| Imagine for a moment that OpenAI is going public.
Further, imagine that OpenAI has a special deal: every early user of ChatGPT, its flagship product, will receive free shares in OpenAI when it IPOs.
Even those who have never owned a stock in their life would be signing up for ChatGPT, just to get the free OpenAI stock. Easy decision.
Now, imagine this idea catches on, and every AI company might be offering “free shares” in the future. There are thousands of AI platforms: all you have to do is create an account on each platform, use it once, and you’re eligible.
The AI startups would all get an initial influx of users, but we’d have to question whether they’re “real” users. Will they ever come back? And will they sell their shares immediately after the IPO, driving down the price – possibly forever?
And the users also would have to question whether the effort is really worth it. After all, using all these AI platforms for the potential shares is a good way to learn about them, but it is a lot of work.
What I’ve described is what has happened in the crypto industry with airdrops.
My question: is "farming" airdrops -- using an early platform in hopes of getting rewarded with free tokens down the road -- worth your time? | 
