I’m more certain than ever that the first quarter of 2024 will see a grand reckoning for companies that have bet big on #AI. As I said before, I predict a lot of CFOs getting sticker shock at their compute bills, and we will see pivots and downscaling of expectations across the industry. By the middle of the year, there will likely be a general cool-down as users and investors come to grips with what “AI” can realistically do at reasonable cost (hint: not as much as the hype claims). Strategically deploying smaller models will become quite attractive, rather than monolithic solutions.
I also think 2024 is the year of the legal reckoning for the industry. Creators whose work have been used for training (i.e. plagiarized) will likely make big inroads into establishing legal frameworks for compensation, and some models will become poisoned because they were trained with unvetted data. Hopefully this also means that model-makers who have been meticulous about their training data’s providence will reap rewards.
Another great episode of Pivot To AI from @davidgerard! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBEOdoYs8v8
There is no doubt that AI compute costs are eventually going to come to haunt its users; we are being substantially subsidized at $20/month, or even $200/month. But I think many of us will be shocked at HOW MUCH we are being subsidized. A 90% subsidy isn’t out of the question.
I predicted in 2023 that 2024 was going to be the year of reckoning for AI adopters, because their bills will come due, and they will get sticker shock when they see the totals, and that would eventually ruin AI providers. BOY WAS I WRONG. Turns out, there was at least two more years’ worth of VC money that were ready to come out of nowhere and subsidize the end users’ bills. This money will eventually run out. But when?