ChatGPT users are about to get hit with targeted ads

A constant conversation – both within and outside the technology community – was about how and when OpenAI, which is currently the case valued at $500 billionwill make money. There’s one surefire way to do that, and that’s through advertising. In the short term, that seems to be the AI ​​giant’s plan, as it was announced this week that limited advertising will be going to certain ChatGPT users.

In a blog post Published Friday, OpenAI said it will begin testing ads in the US for both the free and Go tiers. (Go accounts, which cost $8 a month, were introduced worldwide on Fridays.) The company sees this as a way to maintain free access while generating revenue from people who aren’t ready to commit to a paid subscription. For now, the company’s more expensive paid tiers – Pro, Plus, Business and Enterprise – won’t see ads.

The ads appear at the bottom of a user’s conversation and are focused on the topic of conversation. Users will have some control over this situation, as they can ignore ads, see explanations as to why they are seeing certain ads, and also disable personalization, which should undermine the targeted nature of the ads. The company has also committed not to serve ads to users believed to be under 18 years of age.

OpenAI says ChatGPT will maintain “response independence,” meaning that despite the integration of ads, those ads will not impact the responses the chatbot provides to users. The company has also promised not to sell users’ data to advertisers.

This strategy could pay off in two ways. For users of the Free and Go tiers, the company will clearly generate a significant amount of ad revenue. At the same time, there will necessarily be some users who like the app but not the ads, which could potentially lead to an increase in subscriptions to the platform’s more expensive accounts.

OpenAI also wants everyone to know that it only puts ads in its chatbot to help the world. In its blog post Friday, the company promised that its “pursuit of advertising always supports” its mission: that AGI “benefits all humanity.”