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OpenAI is going to launch ads in ChatGPT, a long-anticipated move that could turn the iconic chatbot into a bigger money-making machine.
The company said on Friday that it would begin serving ads to free accounts and the $8-a-month version called ChatGPT Go, according to The New York Times.
“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,” OpenAI said.
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The advertising program aligns seamlessly with OpenAI’s strategy to increase revenue in anticipation of its public stock offering.
In its announcement, OpenAI writes that “your data and conversations are protected and never sold to advertisers” and then goes on to outline five advertising principles:
- Mission alignment: Our mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of advertising is always in support of that mission and making AI more accessible.
- Answer independence: Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you. Answers are optimized based on what’s most helpful to you. Ads are always separate and clearly labeled.
- Conversation privacy: We keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers, and we never sell your data to advertisers.
- Choice and control: You control how your data is used. You can turn off personalization, and you can clear the data used for ads at any time. We’ll always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that’s ad-free.
- Long-term value: We do not optimize for time spent in ChatGPT. We prioritize user trust and user experience over revenue.
The company reached $13 billion in revenue last year and expects to triple that number this year, per The New York Times. At the same time, its spending is rapidly increasing, with projections indicating that it will reach $115 billion between 2025 and 2029.
A large part of that sum will be spent on the data centers and cloud computing needed for new AI infrastructure.
Serving ads in ChatGPT could help OpenAI close the gap in that spending, as the vast majority of the company’s user base relies on the free tier of the chatbot.
“People trust ChatGPT for many important and personal tasks, so as we introduce ads, it’s crucial we preserve what makes ChatGPT valuable in the first place,” the company’s blog post read. “That means you need to trust that ChatGPT’s responses are driven by what’s objectively useful.”
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