A Tech CEO is Spending Over $2,000 a Month on ChatGPT for All Employees
Akash Nigam, CEO of Genies, a web3 avatar startup, has reportedly spent more than $2,000 per month on ChatGPT Plus subscriptions for every employee in the company. As per the reports, Nigam has spent at least $2,400 per month to provide ChatGPT Plus access to all 120 employees at Genies. Nigam began advocating the chatbot in every department of the company, from engineering to finance and research and design, in March 2021. According to Nigam, access to ChatGPT can help automate monotonous tasks and improve the company's profits. Nigam claimed that he has already seen work acceleration with the assistance of ChatGPT, despite the company's staff using the AI for just a month.
Nigam reportedly stated that the company's research and development team has been using ChatGPT to debug its code. On the contrary, tech behemoth Amazon has previously warned its employees against sharing company code with ChatGPT because of the fear of leakage and/or training future versions of the chatbot. ChatGPT has been very helpful in developing a company strategy, as the AI has reduced brainstorming hours by generating its outline, which can take "hours and hours", according to Nigam.
While Nigam has been paying $2,400 per month for ChatGPT, some people have found a free workaround. A European computer science student who goes by the alias Xtekky has created a GitHub repository called GPT4free, which allows users unrestricted access to ChatGPT by funneling queries through websites like You.com and Quora. However, according to Toms Hardware, OpenAI is threatening Xtekky with a lawsuit if he does not delete the project from GitHub.
AI such as ChatGPT has the potential to be another tool in our workplaces to assist people in completing tasks. Recent research from Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology has revealed that 14% of employees who used ChatGPT in their workflow saw an increase in productivity, and the least experienced and skilled employees completed tasks 35% faster. Although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman indicated earlier this month that the firm would not be releasing ChatGPT-5 anytime soon.
