Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

"touch porcelain" ChatGPT, a team of less than five people only earns 100000 yuan a month for advertising.

Author / IT Times reporter Mao Yu

Editor / Qian Lifu Sun Yan

ChatGPT has been out of circles for more than half a year, and there are many "gold diggers" in China.

Internet big companies are working hard to develop their own big language models, but at the same time, some app stores are mixed, and high-imitation AI apps are making a lot of money. All kinds of "artificial intelligence platform" and "AI writing application" rely on "free number of times to experience, please recharge later" and other tricks to lure users.

Xiao Yu (a pseudonym), who is engaged in Internet operations, told the IT Times that she and her colleagues wanted to use ChatGPT to complete some basic copywriting, mapping and other work, but after downloading several AI apps in the Apple Store, they all indicated that they needed to complete a single recharge or become a lifelong member before they could use it. "some app profiles let me recharge under the guise of ChatGPT, which feels very bad." Xiaoyu also mentioned that the experience of many apps is not good. "it doesn't feel like artificial intelligence, but like artificial intelligence, which I have unloaded directly."

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of mankind, some dark sides have also emerged, and the trust crisis of AI applications is spreading.

1. "insufficient balance, please recharge" on August 1, OpenAI officially announced that Android ChatGPT has been launched in all supported countries and regions, and users can download it for free. Earlier, the iOS version of ChatGPT launched in the Apple App Store in May this year.

Whether it is the Android version or the iOS version, the function of ChatGPT App is similar to the web version. However, compared with the web version of GPT, the release of the official App will undoubtedly make it easier for more people to access and use ChatGPT.

According to official sources, OpenAI does not provide ChatGPT-related services on Chinese mainland, nor has it set up a corresponding company to operate ChatGPT. But that doesn't stop fake App from "swaggering and cheating" in some app stores.

Open the iPhone App Store and search for "ChatGPT". The page shows a number of apps with similar names to ChatGPT, and some App downloads display words such as "official app" and "authentic Chinese version".

"IT Times" reporter randomly downloaded ChatGreat, after experiencing a question, the interface popped up a warm prompt: "your balance is insufficient, please choose the recharge method." One is to recharge G coins, 68 yuan at a time, and the other is a lifetime member, which costs 268 yuan and can enjoy four services such as "unlimited questions" and "VIP fast track".

At the same time, AI Chat, another app, popped up words such as "unlock all the functions of the software", "28 yuan in the first quarter" and "evaluate free trial" as soon as the reporter entered the page. When the reporter opened the comment section of the app's Apple Store, there have been nearly 31000 comments, and many comments do not show valid information.

In addition to the above apps, an app called "ChatGTP" is "fake and real" in the Apple Store. The app icon is only different from the genuine ChatGPT in color, and the profile is labeled "official Chinese version of AI chatbot". Most of its 529 comments are bad comments, such as "I have not even tied my mailbox to remind me that I have successfully withheld money" and "it still shows that I am not a member after purchase." contact customer service that I am not bound to email and cannot refund. "just click on the monthly member to indicate that the deduction is successful and still cannot be used normally after deduction." the score of this software is only 2 points.

To this end, a reporter from the IT Times called the official customer service of the Apple Store. Customer service staff told reporters: "if foreign applications are not on the shelves in China, the Apple Store can not be searched." The reporter once again asked the customer service, how are the related apps that are easy to be confused with ChatGPT in the Apple Store reviewed and put on the shelves? Customer service is informed that the issue will be fed back, but also made a reminder: "you can confirm whether the payment behavior occurs through 'setting-Apple ID- subscription'. If you find automatic payment, you can turn it off in time."

On July 31, the Apple Store announced the centralized removal of a large number of apps offering ChatGPT services in China. In a reply to app developers, Apple officials said that the applications contained illegal content and that deep synthesis technology providers must meet operating license requirements in China, including obtaining a license from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The above applications are related to ChatGPT but have not obtained a license.

Previously, the Alipay Security Center has issued a security reminder that "lawbreakers take advantage of the popularity of ChatGPT to register ChatGPT account services and copycat ChatGPT apps online and make illegal profits. For example, using free trials as a gimmick to attract users to sign up for use, and then charge according to the number of times or membership fees."

2. The Chinese and foreign "big factories" behind the apps are not only the Apple Store, but also a variety of AI apps that are difficult to tell the true from the false have also spread in other social platforms.

