ChatGPT: Ad placements coming to more countries

OpenAI is displaying ads to more users – according to the company, this affects users of the free version as well as a newly announced, particularly inexpensive subscription model in several countries. The ads are also intended to be based on the content users exchange with ChatGPT. OpenAI had already announced the plans earlier.

On its own website, OpenAI is already advertising for ad customers. These are intended to reach people with ads in ChatGPT who are currently “exploring possibilities, comparing alternatives, weighing pros and cons, and making informed decisions” and thereby sharing “more extensive contextual information”. This is intended to enable advertising that is more relevant, personalized, and useful. “Reach customers in an advertising environment based on conversations, context, and real-time decisions”, it continues. It is clear: Information from the chats users have with ChatGPT will also be included.

Two user groups affected

According to a statement from OpenAI, a test phase is currently underway, which started in the USA at the beginning of the year and is now being expanded to the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea. It affects two user groups of ChatGPT: those of the free version and those of ChatGPT Go, a particularly inexpensive subscription model that is offered for 8 euros per month according to the ChatGPT price overview.

The ads are not intended to be subtly woven into ChatGPT’s responses. Instead, OpenAI wants to display them clearly after a prompt – naturally, matching the content. “During the test, we decide which ad to show by matching ads submitted by advertisers with the topic of your conversation, your past chats, and past interactions with ads”, OpenAI explains to its users. For example, someone looking for recipes might see ads for meal kits or food delivery services. “If there are multiple advertisers, we choose the one that is most relevant to your chat and show it to you first.” Users will be able to control whether ChatGPT displays personalized ads and whether previous chats and user information stored in ChatGPT are included.

The company promises not to share data from chats with the Large Language Model (LLM) with advertising partners. However, OpenAI will provide them with at least data on the reach of ChatGPT advertising, as can be seen from the information page for potential advertisers linked above. According to OpenAI, underage users do not see ads in the current test phase – which would imply that they have also created an account by providing their real date of birth.

This is likely an attempt by OpenAI to generate more revenue from ChatGPT. OpenAI used up 3.7 billion US dollars of its cash reserves in the first three months of the year, with revenue of just 5.7 billion dollars. This was recently reported by the US magazine The Information, citing internal figures from the AI company. The company’s net loss even amounted to 9.3 billion dollars in the same period. However, since OpenAI has reserves of 73 billion dollars after the latest round of financing, it can sustain this for a while longer without raising new investor funds. But the fundamental problem remains: OpenAI is living on a success for which there is no profitable business model so far.

(nen)