Khaberni - OpenAI announced the start of advertisements appearing in the ChatGPT app as part of an initial test aimed at supporting financing and maintaining free access to the service.
The company clarified that the introduction of ads comes with a clear focus on maintaining the quality of the user experience and privacy, providing broad options for control that allow users to determine how these ads appear.
This step represents an important shift in OpenAI's revenue-generating strategy, as it aims to open new sources of income without impacting the core performance of the AI in answering questions.
The announcement comes in the context of accelerating the platform's growth and enhancing its financial sustainability, emphasizing that the core experience for ChatGPT users will remain smooth and free of any major disturbance.
Who will see the ads?
OpenAI clarified that the ads will only appear to users of the free version and the less costly Go plan, while subscribers to the paid plans such as Plus, Pro, and Enterprise will remain ad-free.
The ads will be related to the text of the conversation that the user is having, meaning they are based on the context of the current search or conversation, aiming to make them more relevant and useful instead of being random.
Answers and ads
OpenAI confirmed that the ads will not affect ChatGPT's answers or how it operates, as they will be clearly visible and labeled as Sponsored or Sponsored and separated from the text generated by the model.
Also, the system is designed so that the visuals of the ads are technically separate from the AI's answers, and the model will not know of the ad's existence unless the user explicitly asks about it.
This ensures that ChatGPT continues to provide objective and unbiased answers regardless of the presence of ads.
Privacy first
OpenAI focused on ensuring that conversations will not be shared with advertisers and cannot be exploited for marketing purposes outside the platform. The system only provides non-personal data to advertisers such as views or clicks, without disclosing texts or private user information.
Also, ads will not appear in conversations discussing sensitive topics such as health, politics, or mental health, and will not be displayed to user accounts under the age of 18.
Controlling the ads
Users will have options to control their advertising experience, such as turning off ad personalization based on previous conversations, deleting data used for advertising, and upgrading the plan to completely remove ads through subscribing to paid plans.
In this way, users can choose between a free ad-supported experience or subscribing to ad-free plans.
Why ads?
According to OpenAI, the purpose of introducing ads is to support the financial sustainability of the platform while maintaining strong free access, especially given the high costs of infrastructure and running large-scale AI services.
This approach also provides new opportunities for companies to reach users at decision-making moments in conversations, potentially reshaping how brands market in AI interfaces in the future.
