Firms Strain to Price Machine Learning

"More than two years after the public debut of ChatGPT, software companies still haven't found a compelling way of charging for AI tools, chief information officers say. Now they are trying new strategies.

In the past couple of years, vendors have typically charged a monthly fee per user for AI features, assistants and copilots, much like they price other software as a service. But AI's high compute demands meant they needed to charge eyebrow-raising prices to cover the cost of delivering the service.

For example, some chief information officers balked at paying $30 per user per month to add Microsoft's AI Copilot to its 365 productivity suite, a 60% premium to the top level of 365 without AI.

"A year ago everything was way overpriced," said Greg Meyers, chief digital and technology officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb. "Most companies overestimated how much more we would be willing to pay for an AI feature."

The emergence of models like DeepSeek's R1, which the Chinese company said it trained for a fraction of the cost of leading U.S. models, could help drive AI costs down over time.

But meanwhile, CIOs remain in a tough spot.

"We're in a place where prices are high and simultaneously companies are trying to understand how to drive value out of it," said United Airlines Chief Information Officer Jason Birnbaum.

When it comes to general-purpose tools like Copilot that are charged on a per-seat basis, Birnbaum added, "We're not really ready to deploy it on a broad basis."

Now vendors are making changes to how they price in an attempt to gain more users and more adoption.

Alphabet's Google in January said its Business Standard plan would shift from charging $12 per person per month for its Workspace productivity suite, plus another $20 for access to its Gemini AI business tools, to a $14 package with Gemini AI features baked into Workspace.

And Microsoft introduced consumption-based pricing with its new Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat that gives users access to use AI agents. Depending on the interaction, customers might pay a few cents for each "use."

To be sure, Microsoft said it is seeing accelerated customer adoption of the $30 Copilot offering. Chief Executive Satya Nadella said on Microsoft's earnings call last week that customers who purchased Copilot during its first quarter of availability "expanded their seats collectively by more than 10X over the past 18 months."

But the goal with the new Copilot Chat is also to lower the barrier to entry for new enterprises using Copilot and build a broader user base that will ultimately use the $30-per-month version, said Jared Spataro, chief marketing officer of AI at Work for Microsoft.

"A per user per month charge can sometimes be difficult for them if they're trying to go to broad scale because they're just not sure how to value something," Spataro said.

Kathy Kay, CIO of Principal Financial, said she plans to test the new Copilot Chat tool to determine its cost-effectiveness.

"I do think this is an evolution of companies listening to their customers and understanding what they need and making it much more cost effective," Kay said.

But the vendors face another threat: Enterprises can access the same underlying models they do to build similar tools of their own. Kay said she built a tool that was able to replicate some of the capabilities of Copilot at a much lower cost.

Amazon Web Services is in part betting on that strategy. Its Bedrock platform allows users to access models from companies like Anthropic, Meta Platforms and Mistral AI with either a no-commitment, pay-as-you-go pricing model starting at less than one cent per interaction or a time-based term commitment, starting at $25 per hour of commitment to use the Bedrock service. Amazon.com also provides its work assistant, Amazon Q, for $3 to $20 per user per month, depending on the tier.

Software companies also are facing pressure to adapt their pricing to account for the fact that the actual cost of using the underlying models is going down. As that happens, CIOs don't want to feel like their vendors are simply taking a bigger share of the profits.

"If they aren't fair and equitable in how they price those tools and transactions, they're actually going to incent me to build my own capability over buying theirs," said Nationwide Chief Technology Officer Jim Fowler. "And so my biggest concern is in this rush to AI, that they price themselves out of the enterprise."

Vendors and enterprises alike are still working to figure things out, he said. "It's still the wild west."

Salesforce says it is targeting more flexibility when it comes to their pricing options. Last September, the company rolled out a pricing plan that allowed enterprises to toggle their spend minimums between per-month licenses for human employees and consumption-based agents.

A lot of customers are still trying to make sure they have the right value equation, said Bill Patterson, executive vice president of corporate strategy at Salesforce, and for some of the AI investments companies have made over the past two years, the jury is still out.

Meanwhile, vendors continue facing the dilemma of making tools cheap enough that people will buy them but expensive enough so they aren't losing money in compute costs if people use it too much -- a balance that is hard to navigate with tools that are so new.

Earlier this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that the $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan was losing money because people were using it more than anticipated.

(The ChatGPT Enterprise plan is separate and typically comes in at about $30 to $45 per seat, OpenAI said).

Going forward, CIOs anticipate more changes and experimentation with different pricing strategies from their vendors.

