You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze
The Verge
AI labs are ending the era of free access to power models, forcing companies and users to pay higher costs to ensure sustainability.Summary
Leading AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are shifting away from subsidized, low-cost access to their models as they face mounting pressure from investors to generate returns on the billions of dollars spent on data centers. AI companies are now implementing stricter usage limits, usage-based billing, and price hikes to combat the high inference costs of advanced reasoning models. While this transition challenges companies relying on AI agents and third-party tools, many are responding by diversifying toward open-source models and optimizing internal workflows to survive a more expensive, post-subsidization landscape.
(Source：The Verge)