ChatGPT users may be about to see a lot more advertising.
OpenAI started testing ads inside ChatGPT earlier this year, initially limiting their reach but gradually expanding them to more users in more places. It has repeatedly claimed that it is necessary to show advertising in order to pay for the infrastructure and investment required to run its free services.
At the moment, the ads show at the bottom of a response, and separate from it. But the company says it is now expanding it, with a new visual format that will show when ChatGPT generates an image.
The ads will launch in an initial test in the US, with a limited number of advertisers. But ChatGPT suggested that the ads will eventually expand to other countries and advertisers, and that they might show up in other places than only generating images.
It stressed that the ads will stay clearly labeled, separate from the image being generated, and that the ads will not influence the response that ChatGPT provides. It also says that ChatGPT has a set of guardrails that ensure the ads do not appear in particularly inappropriate settings, such as in “emotionally vulnerable, sensitive, or otherwise unsuitable contexts”.
As it launched the new visual format for ads, OpenAI suggested that more kinds advertising and formats are on their way. “We will continue to evolve our ad platform with new formats and capabilities to help businesses reach customers in useful and relevant ways and provide opportunities for businesses of all sizes to grow and thrive,” it said.
OpenAI has pushed its ads as a way of funding access to AI tools for more people, arguing that pays for people to access its systems without being charged a subscription. Image generation is currently particularly expensive for artificial intelligence systems to do.
But it also comes amid a planned IPO for the company, and questions over whether it will be able to turn the wide reach of its products – which currently cost it tens of billions each year to run – into profit.
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