Many comments miss the mark as they fail to make the crucial distinction between ChatGPT and GPT-4. GPT-4 is the underlying model one can indeed have direct access to on a pay-per-request pricing scheme. ChatGPT is an application built on top of GPT-4 which manages how the 'context' of your interaction is passed in on a per-request basis. I don't doubt the spokesperson for a minute: from my own experience, the underlying GPT-4 models have not changed and I sincerely believe that OpenAI will be careful on this front, given that they are aiming to build a once-in-a-generation company that provides a stable platform for other firms to build products on top of.

The ChatGPT application, on the other hand, and how it manages context etc has certainly changed in the intervening time. That is completely expected as even and perhaps especially OpenAI is figuring out how to build applications on top of LLMs, which means balancing how one can get the best quality results out of the model while making ChatGPT in particular a profitable business.

Stratechery has analyzed this problem for OpenAI in the most detail I've seen. I imagine the company is in something of a bind figuring out how to invest between the APIs themselves and ChatGPT. On the one hand, the latter is incredibly successful as a consumer app with a lead it will be difficult for rivals to catchup with and it is likely plugins will provide a good revenue basis. On the other hand, there is certainly a greater business opportunity in being the foundation for an entire generation of AI products and taking BPs off of revenues -- if and only if GPT4 indeed has a significant moat over the opensource alternatives. For the moment, it would seem they will have to hedge both bets as we see how the consumer space and the competition between models heats-up.