SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI said it will start testing advertisements on ChatGPT in the coming weeks, aiming to boost revenue to cover its rising costs. Ads will first appear for free and lower-tier subscribers in the United States, while Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users will remain ad-free, the company said in a blog post.
Since its launch in 2022, ChatGPT has grown to nearly one billion users, but only a few pay for subscriptions.
“Most importantly: ads will not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you,” said Fidji Simo, the company’s CEO of applications, in a social media post Friday.
Despite reaching a US$500 billion (S$644 billion) valuation from funding rounds, OpenAI spends heavily on the computing power needed to run its AI services, prompting the company to explore advertising, a move that helped boost revenue for tech giants like Google and Meta.
OpenAI pledged that ads would not affect ChatGPT’s answers or use private conversation data.
As ChatGPT introduces ads, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications and a former Meta executive who handled its advertising business, urged users to trust that “ChatGPT’s responses are driven by what’s objectively useful, never by advertising.”
But introducing personalized ads starts OpenAI “down a risky path” previously taken by social media companies, said Miranda Bogen of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
“People are using chatbots for all sorts of reasons, including as companions and advisors,” said Bogen, director of CDT’s AI Governance Lab. “There’s a lot at stake when that tool tries to exploit users’ trust to hawk advertisers’ goods.”
Emarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman told AFP, OpenAI’s move to introduce ads simply means OpenAI is admitting that “the race isn’t just about model quality anymore.” He also noted that introducing ads is how OpenAI stays in the AI race. /TISG
Additional source: AP
