Open AI and GPT-3: A giant hiding in plain sight?
We've been entertained, seen practical use cases, even businesses. What's next? Meteoric growth or fizzle and pop.
When I signed up for access, I was giddy with excitement, I could see a world of possibilities. I wasn’t the only one.
From conversations with Shakespeare, to radishes wearing a tutu walking a dog, the internet exploded with powerful (and entertaining) examples of what Open.AI’s technology could do.
It didn’t take long for more practical example to emerge, like running brainstorms with a “partner” at IDEO, and turning text prompts into website designs 🤯.
Entertaining…practical…a business? It didn’t take long for examples to pop up.
Mckay Wrigley, the guy that started spoofing conversations with Shakespeare is building Bionic, an easier to learn, write, read, and understand code.
OthersideAI is turning bullet points into beautifully crafted emails (and raised $2.6m to do it).
Copy.ai is making writers block a thing of the past and they’ve just crossed the $60k MRR mark.
After months and months of waiting, I finally got access to GPT-3 last week. Rather than jump straight in, I took a step back. I couldn’t help but ask, is it a smart move to built a business that’s dependant on a third party API?
Back in 2005 a game changing technology emerged. One that was entertaining early days (we could explore the globe from the comfort of out bedrooms), then practical (helping us get from A to B) and then a business, Google Maps.
A little over a decade ago the early versions of the product created an opportunity for a whole generation of location based businesses. Without it we wouldn’t have seen the likes of Foursquare, Uber, Lyft etc. Without them, who knows where we’d be today.
In 2018, having become the core of many product, Google updated their monetisation strategy, increased their prices and…not a lot happened. Sure, developers were up in arms, some customers left but, many stayed.
Three years on, there are other options. Mapbox, Here, Apple Maps, and more recent investments from AWS but…there’s still a clear #1.
Some of Google Maps’ advertising products are expected to come out of beta in the fourth quarter and into 2020, leading Alphabet to grow its maps revenue 64 percent to $4.86 billion in 2020.
Morgan Stanley estimates that Google Maps revenue, both from desktop local search ($1.23 billion) and mobile ($9.82 billion) will total more than $11 billion in 2023.
Open AI have proven their tech (at least GPT-3), and they’ve proven they can market their innovations. Having departed from their earlier non-profit status, they’re becoming more focussed. With all we know, would you take a bet on a failed monetisation strategy?
I’m no closer to answering my question. Instead, I’ve got a whole lot more.
Is it wise to build a business so heavily dependant on a third party API?
In a world of API-fication, is it an inevitable part of the future?
What problems will the next wave of GTP-3 powered businesses solve?
What other Open.AI’s do you see lurking in the shadows?
Let me know what you think.
Ian