AI will be monetized with ads

substack.com

3 pointsswatkat74 comments

But it costs a lot more than normal search engines. So… will it ever be profitable?

The cost of inference is trending down, and will continue to. The models are also getting more efficient -- GPT 5 is famously cheaper to serve compared to their previous models. There are improvements at the computer layer too.

Very soon, the cost of inference will find parity with that of search and/or search ads will be more effective and hence be charged more.

It will end up working out, I think.

It may end up working out for Google.

But I doubt for the other players, the ones that started this AI war and who have a much much smaller audiences than Google.

You're bang on! Companies like Google and Meta with ads infra already will gain the most market share. The rest will either consolidate or get acquired, or worse shut shop :(

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