ChatGPT: Will ads soon be integrated into OpenAI's chatbot?

Sam Altman is said to have declared "code red". The reason: Google has released Gemini 3, and other AI providers are also catching up. The response: Side projects are to be postponed. Among other things, work on advertising for the chatbot is to be put on the back burner for this reason. This is reported by The Information.

What is exciting about this is that OpenAI is apparently planning very concretely to tap into advertising as a new source of income. And postponed is not cancelled. The changeover can happen at any time. As is well known, the company's financing model is primarily based on investments. In addition, there are revenues from subscription models from private users and API users. However, this is far from enough to finance the expensive research, development, and operation of AI models. Google and Meta are already subsidizing their AI developments through advertising revenue generated by their services.

Altman did not specify in his emergency alert what could be threatening. There are also said to be concerns that user numbers are stagnating. This was already mentioned by Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar when presenting the past quarterly figures.

ChatGPT: Advertising environment in the program code

Tests with advertisements have been noticed in the program code. An app developer named Tibor Blaho published hints on X, which he claims to have found in the beta version of the Android app. These are parameters with names like "search ad", "search ad carousel" or "ApiAdTarget", all of which sound very much like planned advertising space.

It is also clear: OpenAI knows a lot about its users. In doubt, these users have asked the chatbot even more unguarded questions than they would when searching for something on Google. Thus, highly personalized ads could be displayed with ease. ChatGPT also has a shopping function. Here too, advertising is an excellent way for the company to earn money.

It is questionable whether advertising represents the first or already the last step of the enshittification of ChatGPT. This term, coined by Cory Doctorow, describes the process by which digital services lose quality over time in favor of more profit. While users become increasingly disappointed with a platform, stakeholders want to get as much out of it as possible. This affects both private individuals, who see increasingly personalized advertising and fewer actually relevant contributions, as well as business customers, who have to pay more and more for usage.

The AI search engine Perplexity has also already taken the step towards ads. There, users are shown sponsored products and further questions. However, Perplexity also plans to share revenue with content creators.

(emw)