"We're in such an interesting and fluid time, it's hard to say which variant is going to win," said Don Vu, chief data and analytics officer at New York Life." [1]

1. Firms Strain to Price Machine Learning. Bousquette, Isabelle.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 03 Feb 2025: B1.

 

Nesilaikanti įstatymų respublika

„Nesilaikanti įstatymų respublika

 

 Josiah Osgood

 

 Pagrindinis, 384 puslapiai, 32 doleriai

 

 Ciceronas sukūrė vieną iš epigramų, pagal kurią ji šiandien žinoma, kaip žmogaus, vardu Milo, teisinės gynybos dalis: Silent enim leges inter arma arba „Įstatymai tyli tarp ginklų“. Milo buvo apkaltintas politinio varžovo Klodijaus nužudymu po to, kai abu vyrai, kuriuos lydėjo piktadarių gaujos, susikirto keliuose į pietus nuo Romos. Skambantys Cicerono žodžiai buvo suvokiami, kaip reiškiantys, kad teisinės sistemos žlunga, kai įsivyrauja smurtas – panašu, kad tai yra jo neramios eros, vėlyvosios Romos Respublikos, kritika. Tačiau kontekste ji yra sudėtingesnė ir kelia nerimą jų autoriui.

 

 Atrodo, kad Cicerono strategija šiame didelio atgarsio sulaukusiame procese buvo teigti, kad Milo turėjo visas teises žudyti, net kai jo auka Klodijus buvo sužeistas ir nebekėlė grėsmės. Klodijus, remiantis Cicerono rekonstrukcija, surengė Milo pasalą ir sukrėtė jį, iš esmės sukurdamas karo padėtį. „Įstatymai“ tokiomis aplinkybėmis buvo „tylūs“: Milo neturėjo jokios teisinės gynybos, palaikė Ciceronas, todėl žmogžudystė buvo teisėta galimybė.

 

 Filme „Neteisėta Respublika“ Josiah Osgoodas teigia, kad Ciceronas, užuot apgailestavęs dėl teisinės valstybės nuosmukio Romoje, iš tikrųjų, tai paspartino. Didėjant netvarkai, Ciceronas „kreipėsi į gamtos būklę, norėdamas atleisti Milo“, taip suteikdamas teisėtumą budinčių savanorių išpuoliams. Kaip pastebi P. Osgoodas: „Ginus Milo už tai, kad jis klajojo gatvėmis su gladiatorių gaujomis, nieko gero nebus“. Su tokiais gudriais vertinimais P. Osgoodas leidžia mums pamatyti, kaip Ciceronas, kuris pirmą kartą pasirodė šioje knygoje, kaip garbingas ir doras žmogus, pamažu prarado savo aukščiausius idealus, socialinei santvarkai irstant.

 

 P. Osgoodas didžiąją šios knygos dalį suformulavo ne kaip biografiją, o kaip išradingai – kaip kriminalinių procesų, kuriuose dalyvavo Ciceronas, seriją, pradedant žmogžudystės byla 80 m. Kiekvienas teismo procesas įtraukia mus į naujas intrigas ir teisinius manevrus, taip pat atskleidžia problemas, kurias Romos teismų sistema bandė išspręsti, bet nesėkmingai. Įspūdingas skyrius apie Cicerono bylą prieš Verresą (70 m. pr. Kr.), pasiutusį gubernatorių, atėmusį iš Sicilijos graikų didžiąją dalį meno, iliustruoja, kaip turtingieji išpirko prisiekusiuosius ir prašydavo melagingų parodymų, nepaisydami antikyšininkavimo įstatymų. Apsinuodijimo byla rodo, kaip romėnų teismas, sukurtas žudynėms nuodais spręsti, iš tikrųjų kvietė melagingus kaltinimus; epochoje, kurioje trūko toksikologinių tyrimų, bet kokia mirtis nuo ligos galėjo būti pareikšta tam teismui, kaip žmogžudystė.

 

 Ne tik teismų sistemą buvo ištikusi krizei tuo laikotarpiu, apie kurį kalba p. Osgood. Nuo 82 m. pr. Kr. Romos kontrolę užėmusio, galiūno Sulos diktatūros ir 44 m. pr. Kr. Julijaus Cezario užmušimo pilietinės visuomenės žlugimas buvo plačiai paplitęs. P. Osgoodo teismų fone matome nuolatinį konkuruojančių frakcijų lyderių jėgos telkimą ir fanatiškų jų rėmėjų smurtinius demonstravimus. Kai Sulla pažeidė visas taisykles ir pabėgo nenubaustas, bet kokių taisyklių vykdymas tapo iššūkiu.

