OpenAI is aiming high with its proposed $20,000 a month AI agents, and the hype machine is in full swing. According to their gleeful press release, this shiny new tool would bring a PhD-level intellect straight to organizations. Sounds good, right? Until you check your bank account, that is.

In recent tests, OpenAI’s latest model, o3, tackled a staggering 25.2% of problems on the Frontier Math benchmark. Compare that to its competitors, who are barely breaking the 2% barrier, and you’d think we’re on the fast track to AI nirvana. But hold the confetti – while claiming to possess advanced math skills is cute, we all know that without practical applications, it’s just pillow talk.

Potential applications for this hypothetical genius include analyzing medical research data and climate modeling. However, the reported $20K monthly fee indicates that these systems might be more valuable to businesses than to you and me. Let’s not forget SoftBank is throwing $3 billion at these AI agents this year. Considering that OpenAI lost approximately $5 billion last year due to operational costs, it makes sense they’re trying to cash in on the AI boom. But honestly, do we really need AI that costs as much as a small car?

Remember when we used to pay reasonable fees for powerful AI? ChatGPT Plus still sits at a manageable $20 a month. You could have an AI assistant for the price of a premium latte! But now we’re expected to cough up thousands to play with the new kid on the block? It makes you wonder if companies are just trying to line their pockets by slapping a “PhD-level” label on something that might still trip over basic reasoning.

Social media had a field day with this. One frustrated user quipped that you could hire a real-life PhD student for way less than the cost of these glorified chatbots. Turns out actual humans might still be a lot more trustworthy than simulated students who occasionally spew out nonsense.

So what’s the takeaway? Is this advanced AI truly revolutionary, or just a fancy term to justify an outrageous price tag? Only time will tell, but until then, maybe it’s better to keep our expectations – and budgets – in check. After all, we can trust actual students to do real research, right? Right?!