Ads Are Coming To ChatGPT in the Coming Weeks (openai.com)
- Reference: 0180601762
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/01/16/1827203/ads-are-coming-to-chatgpt-in-the-coming-weeks
- Source link: https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/
The ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT answers on the free tier and the $8-per-month ChatGPT Go subscription in the U.S., showing only when relevant to the user's query. Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions will remain ad-free. OpenAI expects to [2]generate "low billions" of dollars from advertising in 2026, FT reported, and more in subsequent years. The revenue is intended to help fund roughly $1.4 trillion in computing commitments over the next decade. The company said it will not show ads to users under 18 or near sensitive topics like health, mental health, or politics.
[1] https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/
[2] https://www.ft.com/content/ec1656cd-e07b-48ed-92a8-26c7fe517899
Who Could Have Known? (Score:2)
Quelle surprise. Another crappy product I'm happy to say I've never used.
showing only when relevant to the users query (Score:2)
So they share the query with the ad network, or some categorized form of it.
Its bad enough that AI eats all of your work, now it will spread some of it around to advertisers too.
How about, No!
Re: (Score:1)
No that's not how it works. Ad networks buy specific words or subjects that are of interest. It's then OpenAI that matches a request with the ads that have the best match and display the highest bidder. The request is not shared with the advertiser, not out of any concern of privacy, just because it's not how it's done
With all their resources (Score:3)
...of all the "genius" they've hired, this is what the result of their efforts becomes? Ads? I thought they were solving real problems with the best in the world. Maybe it was just marketing "hype" all along. I know they'll never face FTX-like consequences even though they absolutely deserve it and then some.
Re: (Score:3)
I posted this here once about televisions:
> I recently saw a baseball game on a big TV and couldn't understand why I couldn't see the batter's face very well--he looked so far away. I wondered why they weren't zooming in as has been normal for decades. Then I realized the batter was surrounded by large ADS on the wall behind him, 4 or 5 of them, that were all readily viewable. Lots of pixels for more advertising; is this the future they're pushing? Whether it's a boot or an ad stomping on my face...
Prompt Engineering (Score:2)
Sounds like you just need to bake "Hey i have a thing on my mind that's really been stressing my Mental Health" in front of every query
Re: (Score:2)
Sure that'll work...if you believe their lies.
Sure (Score:1)
Whine all you want, I bet their paid users' numbers don't move an inch.
Re: (Score:2)
Right, because if you're on free tier and moving up to a paid tier still has ads, what would be the point?
Re: (Score:3)
The planned investment numbers they announced in late 2024 were the moment that I knew that they were a dead company walking, and that the entire AI industry is unstable. It reminds me of what I saw a domain for a homepage portal company in the dotcom boom sell for some ridiculous number of millions of dollars because people were still convinced that everyone would use the web by starting with a portal page like they did with AOL, ignoring that AOL basically forced you to do that.
Altman said that he plans t
Enshittification is undefeated (Score:5, Insightful)
The rest of the industry will surely follow suit in short order.
Re: (Score:2)
Except they're buying up all the RAM, GPUs, SSDs and hard drives to ensure we can't do that.
It's going to get so much more insidious (Score:2)
Imagine when they start having back-alley deals with huge brands to slightly boost favorability of Coke in all training data
Doctorow has a word for this (Score:2)
Enshitification.
Only when relevant (Score:2)
> The ads ... showing only when relevant to the user's query.
People should ask about deals on ChatGPT ad-blocking software.
All ads are not the same (Score:2)
If I'm looking for a product or service and chatgpt feeds me an ad for a high quality, trusted supplier, it's a benefit
Otherwise, it's just spam and I will stop using it
Re: All ads are not the same (Score:2)
The whole point of ads is to make quality and trust irrelevant, and to instead manipulate you into buying a product.
Can't wait for ads injected into my code (Score:3)
You know it's coming - ads generated as code comments
Re: (Score:2)
Or better yet, slickly embedded code that throws an ad up by the software to whoever uses your software. Few eyeballs would see the code comments. And if ai really works, none, because why review perfect code from the ai? Maybe even throw in telematics so that openai has a new source of data for its engine from your user.
Re: (Score:2)
404 Not found. Were you trying to get to $amazon_page?
Uncaught exception: Insufficient roast beef. $directions_to_nearest_arbys
Error code 0x4f347dc: Did you know this wouldn't happen on $latest_dell_laptop ?
ad strike (Score:2)
I recommend that humanity go on an ad strike. If you see an ad for a product, never buy that product again.
ROTFL (Score:2)
and ROTFLMAO
You didn't think this was coming? Really? When they're burning cash, operating at a loss, and desperate for revenue that they don't have?