 

Galiausiai, už „Įstatymų nesilaikančios respublikos“ pasiekto taško, tvarka grįžo tik įsigalėjus autokratijai – Augusto viešpatavimui.

 

 Cicerono sėkmė teismuose paskatino jo siekį kandidatuoti į aukščiausius Romos postus. P. Osgoodas aiškiai pasako, kad dvi karjeros kryptys – teisinė ir politinė – sukėlė interesų konfliktus ir kad Ciceronas pirmąją pajungė antrai. „Kiekvienas kandidatas į konsulo postą žinojo, kad turtingųjų italų balsai buvo svarbiausi“, – rašo jis. „Tai buvo viena iš priežasčių, kodėl Ciceronas ėmėsi tiek daug teisinės gynybos galingiems vyrams iš už Romos ribų. Ciceronas buvo išrinktas konsulu, aukščiausiu Romos politinių kopėčių laipteliu, 63 m. nugalėdamas beviltišką, skolų apimtą vyrą Liucijus Catilina.

 

 Catilina, kaip mes jį šiandien žinome, nesiruošė sutikti su rezultatu. Jis sumanė užvaldyti valstybę ir paskatino Ciceroną pasakyti jo garsiausias kalbas, „catiliniečių“ paralyžiuotam senatui. Kalbos yra, kaip išmoko daugelis lotynų kalbos studentų, retorinės jėgos ir dailaus užkalbėjimo modeliai („O tempora, o mores!“). Atskleisdamas siužetą, Ciceronas paleido įvykių grandinę, kuri atvedė prie Catilinos pralaimėjimo ir mirties mūšyje; tada, kaip konsulas, Ciceronas prižiūrėjo penkių pagrindinių sąmokslininkų egzekuciją be teismo. Vėliau jis savo konsulavimą laikė Romos išsigelbėjimu, tačiau p. Osgood verdiktas griežtesnis: „Jis kurstė isteriją, o ne bandė ją nuraminti“.

 

 Atrodo, kad net pavadinimas rodo, kad „Įstatymų nesilaikanti respublika“ kelia paraleles ir siūlo pamokas mūsų pačių politikai, nors Džordžtauno klasikos profesorius ponas Osgoodas jas palieka numanomas. Jis laikosi bendrų terminų, kai jo pasakojimas paliečia klausimą, kurį jis iškelia įžangoje: „Kaip po smurto protrūkio atkurti teisinę valstybę? Jo neapibrėžtumas atitinka aistringą mokslininko poziciją, tačiau kai kurios paralelės praktiškai reikalauja glaudesnio įsitraukimo, kaip tada, kai p. Osgoodas smerkia Catiliną ir jo pasekėjus, kad jie „sugebėjo pažeisti pagrindinį Respublikos principą: taikų valdžios perdavimą“.

 

 P. Osgoodas rašo tokia tvirta ranka ir taip sumaniai valdo istorinius faktus, kad kiekvienas Romos augančio sutrikimo etapas atrodo tikėtinas, apgailėtinas ir, nerimą keliančiai, pažįstamas. Jis apskaičiuoja skaidrės kainą, sutelkdamas dėmesį į Ciceroną, kuris tapo jėgų, kurioms, šios knygos požiūriu, jis pats padėjo, auka. 43 m. pr. m. e., praėjus dviem dešimtmečiams po to, kai sankcionavo neteisminį Catilinos vyrų nužudymą, Ciceroną ištiko panašus likimas, jis buvo nužudytas Marko Antonijaus įsakymu.

 

 ---

 

 P. Rommas yra knygos „Platonas ir tironas: didžiausios Graikijos dinastijos žlugimas ir filosofinio šedevro kūrimas“, kuri bus išleista gegužę, autorius.“ [1]

1. A Society In Decay. Romm, James.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 03 Feb 2025: A15.  

 

Lawless Republic

 

"Lawless Republic

By Josiah Osgood

Basic, 384 pages, $32

Cicero composed one of the epigrams by which he is known today as part of his legal defense, in 52 B.C., of a man named Milo: Silent enim leges inter arma, or "The laws are silent amid weaponry." Milo was accused of killing a political rival, Clodius, after the two men, both attended by ruffian gangs, crossed paths on the roads south of Rome. Cicero's ringing words have been taken to mean that legal systems break down when violence holds sway -- seemingly a critique of his troubled, turbulent era, the late Roman Republic. In context, though, they are more complex and cast a disquieting light on their author.

