wtf is going on with ChatGPT?

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Go, an $8/month subscription tier with ads, globally after initially testing it in India. This move reflects OpenAI's concern about losing market share to Google's Gemini, which has grown from ~15% to ~40% while OpenAI dropped from 75-85% to ~60%. The pricing strategy aims to capture users despite potentially operating at a loss, betting that inference costs will decrease over time or user willingness to pay will increase. OpenAI makes 3-4x more revenue from ChatGPT subscriptions than API usage, making the consumer app their primary business. The ad-supported model is controversial given OpenAI's access to user conversation data for targeting, though the company claims conversations remain private from advertisers. The strategy mirrors Google Workspace's historical approach of offering low initial pricing to build lock-in before gradually raising prices.