from Hacker News

Tell HN: Stripe closed my GPT-3 G.Sheet addon because they think I “sell essays”

by cosbgn on 2/15/23, 9:48 AM with 64 comments

Apparently Stripe is closing GPT-3 tools because they "are unable to accept payments for the sale of essays and other academic work". I tried to appeal but no luck. What can I do? The tool is EndType.com and I obviously don't sell academic work
  • by smca on 2/15/23, 10:33 AM

    Can you email me at smca@stripe.com?

    We support a bunch of AI businesses on Stripe and I'd like to take a closer look. (What you're describing doesn't sound unsupportable to me.)

  • by pocketarc on 2/15/23, 10:21 AM

    What do you mean when you say that they closed your add-on? Did they stop your add-on from working, or did they just close your Stripe account? If it's the latter, you should be able to sign up with another payment provider and leave them behind.
  • by roddux on 2/15/23, 10:27 AM

    Find a new provider that won't randomly shaft you for spurious reasons.
  • by uoaei on 2/15/23, 11:23 AM

    Well, you kinda do?

    It doesn't really matter what you want your product to do. It's what people do with your product. Intentions are easy to fake, it's the outcomes that people care about.

  • by dmak on 2/15/23, 10:23 AM

    Aside from government regulatory requirements, am I the only one who thinks Stripe shouldn't have this kind of say? I know there are business categories that have more risk which may or may not be allowed to transact, but this particular instance seems like a huge power trip to me.

    Perhaps someone with better insight can educate me on this matter?

  • by Applejinx on 2/15/23, 11:22 AM

    I had a look at your website.

    How is it obvious that you don't sell academic work and/or a paid tool to write essays for kids? It looked like 'have GPT-3 write stuff in Google Docs, but more so' to me.

    What are people going to be doing, journaling?

    The Stripe thing is a separate issue, I'm calling out your 'I obviously don't sell academic work'. Oh come on. Really? Who's gonna pay for this?

  • by jcq3 on 2/15/23, 10:39 AM

    Tech industry let these actors have too much power, they can cut any business at their will. Web3 is the answer, I hope it is. Matter of time before they get replaced.
  • by rvz on 2/15/23, 10:29 AM

    Stripe might have detected that you are grifting with an AI chatbot and is clearly telling you not to do that on their payment gateway.

    Like I said before [0], perhaps it is better to go on multiple gateways. At least then you can continue your hustle / grift on another payment processor rather than complain here and use HN as Stripe customer support.

    [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34747526