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I feel like this free plan is just enough to get someone hooked and require them to upgrade to paid.

Like, imagine GPS navigation wasn't widespread and there was a paid service that gave you 20 free trips. Eventually your normal navigation skills would atrophy and you'd be obliged to purchase.



Of course it is, why would they give away something without trying to capitalize on it later


Some will want to pay more for better service, but it seems likely to be plenty for people who aren't full-time programmers and don't write code every day?


It is to collect more data for LLM training. To tap into proprietary code bases that are never uploaded to GitHub.


Have you read the terms or are you just saying things?


I didn't. Terms are subject to change + can be vaguely written. What matters is your data getting uploaded to someone else's cloud.

Even if they explicitly and clearly state that they don't use your data for any purpose other than generating immediate responses, they can change this once the free Copilot gains traction and people become really addicted to it.

Like, "pay if you don't want us to use your data for training". Most people won't pay and will be happy to give away their data instead.


> imagine GPS navigation wasn't widespread and there was a paid service

GPS is something that wouldn't be invented these days. Instead of the US military footing the bill, it would be some private company somewhere.


Congratulations, you are one of today's 10000* to learn about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware and free trials.

*https://xkcd.com/1053/


This, but _every single thing we rely on_.

Real AI is definitely a rubicon.


GPS navigation, at least on Google Maps, is there free to get you to click on paid ad places.




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