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Is it worth it to pay for ChatGPT? US Surgeon General wants warnings about the health issues of social media. The US Department of Justice is taking Adobe to court alleging that they have been deceiving consumers about subscription practices and a question that’s been bugging me and has big implications.
All this and more on the “uncomfortable questions” edition of Hashtag Trending. I’m your host Jim Love, let’s get into it.
We did a story yesterday about how ChatGPT’s revenues have more than doubled. Presumably part of that comes from the people, like yours truly who pay about 20 dollars US a month for the service. And that made sense – initially.
But on the launch of GPT 4o, Sam Altman surprised a lot of people by what he made available to the free users. A lot of what you used to pay for is available for free. For free, you have access to GPT4o and even access to the GPT’s – the custom versions of ChatGPT that have been developed.
Why? My guess is that while he’s still in growth mode and not having to declare a profit or report to Wall Street, he wants to get the biggest footprint and most number of users he can. They can deal with getting them to pay at a later date.
Which might make a window of opportunity for the casual user.
If you just want to use ChatGPT, the biggest “value” that paid users see is more time on ChatGPT and possibly some priority in processing. But even then, if you are a casual user, the worst that happens to you if you exceed your limit is that you get shunted down to a prior version.
If you are a casual user, with even limited access to the latest model for free, is it worth it to pay?
Well, it turns out there are some things that paid users still have access to. Free users can’t use DALL-E for images, even though GPT-4 can analyze visuals and text.
The desktop version is only for paid users, but that’s also only for Mac users right now. So that might not be an issue for some.
Another big reason to use the paid model may be data analysis. The paid version gives you access to ChatGPT’s advanced features. You can create interactive charts and tables. These charts, by the way, can be customized and loaded into presentations.
You can upload files directly from Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive and you have the option to browse for files on your local device. For the right user, these might be worth it.
But there’s one great way to find out. Try it. And if you find yourself hitting those limits often, or needing complex tasks or numerous requests, ChatGPT won’t turn you away.
With features like Voice mode coming later this year, the free tier may not always cut it for everything you need. Presumably the paid subscription will also give you the latest updates right when they launch.
In the meantime – as the old saying goes, “you can’t save more money than free.”
Sources include: ZDNet
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is urging social media platforms to include warning labels – similar to those found on cigarette packs – alerting users that the apps “are associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
In an opinion piece, Murthy cites research linking increased teenage social media use to higher risks of anxiety and depression. He argues such labels would “regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.”
It’s a bold proposal aimed at driving awareness, as the surgeon general positions the youth mental health crisis as “an emergency” warranting urgent action against a key contributing factor – social media overuse.
The US Surgeon General isn’t the only one raising a red flag. Parents of children who they feel have died due to social media use are becoming more militant about the need to regulate it. In the UK a new online safety act will is planned for 2025. That act will require safeguards on a wide range of things, but when kids die, it will also give bereaved parents the right to information about their child’s social media usage.
McMurthy clearly anticipates push-back, writing “In an emergency, you don’t wait for perfect information before acting.”
But do we have to wait?
A survey by the Royal Society for Public Health found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image, and loneliness among 14-24 year olds in the UK.
A study of 14-year-olds (n=10,904) published on the National Library of Medicine site found that greater social media use predicted poor sleep, online harassment, poor body image, low self-esteem, and higher depressive symptom scores, with a larger association for girls than boys.
The big social media platforms have not yet weighed in, but you can bet the lobbyists are going to make a lot of money on this. Get ready for a huge debate on this one.
Sources include: The BBC
The US Department of Justice is taking Adobe to court, alleging the software giant has been deceiving consumers with its subscription practices. In a complaint filed Monday, the DOJ claims Adobe has been misleading customers about the true costs and terms of its paid monthly subscriptions.
The lawsuit states that Adobe hides key details like costly early termination fees, often burying this information in the fine print or behind optional links and textboxes. When signing up, customers are automatically enrolled in Adobe’s most expensive annual plan without clear disclosure of the terms.
If subscribers do try to cancel, the government alleges Adobe forces them through a needlessly “onerous and complicated” process filled with roadblocks. This includes navigating multiple webpages, pop-ups that ambush users with termination fees, and even having customer service calls disconnected if they attempt to cancel over the phone or via chat.
The DOJ argues these deceptive tactics trap consumers into costly subscriptions against their will, violating federal consumer protection laws. The lawsuit specifically names two Adobe executives it claims “directed and controlled” these unlawful practices.
In a statement, an FTC official said “Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel.” The suit speaks to escalating scrutiny of Adobe’s business model that shifted to subscriptions for creative software like Photoshop in 2012.
Here’s a quote from the complaint that sums up the allegations: “Adobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.”
Source: The Verge
Here’s my question for today. Can someone explain to me why I need an AI PC?
They are going to be the best thing since slice bread according to what I’ve been reading.
To really harness the full potential of AI, I need a new class of computer – an AI PC.
AI PCs have specialized chips designed just for running AI workloads efficiently. And companies like AMD have added dedicated AI accelerators, called neural processing units or NPUs, into their latest Ryzen processors. And soon everyone will be offering these.
The case for upgrading seems to be that just like video editing or gaming benefits from a powerful GPU, AI tasks like language processing or computer vision really take off with an NPU under the hood.
Or maybe I need an AI assistant that can understand your plain language requests to create graphics, edit videos, or even write code. Perhaps having AI analyze business data and generate insights instantaneously?
With a traditional PC, those intensive AI workloads could bottleneck the system. But an AI PC with an NPU can handle it all with optimized performance.
But right now, I’m using AI constantly and anytime I need the power of an AI model, I’m using the API to use OpenAI or similar model to do the heavy lifting. I almost bought an upgraded PC for one function that I use a lot that is really intensive, but with a Perplexity search I found a service that does it as part of a bundle of tools that I need for editing.
I get it, that just like when floating point calculations were improved or with new graphics cards, eventually these get built into everything, but the second wave of these developments is always cheaper, so what’s the rush?
I know why the manufacturers want us to move up – they need to get you to move out that old inventory and start buying. It’s great for their bottom line.
But for me, it’s not just the cost of early replacement – there is a huge environmental impact as well. I forget the exact amounts, so I could be corrected by something like 80% of the carbon footprint of a device is baked the manufacturing and delivering. The operational component – power used etc. is miniscule by comparison.
I’m more than willing to be “schooled in why I’m wrong” but if a lot more people feel like I do, the next wave of PCs could be a huge disappointment in terms of corporate sales.
Sources: Me.
And that’s our show for today.
Hashtag Trending goes to air 5 days a week with a daily news show, with a weekend interview show we call the Weekend Edition.
Show notes are at technewsday.ca or .com – either one works.
We love your comments. Contact me at editorial@technewsday.ca
I’m your host Jim Love, have a Terrific Tuesday.
