Pundit ClaimsAI claims by Gary Marcus and Ed Zitron, with the evidence

“And the fact these "annualized" figures have changed so little since June means that growth has slowed, because otherwise said numbers would have increased (as "annualized" is based on projections).”

OpenAI Is A Bad Business, paragraph 105. The full statement is at the source.

Our reading, the sentence that was checked:

Growth in OpenAI's and Microsoft's model-access revenue has slowed since June 2024.

Assessment: Unresolved Evidence as of

Where and when Ed Zitron wrote it

Where's Your Ed At, OpenAI Is A Bad Business, paragraph 105.

Said
Source observed
live page, full text, public
Evidence as of
the cutoff for this assessment
Assessment recorded
assessment wyea-oai-business-fbd930-a1

We recorded 46 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.

The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-28. The source may have been edited after 2024-10-02. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.

What the claim commits to

Kind
Observation
Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
None stated. This site does not add one.
Deadline state when assessed
No horizon
Deadline state on 2026-10-29
No horizon (the release’s reference date)

From the speaker

  • "annualized" figures
  • changed so little since June
  • growth has slowed
  • OpenAI and Microsoft

Our interpretation

  • The surrounding passage identifies revenue from selling access to models, separately for OpenAI and Microsoft.
  • The ordinary reading of slowed growth is a lower revenue growth rate after June than before June, not merely a small change in reported figures.
  • The observation covers June 2024 through publication on October 2. Earlier comparable observations are needed to establish the prior growth rate.
  • Annualized monthly revenue, projected full-year revenue and realized annual revenue are different measures.

Counts as supported if: Comparable model-access revenue observations establish a lower growth rate after June 2024 for both companies.

Counts as contradicted if: Comparable observations establish that model-access revenue growth did not slow for either company. Opposite findings for the two companies would support a mixed outcome.

Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.

Current assessment

Was it true for the period described?

Outcome: Unresolved

The record was checked, and the evidence available by the cutoff does not settle it.

Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.

Evidence as of
Deadline state when assessed
No horizon
Assessment recorded
Policy version
2026-10-28.7

Rationale

The available figures do not establish whether model-access revenue growth slowed for both companies. The readable reporting mixes different product scopes and observation dates. Comparing a monthly run rate with a full-year forecast cannot settle the claim. This weakness in the argument does not itself prove the claimed slowdown was false.

Limitations

  • The original detailed reporting could not be read.
  • Broader revenue growth cannot settle this narrower product-level claim.

Evidence (1 item)

  • Context only: DeepLearning.AI,

    OpenAI’s annualized monthly revenue was $3.4 billion in June.

    Why it matters here: This is total OpenAI revenue. The same paragraph dates its API run-rate figure to March, so it supplies neither a June API baseline nor subsequent comparable observations for both companies.

    Publisher
    DeepLearning.AI
    Kind of source
    Secondary summary
    Measures
    OpenAI, Total annualized monthly revenue, USD USD billions per year, estimate, 2024-06-01 to 2024-06-30
    Describes events of
    Public from

What would settle it

Comparable monthly model-access revenue for each company before June and from June through publication, with consistent revenue-sharing treatment.

Where it was said (1)

Said once in the sources this register covers.

  • : Where's Your Ed At, OpenAI Is A Bad Business

    And the fact these "annualized" figures have changed so little since June means that growth has slowed, because otherwise said numbers would have increased (as "annualized" is based on projections).

    Published
    2024-10-02
    Source observed
    , live page
    Access
    full text, public

History

Assessment versions

Recorded events

  1. Assessment publishedBy this site

    First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.

    About assessment wyea-oai-business-fbd930-a1.