A recent report from Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI, reveals that businesses are predominantly using AI software for automation rather than collaboration. This finding highlights the potential impact of AI on employment and work processes. Professional coders pay hundreds monthly for AI assistance. Can a $20/month ChatGPT Plus plan with Codex access rival these premium tools? I decided to find out, and 16x-ed my programming output in the process.According to Anthropic’s research, more than three-quarters (77%) of companies’ usage of Anthropic’s Claude AI software involved automation patterns. These patterns often included ‘full task delegation.’ The analysis was based on traffic from the company’s application programming interface. AI coding tools are not cheap. However, a $20/month ChatGPT Plus plan with Codex access can provide significant productivity gains for professional coders.The report adds to concerns about the potential disruption of livelihoods by AI. Anthropic is one of the leading firms selling AI tools to companies with the goal of automating various tasks. Despite the benefits, there are hard usage limits and tough choices involved in using the $20/month plan. The author experienced multiple unexpected usage bans that left their code in an indeterminate state.
The author completed four projects and started a fifth in the time it would have normally taken to complete one project.This study underscores the growing reliance on AI for automation and highlights the need for further research into its implications for employment and work processes. While the $20/month plan provided significant productivity gains, the author is unsure if they want to continue using it due to the limitations. The author also mentions that the cost of premium plans ($800/month) would be worth it for professional coders.