OpenAI, which did not respond to inquiries from AFP, will have about 200 employees by 2021, according to a query made directly on ChatGPT.
For now, despite the excitement generated by ChatGPT, the company has yet to find its path to financial freedom.
Founded as a non-profit, the startup became a “capped for-profit” company in 2019 to attract more investors, and co-founder Greg Brockman said this week that a paid version of ChatGPT was in the works. .
Funding seems necessary for a company with high expenses.
In a Twitter exchange with Musk in early December, Altman acknowledged that each conversation on ChatGPT costs OpenAI several US cents.
The company is spending $100,000 a day for its bot, or about $3 million a month, according to estimates by Tom Goldstein, an associate professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science.
The partnership with Microsoft, which offers its remote computing services to the startup, could cut costs, but “either way, it’s not cheap,” Goldstein said.
“Some people say it’s a waste to put these kinds of resources into a demo,” he said.