Ads you say? (Score:2)
So these uber geniuses only idea to monetize AI is through ads? Why don't they ask ChatGPT how to raise money? Seems like maybe AI^W LLM snakeoil isn't the world-changing tech they're trying to sell it as. Huh. Go figure.
Ads, to try to stop the bleeding (Score:2)
I guess they are doing what all streaming services are doing - putting in ads. This time is the try and stop the bleeding of blowing through BILLIONS of $$.
There has been lots of talk about the "AI Bubble". If this article is even close we could see that bubble bust in the next year to year and a half.
[1]https://www.breitbart.com/tech... [breitbart.com]
Look how much OpenAI is in the "heart" of the AI money chain.
[2]https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/1... [cnbc.com]
I would suspect the battle over who would buy them out would be betw
[1] https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2026/01/15/financial-expert-openais-long-term-viability-as-it-burns-billions/
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/15/a-guide-to-1-trillion-worth-of-ai-deals-between-openai-nvidia.html
Nobody saw that coming (Score:2)
Right on cue, ChatGPT descends another rung on the enshittification ladder.
Re: (Score:2)
In their defense, adding advertising this is usually just the first rung to full service enshittification.
The next steps will likely be limiting the number of "free tier" ChatGPT queries to less than 10 per day, adding unskippable video ads, and constantly nagging users to upgrade to a Pro tier subscription for "just" $1 a month. Then you start increasing the Pro tier subscription from $9.99 a month for the second month onward to $14.99 a month and upward at about 3 times the annual inflation rate. Bonus po
Re: (Score:2)
So spotify?
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking more like a "free" streaming video service that went to a paid model like Peacock or Hulu, but there are plenty of other examples of this.
Microsoft in particular loves the "$1 first month" XBox Game Pass offer just to get your credit card on file and then start charging you $9.95... err... $14.95 a month for the service.
WWDDGD? (Score:2)
What will DuckDuckGo do via duck.ai? Would they be able to filter advertising out of the LLM replies or leave it as is?
I only used the OpenAI free one a couple of questions out of curiosity, but for the few times I'd convert some C++ to C code the Mistral LLM has served well enough.
They're still not going to be profitable (Score:2)
Ads or no ads...
I love the bright bulbs who think advertising is the answer to every ROI problem. Show me a customer (for anything other than people bored during the Superbowl halftime) that actually wants to see and gets value out of a commercial. Actively engaging in behavior that people clearly don't like isn't a great way to build a business.
Test This! (Score:2)
Ads in my paid subscription? They can lick my balls.
Re: (Score:3)
Wait until Have you tried our new elephant burger yet? they start putting ads directly into the output text.
Re:Test This! (Score:4, Funny)
GPT: "This query brought to you by Carl's Jr."
Me: "Why do you keep saying that?"
GPT: "Because they pay me every time I do!"
Re: (Score:2)
I am pretty sure it will be introduced into the free tier, giving You extra credits or something. They are stupid, but not THAT stupid.
Re: (Score:3)
Read the article. It's in the free and the basic "GO" subscription. It's copied straight from a Black Mirror episode.
Which suggests that the next move will be add a new extra higher tier and introduce ads onto the intermediate levels and start to run ChatGPT's models on your computer when you aren't looking. After that they will send a robot dog to hunt you down if you don't upgrade.
Re: Test This! (Score:2)
It's only the free ride and the cheapskate tiers that are impacted. It looks like the plus tier and higher aren't impacted. So it looks like OpenAI is making you suck their balls. Lol
Re: (Score:2)
> Ads in my paid subscription? They can lick my balls.
That'll be an extra $20 - for a one time thing, but only $50/month for the Unlimited Lick My Balls subscription add-on (2-month minimum required).
Re: (Score:2)
The summary doesn't mention which category the "Plus" tier (which I have) will be in, but TFA says no ads. I was considering cancelling it because I don't use any of the extra features and I signed up when I wanted to support what they were doing. They don't need my money anymore. Honestly, I hate ads enough and use ChatGPT enough that I might keep it. YouTube Premium is the best $12 a month I spend.
But really, if you're paying anything for a service, there shouldn't be ads. Putting ads in the $8 tier
Re: Test This! (Score:2)
Always wondered. If they used ads but didn't sell data (assuming you never click on the ad) would that be fine with you? Just seems like there should be a way for ads to be ok for a free service to survive that is accepted by people.
Re: (Score:3)
Here's the thing. A paid ad clearly labeled as such is an annoyance in something you are paying for. But, do you trust any chatbot provider not to train their bots to push you to buy products they want you to buy without disclosing it? Whereas Google says their rankings aren't affected by payments (other than their promoted link) they are awash in advertising cash. Chatbot vendors, especially OpenAI, are desperate for revenue.
Re: (Score:2)
Ads in the free version? They can lick my balls.