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Like a lot of people , I am working to become more fluent with AI this yr . This has included working to ego - server LLM , reading the odd enquiry paper , and trying to keep up with the news to ensure that I am up to date on the state of the art .
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It ’s not been virtually enough given the sheer tempo at which AI models , and the tools and service that they underpin , are developing . But we must do what we can . So , when Quoraannounced this morningthat it had raise $ 75 million at a $ 500 million rating to support its AI - related work , I was intrigued .
Quora has been around for an age , and I use it occasionally when hunt for a specific , niche second of information . It turns out , however , that I am quite far behind on what the party has been build recently .
So , what is Quora today ? The company ’s inquiry - and - answer product still exists and include a consumer subscription offering . And then there ’s Poe , whichQuora launched back in other 2023 . At the time , TechCrunch reported that the service was go to sit apart from the rest of Quora :
The company explained it decide to launch Poe as a standalone product that ’s self-governing of Quora itself because of how chop-chop AI ontogenesis and changes are now take station . However , there will be some connexion between the Q&A site and Poe . If and when Poe ’s content meets a high enough quality standard , it will be distributed on Quora ’s site itself , where it has the ability to touch Quora ’s 400 million monthly visitor .
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That result revenue could be material for the ship’s company . ByOctober 2023 , the Poe app had been download more than 18 million times and had achieve over 1 million monthly dynamic exploiter . That ’s a lot !
This brings us to today ’s funding news show . Quorasaidthat its Q&A business is hard currency - flow positive and that all the money it raised is going toward Poe :
Our stress is on what we can do with this newfangled capital . As we launch the next form of our creator monetization broadcast , we gestate the majority of this funding will go to developers to help oneself make Poe a single interface for all of the most innovative new AI products . We also look forwards to further accelerating our already rapid product development tread , and to make opportunities where AI can accelerate human expert knowledge share through the complementarity of Poe and Quora .
So , because I get pay to tinker with things , I cash in one’s chips in the lead and used Poe to make a chatbot and test it out . I told AlexWilhelmBot to dissemble to be me , and uploaded the text of several article that I wrote this workweek . It release out that the bot was very focused on using only the material that I uploaded , and it only wanted to talk aboutglobal venture majuscule numbers , Jeff Lawson will Twilio , andthe latest Carta dramatic event . I probably roll in the hay something up ; no one is going to pay for AlexWilhelmBot ’s musings , sadly .
But I did quite like how easy and ask in it is to make a bot with Poe , and how cool it made me feel . It in reality feels endow to be capable to set up a raw AI - powered chatbot quick and then put it to use , and I do not think I ’m the only soul to finger this agency . Indeed , Poe ’s success ( a16z , which lead Quora ’s raw round of drinks , sound out drug user have create more than a million bots on the platform ) indicates that lots of folks really turn over what Quora is building here .
What ’s more , you’re able to charge for your AI products . Quora premium costs $ 84 per yr , or $ 48 if you pay for a year upfront . Poe cost a lot more . That means more revenue from each conversion . Of course , we do n’t know how many the great unwashed pay off for Poe , but you do n’t just call forth $ 75 million in 2024 without a decent amount of adhesive friction . So , I presume that Quora is seeing a right figure of consumer subscriptions for Poe . It ’s certainly easier to habituate than trying to get whatever LLM I snagged from Hugging Face to bunk my own bot .
Adding it all up : Quora has built a monolithic engine to bestow consumer to its digital realm , it has an AI product in Poe that consumers are using and building on , it ’s make for with creators to divvy up tax revenue and keep its offerings refreshing , and we know that multitude are unforced to husk out for the category it ’s building in . Mix all that together and you ’re set to raise a big ol’ venture round of drinks .
I just wonder how long Poe will remain as a foot soldier of Quora . It ’s not unacceptable that the tagline may flip-flop to “ Quora , brought to you by Poe“from “ Poe , brought to you by Quora . ” That may well happen before the end of the year , I play , put up that consumer interest in generative AI model remains high .
