---
title: "Industry Report | September 2023 Global AIGC Monthly — Dry-Goods / How-To Chapter"
author: "Unique Research"
sourcePublication: "Unique Research (FFCAP English library)"
originalPublishedAt: "2023-10-20T18:10:00+08:00"
canonical: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20231020a08g7l00"
source: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20231020a08g7l00"
language: "en"
cnSourceUrl: "https://view.inews.qq.com/a/20231020A08G7L00"
---

# Industry Report | September 2023 Global AIGC Monthly — Dry-Goods / How-To Chapter

_Unique Research · Insight / AIGC monthly · October 20, 2023 · Author Jerry · Review Qiuping · Digest of September essays from Sequoia & a16z_

Since last summer, generative AI has been in a high-speed phase. ChatGPT made clear that AI is a transformative force for industries and competition. September brought a cluster of industry essays from Sequoia and a16z on economics, consumer use, platform shifts, and healthcare. This chapter summarizes the dry goods.

## a16z Martin Casado — “Computing’s third era” and creation’s marginal cost → 0

-   For ~10 years, AI beat humans at entity recognition; Meta, Google, Netflix already grew market value with ML.
-   Most true-AI use cases compete with humans. Brains evolved for berry-picking and lion-dodging — the infamous **AI mediocrity spiral**: products that look smart in demos, then underperform expensive human alternatives.
-   **Third era of computing:** chips drove compute’s marginal cost to ~0; internet drove distribution’s marginal cost to ~0; generative AI drives _creation’s_ marginal cost to ~0.

## a16z Olivia Moore — 90% of genAI apps grow on organic traffic and monetize

-   Most leading genAI apps were built from scratch; ~**80%** of top sites did not exist a year ago.
-   ChatGPT alone is ~**60%** of Top-50 monthly traffic (~#24 site globally) — still small vs mainstream apps.
-   General LLM chatbots ~**68%** of Top-50 user traffic; AI companions and content tools (image, pro writing) rising.
-   Early “winners” exist, but most categories still open.
-   GenAI rewrote acquisition: little paid growth; free organic; users pay — ~**90%** of companies already have revenue; almost all subscription. Avg ~$21/month (~$252/year).
-   Still browser-first; mobile-native genAI is the next platform bet.

## OpenAI CTO Mira Murati × Martin Casado — redefining human–digital interaction

-   Inflection point: AI redefines how people interact with digital information.
-   More data + compute → stronger models; AGI may need other breakthroughs.
-   Users often need a right-sized model, not the strongest — cheaper; building great products _on_ models is hard.
-   Text is strong today; multimodal (image/video) next.
-   RLHF for reliability; web access for freshness and hallucinations.
-   Vision: ensembles of agents users collaborate with; a platform where developers build agents.

## Sequoia — Generative AI’s Act Two

-   GenAI as a platform shift / Cambrian explosion / generation’s space race — innovation density not seen since early internet.
-   Enablers: 60 years of Moore’s Law (exaflops), 40 years of internet data (COVID-accelerated), 20 years of mobile/cloud (a supercomputer in every pocket).
-   AI researchers went from garage hackers to teams commanding billions in compute.
-   Hype excess: every inbox pitched “AI Salesforce / Adobe / Instagram” — unsustainable fundraising, talent wars, GPU grabs.
-   Yet startups already did **\>$1B** genAI revenue in months — faster start than early SaaS.
-   **Act Two:** apps that use foundation models as _part_ of fuller solutions to human problems — plus a new LLM developer stack of compute/tools for production.
-   Sequoia’s earlier piece: some forecasts wrong (pace exceeded expectations), some right (new track, killer apps appearing, developers central, product form still evolving).

## a16z — Let’s Get Personal: AI unlocks online consumer services

-   Internet made services cheaper/online; AI lets startups scale experiences that copy the best of 1:1 human service (tutoring, coaching, doctors).
-   Survey: **57%** prefer face-to-face mainly for customization, expertise, or personal relationship — all areas genAI can address.
-   Opportunity may be **5–20×** today’s online consumer services; biggest upside in high-touch verticals e-commerce hasn’t penetrated (vs transactional utilities/flights).

## Sequoia — AI’s $200B Question

Nvidia’s Q2 beat → endless GPU demand narrative. Thumb rule: $1 GPU ≈ $1 data-center opex. ~$50B GPU run-rate → ~$100B DC spend; with 50% end-user margin → ~**$200B** revenue needed. Even generous AI revenue from OpenAI (~$1B), Microsoft Copilot (~$10B), Google/Meta/Apple (~$10B each), and Oracle/ByteDance/Alibaba/Tencent/X/Tesla (~$5B each) leaves a **\>$125B** annual hole — largely for startups to fill by turning infra into end-customer value.

## a16z — What Builders Talk About When They Talk About AI

Voices from OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Databricks, Character.AI, Roblox, insitro, Figma: start of computing’s third era; transformers ~6 years old, ChatGPT <1 year; creation’s marginal cost → 0; “Wright brothers’ first flight” moment; GitHub Copilot as template for AI amplifying cognitive work; foundation models changing behavior across art, design, games, medicine, code, relationships.

## Sequoia — Bringing Generative AI to Healthcare

-   U.S. healthcare >$4T spend; ~**$300B** administrative — repetitive, labor-heavy.
-   Near-term: back-office automation + frontline workflow efficiency; aspiration: better patient outcomes.
-   Use cases Sequoia sees: clinical documentation, patient engagement, prior auth, and more daily.
-   Past decade of health software faced thin provider margins and concentrated payers (top 5 >50% share). GenAI’s immediate, visible value helps break the “poverty trap” of buyers who won’t pay for long-dated efficiency promises.

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Editorial English edition published on UniqueCapital: https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20231020a08g7l00
On-site reading page: https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20231020a08g7l00