I've spent over $3,000 on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and only one was worth the money

Something I remember particularly well about the early days of generative AI is how quickly people developed an aversion to the idea of paying for yet another subscription. I could understand why! We were already paying monthly for everything from streaming services to cloud storage, and suddenly, using a chatbot just to draft a quick email or (unfortunately) write an essay was going to cost another $20 a month. In fact, when ChatGPT Plus first launched in February 2023, Reddit was filled with people questioning whether a chatbot could possibly be worth that much. Fast forward a few years, and I've somehow managed to spend over $3,000 on subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini alone.