OpenAI allows developers to host their AI chatbots in the store and help them make money in the near future. So what is not working for the company?
OpenAI launched its app store for AI chatbots recently, where developers can publish their AI chatbots to the public and eventually make money off it. This is basically like an App Store but for AI chatbots that has been created by OpenAI to continue its progression in the field after the success of ChatGPT in the past 12 months.
The app store was made available in January this year and since then, the AI giant has been facing a challenge to get developers on board, which means less people to install and try out the new AI chatbots.
Having less people use their AI chatbots is directly linked to their prospects of earning from them in the future. The company has pointed out that the revenue sharing will be done based on the user engagement with their chatbots, which is most likely to look at the metrics of time spent on the chatbot among others.
But we still haven’t come to a point where OpenAI is ready to put money into the platform, at least until it has reserved the access to the AI chatbot store for its premium subscribers.
And that’s where the problem seemingly lies for OpenAI and its developer group. After all, if you restrict the use of the app store to the paid users, it is very hard to increase its reach and user base in such a short time. The report by The Information also points the blame at OpenAI, as quoted to some developers, accusing them of offering little support to get more data and analytics on the users who are coming to the app store and trying out different AI chatbots.
Like we have seen with Apple and Google, incentive usually goes two ways, and it feels like OpenAI will have to wait for better returns from the app store, when it allows developers to charge for the apps available in the store.
That’s not all, AI chatbots have also raised concerns with regards to chaos and misinformation, even though AI tools are becoming a big part of people’s daily process, including work.