Internet practitioner Nana (a pseudonym), who runs her own offline brand in her spare time, sensed a business opportunity when ChatGPT was born because of professional sensitivity. "inspired by ChatGPT, our brand also launched an AI Mini Program at the beginning of the year." Nana told the IT Times that the Mini Program is not yet profitable and is only used as an online benefit to attract and maintain offline customers. The other end of Mini Program is connected to a large model of a domestic factory.

"as a matter of fact, large domestic companies have not been able to reproduce exactly the same ChatGPT, and the cost, time, and manpower consumed are beyond the affordability of small companies, so most of the AI products on the market are big language models connected to big companies, such as Baidu Wen Xin, or directly connected to ChatGPT." Nana said that direct access to the existing large model will greatly save costs and manpower. Her store Mini Program is connected to a domestic factory model instead of ChatGPT, and the first version takes only two weeks to make, with two developers behind the scenes and less than three days before it goes live.

The interim measures for the Administration of generative artificial Intelligence Services, which was implemented not long ago, stipulates that if the provision of generative artificial intelligence services to China from outside the people's Republic of China does not comply with the provisions of laws, administrative regulations and these measures, the state network information department shall notify the relevant institutions to take technical measures and other necessary measures to deal with them.

"in the initial examination, we only submitted Mini Program as a tool, not linked it to ChatGPT." Nana mentioned that if AI Mini Program is launched, Wechat's official platform will conduct a relatively strict audit. In addition to checking whether the code contains a service that can access users' private data without user authorization, Nana will also check again and again and confirm with the manufacturer whether the access of Mini Program is ChatGPT, "because it is illegal for domestic applications to access ChatGPT, but there are no very strict regulatory measures on the major platforms at present. We are also trying to launch other platforms, the latter of which has a more relaxed review. "

A reporter from the IT Times tried to search for "ChatGPT" in WeChat Mini Programs, and the page said, "No Mini Program-related applications are available, please try to change the search term." The reporter searched again for "AI Writing" and more than 30 relevant Mini Program popped up, but they were unable to judge whether they were qualified AI apps literally or in style. The reporter randomly selects a model to experience three times and then shows that it needs to "recharge 19.9 yuan to become a member" before it can be used.

The reporter dialed the Mini Program manufacturer's customer service number, and the staff told the reporter that the Mini Program was indeed connected to ChatGPT, but on the basis of the access, the developers implanted more diversified copywriting templates, so the copywriting will be more elaborate than the original large language model. However, the staff reminded that if you need to purchase members as soon as possible, "the next day Mini Program will double the fee due to template update." The staff member did not give an explanation on how to pass the platform audit.

3, in addition to membership fees, there are advertisements: "at present, AI Mini Program and apps make profits in addition to member fees, and advertising can also achieve short-term profitability." Cheng Tian, a Mini Program developer, told the IT Times.

Sticker advertising or video advertising is now quite common. I have a development team of less than 5 people doing AI Mini Program, and the advertising revenue is estimated to reach 100000 yuan a month. In addition, the more common practice in the market is to recharge members. The number of free conversations to users is 5 or 10 times a day. After ChatGPT is upgraded from 3.0 to 4.0, there may be only 3 free opportunities for users, because 4.0 itself limits the number of times manufacturers can use it. " Cheng Tian mentioned that the accumulated revenue from advertising and membership has far exceeded the operating costs behind the app. "because it is a generative dialogue application, unless you want to expand other customized profit methods such as points system or training, otherwise, you don't need a dedicated person to run it."

According to the public information of the media, it is not difficult to access ChatGPT. If you want to access the AI language model of the authentic ChatGPT, you need two foreign and domestic servers to call the ChatGPT interface through the overseas server and return it to the domestic server. This method has high cost and good experience. However, in terms of the experience effect of domestic platform applications, many App access is only a large model with limited capacity, and the expression ability is limited, but the development cost is lower.

How to unlock the "true face" of AI? Cheng Tian also gives some suggestions based on experience: "users do not recharge when downloading the relevant App, but can test the AI through 1-2 non-professional questions and answers." For example, 'how should I behave on a first blind date?' For questions that don't have a standard answer, such as what to pay attention to when traveling to Dubai, the real AI model app will give its own answer, while human customer service will prompt words such as' unanswerable'or 'being upgraded'. "

SensorTower's recently released "2023 AI Application Market Insight" report shows that with the release of ChatGPT in early December 2022, the Al+Chatbot (chatbot) track is heating up rapidly. In the first half of 2023, there were more than 200 AI+Chatbot applications in the market and more than 170 million downloads.

In the highly competitive AI track, the story of "making money" is far from over.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: IT Times (ID:vittimes). By Mao Yu.

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