If you have a better idea for making AI chatbots profitable then I'm sure all the AI chatbot companies which are losing staggering amounts of money would love to hear it. The first step is to find any business model that works, shittily or unshittily.

Shouldn’t they just be asking their AI chat bot what’s the best way to make money and then do that?

Maybe they did.

Deepseek appears to be running profitably, by being more efficient in how they train their models, being more efficient in how they run their models, and charging a modest profit margin on each API call.

(Source: linked article / interview with the CEO of Deepseek from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42557586)

It's a Chinese company in a wild hot technology field that China want to compete in. I bet that they are very well supported by the state. Similar to Llama with Meta's money.

But how do their business customers make money off providing this tech to end users?

Charge me for usage like they’re already doing?

Burning money is part of the plan. Winner takes all, etc. Need I explain more?

So anyway, what is your idea of a less shitty business model that can sustain their business? Paid tier? they already have it.

That's a great strategy in normal times. But in this case, you are in a technology race that would be considered essential for the national security of both the US and China. Which means that whomever each state picks as their champion will have approximately infinite amount of money to support them.

Good luck winning that!

It’s a proven model and it’ll make them oodles of money.