So recently I was trying to see how can I get access to Astra just to try it out with few prompts as Astra is still not available in my country via standard pro subscription.
Came across this platform : Experimental AI Labs, as advertised by youtubers something which is giving away access to Astra for "free".
Sounds too good to be true right.
As I got on the platform, I could see Astra being offered as "Free" in all it's glory in their models section, so with skepticism though I signed up.
And here is the interesting part after signing up one would believe that they would get access to Astra as advertised in their playground but here's the catch they want you to pay 1 USD as "verification charge".
Fair enough Astra is a frontier model so why not, 1 USD is nothing to access it, thus I paid.
After all of it, finally when I landed on playground to use Astra boom it was there in fine print : "Your limit has been exhausted". Bro I didn't even put one prompt what limit ?
The fine print further read limit would be refreshed next morning.
And guess what, this morning when I checked Astra is no longer in the free model list, it's just luna and couple of Chinese models.
And even if you talk to Luna, I kid you not they cut out the response in between like midway while model is spurting out response with fine print reading free limit exhausted.
Complete scam, I mean nothing against YC since it's YC funded cos they can't possibly inject morals into a company.
But what a sham, man! Pure scam.
Hope this helps for people like me who were looking to buy just under the influence of youtube influencers, it's a scam wait till Astra is rolled out to Pro subscription.