> I don't think this seems particularly bad for ChatGPT. They've built a strong brand. This should just help them reduce - by far - one of their largest expenses.
Often expenses like that are keeping your competitors away.
Yes, but it typically doesn't matter if someone can reach parity or even surpass you - they have to surpass you by a step function to take a significant number of your users.
This is a step function in terms of efficiency (which presumably will be incorporated into ChatGPT within months), but not in terms of end user experience. It's only slightly better there.
One data point but my subscription for chatgpt is cancelled every time. So I made every month decision to resub. And because the cost of switching is essentially zero - the moment a better service is up there I will switch in an instant.
Often expenses like that are keeping your competitors away.