAI as a case study for AI in general.

• OpenAI started as a non-profit. That didn’t last. Then they split it in half and created a for profit company. Musk was an early investor. He wants them to pay him $134 billion. OpenAI and Microsoft (part owner) are also suing Musk. Details at Reuters . Musk initially claimed he invested $100 million in OpenAI, but later reduced that claim to “on the order of $50 million” and later, in court filings, to $38 million, which, he claims, was about 60 percent of OpenAI’s early seed money. That is about a 3,500 times (not percent) return on his investment. Nice if you can get it. Credit: Reuters
• In October they announced that porn would be coming to ChatGPT in December (it is already there in Twitter’s AI, Grok), since AI is not addictive enough. There is just too much money for them to ignore. Credit: Forbes
• But then they had to roll out age verification (which I am sure will be secure). They are partnering with Persona to estimate your age. OpenAI says they might get it wrong and flag an adult as a kid or a kid as an adult. I have no clue how they could estimate the difference between say a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old. Or, for that matter, many 16 or 15 year olds. But estimate they will unless that doesn’t work, in which case you will have to upload a government ID. Persona, they say, will delete your data after 7 days. Credit: Bleeping Computer
• Finally comes ads. For now, it will only be for customers who do not pay. If it is free, you are the product, they say. Subscriptions start at $8 a month. Shades of Twitter’s blue checkmark. They have about 180 million average monthly users. Of course many (most?) of them will deal with the ads, but this is a maximum possible revenue boost of a billion and half dollars a month. Of course, they will not see anything even remotely close to this, but still some will provide their credit card. They say the ads won’t affect the results. Credit: OpenAI

So if you look at Cory Doctorow list of phases above, which one is ChatGPT entering? I will leave that as an exercise for the reader. Will other GPTs follow? I don’t know, but don’t be surprised.

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