OpenAI Update Sparks Concern for AI PDF Reader Startups

According to Decrypt, OpenAI has reportedly released an update to a limited number of ChatGPT Plus subscribers, allowing users to upload PDFs, documents, and other file types to the chatbot and ask ChatGPT questions about them. This development has raised concerns among AI-focused startups, as some believe it could put companies built around using generative AI to read documents out of business. AI researcher Alex Ker shared a photo of an update notice from OpenAI on Twitter, stating, “Many startups just died today.”Generative AI has made AI PDF readers a popular way to work with large documents like court filings and contracts, as they can help increase productivity by cutting hours out of sorting, reading, and searching hefty documents. Since the launch of GPT-4 in March, ChatGPT Plus subscribers have had access to a growing library of plugins, including several designed to let users interact with PDFs.However, not all AI PDF reader startups are ready to concede to OpenAI's dominance. Rival AI developer Anthropic included a document upload feature in the earliest versions of Claude AI, and Austin-based AI PDF developer Humata recently raised $3.5 million in funding led by Google's Gradient Ventures. Humata AI CEO Cyrus Khajvandi told Decrypt that the company's long-term vision is to develop tools that make people wiser and more productive, as AI automates mundane processes and frees people to be more creative.