OpenAI to test ads in ChatGPT in bid to boost revenue

The move marks a major departure for the company that had so far relied on subscriptions

OpenAI said it would start showing ads in ChatGPT to some US users, ramping up efforts to generate revenue from the AI chatbot to fund the high costs of developing the technology.

The ads will be tested with users on the company’s free tier and the lower-priced Go plan that it is now expanding globally, OpenAI said on Friday (Jan 16). They will show up in the coming weeks and will be separate from the answers generated by ChatGPT.

Users on the more expensive Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers will not have ads. OpenAI also said that advertising would not influence ChatGPT’s outputs and that user conversations would not be shared with marketers.

The move marks a major departure for the company that had so far relied on subscriptions. It shows the pressure OpenAI faces to increase revenue as it spends heavily on data centres and prepares for a widely anticipated initial public offering.

The money-losing startup plans to spend more than US$1 trillion on artificial intelligence infrastructure by 2030, but has not given details on how it plans to fund it.

Analysts said that ads could unlock a significant revenue stream from ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly active users, but the move could irk some customers and hurt trust in the product. If ads feel clumsy or opportunistic, users can easily switch to rival chatbots such as Google’s Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude, Emarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman said.

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But he added that the move could also pressure rivals “to clarify their own monetisation philosophies, especially those positioning themselves as ‘ad-free by design’.”

OpenAI said it would not show ads to users under 18. The company also plans to block ads from appearing in relation to sensitive topics, such as health and politics.

“We plan to test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation,” the startup said in a statement.

Advertisers are optimistic that AI will improve performance in search and social advertising buckets, as they look to capitalise on the implementation of the technology into advertising recommendation systems. The ChatGPT Go offering, first launched in India, will be available in the US for US$8 per month, the Microsoft-backed company said. REUTERS

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