In a blog post announced this weekend, OpenAI confirmed that it will begin testing limited advertising display on ChatGPT in the US.
This form applies to users of free packages and Go packages, which are new subscription packages priced at $8 per month that have just been deployed globally. Meanwhile, higher-cost packages such as Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise will not feature advertisements.
According to OpenAI, the introduction of advertising into ChatGPT aims to maintain free access for hundreds of millions of users, while creating additional revenue from groups that are not ready to pay for premium packages.
This is a popular strategy of major technology platforms, but with ChatGPT, this move quickly attracted attention due to the high level of personalization of chatbots.
Ads will be displayed at the end of each conversation and are targeted based on the topic users exchange with ChatGPT.
However, OpenAI said that users still have certain controls. Specifically, they can skip the ad, see why the ad is displayed, or turn off the personalization feature so that the ad is no longer targeted. The company also commits not to display ads for users under 18 years old.
Faced with concerns that advertising may distort the content of the answers, OpenAI affirmed that ChatGPT will maintain the independence of the answers.
Accordingly, advertising is not allowed to affect how chatbots respond to questions or give suggestions to users. At the same time, OpenAI announced that it will not sell user data to advertisers, a highlight to ease privacy concerns.
In terms of business, this advertising strategy is assessed to bring dual benefits. On the one hand, OpenAI has significant additional revenue from a huge number of free users.
On the other hand, the experience with advertising may also make a part of users consider upgrading to paid packages to have a "cleaner" usage environment.
However, putting advertising into ChatGPT is inevitably controversial. For many people, AI chatbots are not just a search engine or social network, but also a highly personalized chat space. Targeted advertising, even at a limited level, still raises questions about the boundary between utility, privacy and commercialization.
OpenAI said they do not see advertising simply as a money-making tool. In the post, the company emphasized that all commercial activities, including advertising, are aimed at serving the long-term mission: to develop general artificial intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity.
However, in the context of ChatGPT increasingly attached to digital life, how OpenAI balances business benefits and user experience will continue to be a closely monitored issue.
