Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he was “surprised” that OpenAI has moved to introduce advertising in AI chatbots. At interview with Axios in DavosThe AI leader responded to questions about using ads to monetize AI services, saying the idea is something the team at Google is considering “carefully.”
Hassabis also said that his team didn’t feel pressure from the tech giant to make “bribery” decisions about advertising, despite how important advertising is to Google’s core business.
The DeepMind founder’s remarks followed Friday’s announcement that OpenAI will begin advertising testing as a way to produce additional revenue from the chatbot’s AI part 800 million active users every week who do not have a paid subscription.
While OpenAI may be forced to consider advertising, as it grows infrastructure and energy costshis decision could change the way users view the service.
“I’m a little surprised that they’ve moved so early,” Hassabis said, referring to OpenAI’s adoption of advertising. “I mean, look, advertising, there is nothing wrong with advertising … they finance a lot of the internet consumers. And if done well, they can be useful,” he clarified.
“But in the realm of assistants, and if you consider a chatbot as an assistant that can help – and ideally, in my mind, because it becomes more powerful, the kind of technology that can be used for you as an individual … there is a question about how advertising fits into the model? … the question.
Repeat some preliminary comments from another Davos interview, Hassabis also said that Google has “no current plans” to advertise on AI chatbots. However, the company will monitor the situation to see how users respond.
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Of course, we’ve seen consumer reaction to the idea of ads infiltrating people’s conversations with AI assistants. While OpenAI last month began exploring features which the app recommends to try during the user chat, for example, people reacted negatively, saying that the suggestion was like an annoying advertisement. Shortly after, OpenAI disables app suggestionswhich it claims is not an ad because it “doesn’t have a financial component.”
But whether money has exchanged hands is not what makes users angry. However, it’s the way app suggestions ruin the quality of the experience.
That is also related to Hassabis, he said.
He explained that using a chatbot is a very different experience than using Google Search. With Search, Google already knows user intent, so it can show ads that might be useful. Chatbots, on the other hand, are meant to be helpful digital assistants who know about you and can help you with many aspects of your life, he said.
“I think that’s very different from the search use case. So I think that’s something that needs to be carefully considered,” he said.
Making Gemini more useful for every user is also a focus The newly launched personalization feature was announced today for Google AI Mode. Now, users can choose to have AI Gemini go to Gmail and Photos for relevant responses in Search AI Mode, similar to how The Gemini app just added a Personal Intelligence feature which can reference a user’s Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history.
While personalized ad targeting is a business that supports the free web, pushing ads at users while they’re talking to an AI assistant can be uncomfortable. That’s why customers rejected Amazon’s previous attempts infuse ads into the Alexa experience – they ask for an assistant, not a private seller hawking goods for them to buy.
Hassabis said he doesn’t feel pressure from the top to force advertising into AI products, though he admits there are ways to do that later.
“We don’t feel the immediate pressure to make short-term decisions like that – I think it’s been a history of what we’ve done at GoogleMind – to be very scientific, and rigorous, and to think about every step we take – whether it’s the technology or the product,” he said.