In 2001 a famous medicine, Prozac, suddenly got cheap copies — and its maker lost its money very fast. Today’s AI companies have the same problem every few months. Is that why they can’t stop?
Harder version: read this lesson at C1 level →
Look at each word. Say what you think it means. Then tap the card.
Tap a card to see the meaning.
Write one word from the cards in each gap.
1. The doctor gave me some for my cough.
2. My brother and I had a to the end of the beach. He won.
3. In our school, there is a about phones: no phones in class.
4. Be careful — the road is very when it snows.
5. The of bread went up again this month.
6. It’s raining. Let’s wait for it to before we go out.
1. medicine · 2. race · 3. rule · 4. dangerous · 5. price · 6. stop
Read each part. Then answer the questions before you read the next part.
Prozac is a medicine for depression. An American company, Eli Lilly, started selling it at the end of the 1980s.
Making a new medicine costs a lot of money. But for many years, the law protected Prozac. Nobody else could make it. This protection is called a patent.
So Lilly could choose its own price. Prozac made about two and a half billion dollars a year.
In August 2001, the patent ended. From that day, other companies could sell copies of the medicine — at a much lower price.
People bought the copies. In just a few weeks, Lilly’s money from Prozac fell very fast, and it never came back.
Business people call this a patent cliff: the money goes over the edge, like a car off a cliff.
True or false? Click your answer.
1. Nobody else could make Prozac while the patent was active.
2. After 2001, the copies were more expensive than Prozac.
3. Lilly’s money from Prozac came back after a few years.
Today, AI companies have the same problem as Lilly — but much faster.
The biggest AI companies spend billions of dollars to make the best AI in the world. When their AI is the best, they can ask a high price.
Here is an example: Claude Opus 4.7, an AI model from the company Anthropic. It came out in April 2026. For about three or four months, the price stayed the same.
Then cheaper competitors, many of them from China, made AI that was almost as good. Anyone can download these models and use them.
The price of that kind of AI fell by about three quarters — from about four dollars to about one dollar. Lilly had fourteen years. The AI company had a few months.
In Europe, about 60% of AI use on one popular website now goes to these cheaper models. One year before, it was about 16%.
So the big AI companies want to stay ahead. They want their engineers to build the next, better model — fast.
True or false? Click your answer.
1. Lilly had more time than the AI companies before cheap copies arrived.
2. The cheaper AI models all came from America.
3. The price of Opus 4.7-level AI fell by about three quarters.
Some people who run AI companies say that very powerful AI could be dangerous. So why don’t they stop?
The problem is simple. If one company stops, the others don’t. Its customers and its engineers go to the competitors.
In September 2026, Anthropic’s boss, Dario Amodei, wrote a long essay. He did not ask his company to stop. He wanted the same speed rules for all companies, and he wanted the US government to make strong rules against China.
But President Trump sees AI as a race — and he wants America to win it. “Whoever wins AI wins,” he said.
There is one more problem. Cheap AI helps a lot of people. Small companies and countries like the UK use it every day. They want safe AI — but they don’t want one company to win and the prices to go up.
So everybody in the race thinks the same thing: “I don’t like this race. But I don’t want to lose — and I really don’t want them to win.”
Can anyone leave the race? And who can change its rules?
True or false? Click your answer.
1. Amodei asked his own company to stop.
2. President Trump sees AI as a race.
3. Cheap AI helps small companies.
Everyone in this story wants other people to do something. For this, we use a special pattern.
want / would like + person + to + verb
My manager wants me to work on Saturday.
I’d like you to call me tomorrow.
After the verb, use an object word: me, you, him, her, it, us, them — not I, he, she, we, they.
She wants him to help. — not She wants he to help.
Never use that after want: I want you to come. — not I want that you come.
The negative: I don’t want them to win. (= I hope they do not win.)
I want them not to be late. is possible, but I don’t want them to be late is more natural.
The same pattern works with ask, tell and need: The teacher asked us to close our books.
| Verb | Person | to + verb |
|---|---|---|
| My parents want | me | to study medicine. |
| We’d like | you | to join our team. |
| The boss asked | us | to finish early. |
| I don’t want | them | to wait for me. |
Use the words in brackets. Write the person and the verb in the right form.
1. My sister wants her new flat. (I / see)
2. The investors would like a better model. (the company / build)
3. The doctor told the medicine twice a day. (he / take)
4. Our neighbours don’t want a party this weekend. (we / have)
5. The government asked the new rules. (the companies / follow)
1. me to see · 2. the company to build · 3. him to take · 4. us to have · 5. the companies to follow
Each sentence has one mistake. Say the correct sentence out loud, then check.
1. I want that you help me.
2. She would like they to come to the meeting.
3. My boss wants me finish the report today.
4. We don’t want him wins the race.
5. They asked to us wait outside.
1. I want you to help me. (no that after want)
2. She would like them to come to the meeting. (object word after the verb)
3. My boss wants me to finish the report today. (you need to)
4. We don’t want him to win the race. (to + the base verb)
5. They asked us to wait outside. (no to before the person)
Take your time. Short sentences are fine.
Tell me the story in your own words. Six or seven sentences is enough.
Look at the people in the story: the AI companies, their investors, President Trump, small companies, the customers.
What does each one want? Who do they want to do what?
Think about your work, your town or your country.
Tell me three things you would like other people to do — and one thing you don’t want them to do.
You are the boss of an AI company. Your investors want you to go faster. Your engineers want you to be more careful.
What do you tell each group? What do you decide?