A skeptical take on how AI companies make money that raises doubts about whether the tech is as valuable as advertised.

• AI tools charge you per "token" — every word you feed in and every word they spit back costs money, good answer or bad.
• The argument: if AI could really build billion-dollar businesses, companies like OpenAI would take a cut of the profits instead of billing for usage.
• The easiest sales pitch ever would be "pay nothing unless we make you money" — the fact that nobody offers that hints the value isn't guaranteed.
• Trust is also shaky: people worry about who owns their data, where prompts are stored, and whether anything is really private.

Outlook: Expect more pressure on AI firms to prove real returns as users question paying upfront for hit-or-miss results.