Very poor return on investment for artificial intelligence

Unsplash – DR

Huge spending and unpromising revenues, this is the mixed assessment of the development of artificial intelligence in 2024. Despite the fact that OpenAI has just raised a record $6.6 billion in funding, and is collecting some $300 million each month, notably thanks to ChatGPT, the Californian company is deploring even greater losses. 

It's a risky bet, even a risky step. Valued at $157 billion, OpenAI is proof of a frenetic interest in generative artificial intelligence (AI), which nevertheless raises critical questions about its economic viability.

As reported by Les Echos, Sam Altman's company faces projected losses of $5 billion this year, mainly due to exorbitant expenses related to training its models, as well as its operational costs. In other words, investors certainly seem seduced by the future potential of AI, but a growing gap is emerging between the colossal sums of money being wagered and the current value generated by these technologies.

CCS Insight analyst Leo Gebbie takes the example of the smartphone to highlight the huge gap between the hopes of manufacturers (and investors) and users: “Smartphones are equipped with new functions, such as photo editing using AI, or suggestions to help you manage your calendar. But consumers are not paying more to have access to these functions. For the moment, it does not seem that they are ready to change their mobile phone just to have access to them.” That's for individuals, but on the business side ?

In the service sector, giants Amazon and Microsoft claim that integrating AI boosts their revenues. However, the added value of these tools remains to be proven. Microsoft Copilot, for example, a version of the classic office suite boosted with AI, costs twice the initial price and is ultimately not very efficient. Furthermore, despite significant investments, sales of PCs including AI are struggling to take off. 

In short, the sums spent are enormous, but the return on investment is not good for the moment. And, if the most fervent defenders of progress assure that the benefits will be felt in the long term, all this remains to be proven… Especially since for the moment, we are only talking about money. Perhaps we will soon study the damage that this technology has inflicted on society ?

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