ChatGPT and other generative AI models have been gaining popularity lately, but the cost of using them can be prohibitive. That became clear when small startup Latitude grew in popularity with its AI dungeon game that generates fantastical stories based on user input. CEO Nick Walton found that the cost of maintaining the text-based role-playing game software continued to rise as more users played the game. AI Dungeon's text generation was based on Microsoft's GPT language technology developed by OpenAI. Additionally, content marketers used the game to create ad copy, which also impacted Latitude's AI bill. AI systems on the rise, but at what cost? According to Walton, in 2021 the company was spending nearly $200,000 a month on OpenAI and Amazon Web Services generative AI software to keep up with the millions of user requests it had to process every day. "We joked that we had human workers and AI workers, and we spent about th...