Ask HN: Has anyone built a lucrative business using GenAI technologies?

Pieter Levels has. More than one.

https://twitter.com/levelsio

From his twitter bio:

http://shop.levels.io $8K/m

http://TherapistAI.com $3K/m

http://ApplicantAI.com $0K/m

http://PhotoAI.com $57K/m

http://InteriorAI.com $44K/m

http://NomadList.com $27K/m

http://RemoteOK.com $51K/m

All the profitable uses case I have seen are around AI girlfriends.

I would say the biggest value of LLMs and chat bots in general is making AI girlfriends to serve the people who built them.

I would say the latter is the only ethical case of building virtual girlfriends. If I built one for someone else, I would feel genuinely sorry for that person.

My bet is that even those services that see significant usage then have to contend with a large COGS

Sound of tumbleweeds