SAN FRANCISCO, California — OpenAI announced on Friday it will begin testing advertisements on ChatGPT in the coming weeks, as it seeks to increase revenue to cover its soaring costs.
The ads will initially appear in the United States for free and lower-tier subscribers, the company said in a blog post. Premium Pro and Enterprise subscribers will remain ad-free.The integration of advertising has been a key question for generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, with companies largely reluctant to interrupt the user experience with ads.But the exorbitant costs of running AI services may have forced OpenAI’s hand.Only a small percentage of its nearly one billion users pay for subscription services, putting pressure on the company to find new revenue sources.Since 2022, OpenAI’s valuation has soared to $500 billion in funding rounds. Some expect it could go public with a trillion-dollar valuation.But the ChatGPT maker burns cash at a furious rate, mostly on the powerful computing required.With its move, OpenAI brings its business model closer to Google and Meta, which have built advertising empires on the back of free-to-use services.Unlike OpenAI, those companies have massive advertising revenue to fund AI innovation.OpenAI’s pivot comes as Google infused services including Gmail, Maps and YouTube with AI features that compete with ChatGPT.OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has long expressed his dislike for advertising, citing concerns that ads could create distrust about ChatGPT’s content.To address these concerns, OpenAI pledged that ads would never influence ChatGPT’s answers and that user conversations would remain private from advertisers.“Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you,” the company stated. “Answers are optimized based on what’s most helpful to you. Ads are always separate and clearly labeled.”