It seems that Cicero's strategy in this high-profile trial was to argue that Milo had every right to kill, even when his victim, Clodius, had been wounded and no longer posed a threat. Clodius, according to Cicero's reconstruction, had ambushed Milo and set his toughs upon him, creating, in effect, a state of war. The "laws" in such a circumstance were "silent": Milo had no legal recourse, Cicero maintained, so homicide was a legitimate option.

In "Lawless Republic," Josiah Osgood argues that, rather than lamenting the decline of the rule of law in Rome, Cicero was in fact hastening it. Amid increasing disorder, Cicero had "appealed to the state of nature to absolve Milo," thereby granting legitimacy to vigilante attacks. As Mr. Osgood observes: "No good was going to come from defending Milo for roaming the streets with gangs of gladiators." With such shrewd assessments, Mr. Osgood allows us to see how Cicero, who first appears in this book as a man of honor and probity, gradually lost his highest ideals amid the larger decay of the social order.

Mr. Osgood has structured most of this book not as a biography but, ingeniously, as a series of criminal trials that Cicero took part in, beginning with a murder case in 80 B.C. Each trial involves us in new intrigues and legal maneuvers while also revealing the problems that the Roman judicial system was trying, and failing, to solve. The riveting chapter on Cicero's case against Verres (70 B.C.), a rapacious governor who had stripped the Sicilian Greeks of much of their art, illustrates how the rich were buying off jurors and soliciting perjury, despite antibribery statutes. A poisoning case shows how a Roman court created to deal with killings by poison actually invited false accusations; in an era that lacked toxicological tests, any death from illness could be brought to that court as a murder.

Not only the judiciary was in crisis during the period Mr. Osgood covers. Between the dictatorship of Sulla, a strongman who seized control of Rome in 82 B.C., and the stabbing of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., the breakdown of civil society was widespread. As the backdrop to Mr. Osgood's trials, we witness steady aggregations of force by rivalrous faction leaders and violent displays by their fanatical supporters. Once Sulla had broken all rules and gotten away unpunished, the enforcement of any rules became a challenge. Ultimately, beyond the point reached by "Lawless Republic," order returned only after autocracy -- the reign of Augustus -- took hold.

Cicero's success in the courts spurred his ambition to run for Rome's highest offices. Mr. Osgood makes clear that the two career tracks, the legal and the political, created conflicts of interest and that Cicero subordinated the former to the latter. "Anyone running for the consulship knew that the votes of wealthy Italians counted most," he writes. "This was one reason Cicero took on so many legal defenses for powerful men from outside Rome." Cicero was elected consul, the highest rung on Rome's political ladder, in 63 B.C. by defeating a desperate, debt-ridden man named Lucius Catilina.

Catiline, as we know him today, was not about to accept the outcome. He conspired to take over the state, prompting Cicero to deliver his most famous speeches, the "Catilinarians," to a paralyzed senate. The speeches are, as many Latin students have learned, models of rhetorical force and artful invective ("O tempora, O mores!"). By exposing the plot, Cicero set in motion a chain of events that led to Catiline's defeat and death in battle; then, as consul, Cicero oversaw the execution, without trial, of five of the principal plotters. He later regarded his consulship as Rome's salvation, but Mr. Osgood's verdict is harsher: "He fanned hysteria rather than try to calm it."

As even its title seems to suggest, "Lawless Republic" evokes parallels and suggests lessons for our own politics, though Mr. Osgood, a Georgetown professor of classics, leaves these implicit. He sticks to general terms when his narrative touches on a question that he raises in his introduction: "How, after an outbreak of violence, do you restore the rule of law?" His vagueness befits the dispassionate stance of a scholar, but some parallels practically leap off the page and demand a closer engagement, as when Mr. Osgood decries Catiline and his followers for "striking at a key principle of the Republic: the peaceful transfer of power."

Mr. Osgood writes with such a sure hand, and has such a deft command of historical facts, as to make each stage of Rome's growing disorder seem plausible, lamentable and disturbingly familiar. He reckons up the cost of the slide through his focus on Cicero, who ended up the victim of forces he himself, in this book's view, had abetted. In 43 B.C., two decades after he'd sanctioned the extrajudicial killing of Catiline's men, Cicero suffered a similar fate, assassinated on the order of Mark Antony.

---

Mr. Romm is the author of "Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece," to be published in May." [1]

1. A Society In Decay. Romm, James.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 03 Feb 2025: A15.