ChatGPT users are about to be exposed to targeted advertising

There’s an ongoing conversation — inside and outside the tech community — about how and when OpenAI, currently valued at $500 billion, will make money. Well, there is one surefire way to do that, and that is through advertising. In the near term, that appears to be the AI ​​giant’s plan, as it announced this week that limited advertising is headed to some ChatGPT users.

In a blog post published on Friday, OpenAI said it would begin testing ads in the US for both the free and Go tiers. (Go accounts, which cost $8 per month, were introduced globally on Friday.) The company positions this as a way to maintain free access while generating revenue from people who aren’t willing to commit to a paid subscription. For now, the company’s most expensive paid tiers — Pro, Plus, Business, and Enterprise — won’t have any ads.

The ads will appear at the bottom of the user’s conversation and will be targeted to the topic of discussion. Users will have some control over this situation, as they will be able to decline ads, see explanations for why certain ads appear to them, as well as turn off personalization, which should negate the targeted nature of the ads. The company has also pledged not to show ads to users it believes are under 18 years old.

OpenAI says ChatGPT will maintain “answer independence,” meaning that despite incorporating ads, these ads will not influence the answers the chatbot provides to users. The company also promised not to sell user data to advertisers.

This strategy can pay off in two ways. For Free and Go tier users, it’s clear that the company will generate a significant amount of ad revenue. At the same time, there will necessarily be some users who appreciate the app but don’t appreciate the ads, which could lead to an uptick in signups for the platform’s more expensive accounts.

OpenAI also wants everyone to know that it pastes ads into its chatbot just to help the world. In its blog on Friday, the company promised that its “advertising pursuit always supports” its mission: that artificial general intelligence “benefits all of humanity.”