ChatGPT users will be hit with targeted ads

An an ongoing conversation – inside and outside the tech community – it’s just about how and when OpenAI, which is now worth $500 billionwill make money. Well, there is one way to do that, and that is through advertising. In the near term, this seems to be the AI ​​giant’s plan, as it was announced this week that limited ads are targeted at certain ChatGPT users.

At post a blog published Friday, OpenAI said it will begin testing ads in the US for its free and Go tiers. (The Go account, which costs $8 a month, is introduced globally there.) The company frames this as a way to support free access while generating revenue from people who are not ready to commit to a paid subscription. Currently, the company’s more expensive paid tiers — Pro, Plus, Business, and Enterprise — won’t get ads.

Ads will appear below user chats and will be targeted to the topic of discussion. Users will be able to control this situation, as they will be able to remove ads, see an explanation of why they are shown specifically, and also disable personalization, which should defeat the targeted nature of ads. The company has also made a commitment not to serve ads to users it believes are under 18 years of age.

OpenAI says that ChatGPT will maintain “answer independence,” meaning that, even if there are ads, those ads won’t influence the answers the chatbot gives 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, the company will get a lot of advertising revenue. At the same time, there will likely be certain users who value the app but don’t value the ads, which could lead to an increase in subscriptions to more expensive accounts on the platform.

OpenAI also wants everyone to understand that just sticking an ad in the chatbot helps the world. In a blog post on Friday, the company promised that its “advertising efforts always support” its mission: that AGI “benefits all humanity.”