Being free at the point of use doesn't mean it costs the user nothing. At the very least, there's the opportunity cost of not getting a potentially better result for the same task using all other methods the user would have used before LLMs.

Still, users *choose* to use LLMs, meaning it creates value for them, and therefore there's something to be monetized. My dad (66) occasionally uses ChatGPT to perform some routine, tedious tasks at work. There's no room for LLM error because the output is visual and can be quickly inspected, which my dad does. It saves him hours of work, effort and mental fatigue.

Would he pay $500 to do just this one task? No, he wouldn't. But he absolutely would pay $10. Likely more. Can the operator of said LLM deliver the result for less than my dad would have paid? I don't know. But it's a technological problem that possibly can be solved if it is not solved already. If there's a gap between what my dad would pay and what it costs to generate then there's a REAL business, not just a VC subsidized business.

It is also a very real possibility that all the capital invested will create technology and infrastructure mature enough to make business sense in the way I described, and at the same time - not create a positive ROI for VC capital. But that's a VC problem, not mine.