ChatGPT to start showing ads in the US

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Powderhorn@beehaw.org⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/16/chatgpt-ads-in-revenue-boost

Who didn’t see this coming? I swear, all we produce as a country is bullshit and ads to cover it up.

ChatGPT will start including advertisements beside answers for US users as OpenAI seeks a new revenue stream.

The ads will be tested first in ChatGPT for US users only, the company announced on Friday, after increasing speculation that the San Francisco firm would turn to a potential cashflow model on top of its current subscriptions.

The ads will start in the coming weeks and will be included above or below, rather than within, answers. Mock-ups circulated by the company show the ads in a tinted box. They will be served to adult users “when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation”, according to OpenAI’s announcement. Ads will not be shown to users under 18 and will not appear alongside answers related to sensitive topics such as health, mental health or politics. Users will be able to click to learn about why they received a particular ad, according to OpenAI.

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cron@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
They’re currently burning more than a billion USD each month, it’s fully understandable that they are trying to earn more money. I seriously doubt that ad revenue will even come close to what they need to financially survive.

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- morto@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Let’s hope so!
  
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- jnod4@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I can see it easily making that much money in ads. LLMs have been making people fall in love, superglueing the peperoni on pizzas, making mustard gas at home. The ads won’t be in the form of a banner or a pop up, but in the responses. Drive to target.
  
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  - cron@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Surely things like product comparisons are a great target for ads. But still, the typical ad revenue per user is probably significantly lower than the cheapest ChatGPT subscription.
    
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  - Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I once accidentally made mustard gas at home trying to unclog a drain. I had bleach and ammonia on hand, and I ended up sleeping outside on the sofa on the porch of the main house after the hell I went through with my throat.
    
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- cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I have this scary vision where they somehow do a more or less successful IPO and gain 100 billion or more. Than this idiocy will never stop.
  
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remington@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Good thing I don’t use it.

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- Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I used it for work to paraphrase individual grafs when doing rewrites of press releases so that I could avoid unintentional plagiarism (it’s sort of a grind where that can slip in). But I have no purpose for it now.
  
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  - TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    doesn’t want to unintentionally plagiarize
    
    uses the plagiarizism machine
    
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cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
We all know it’s going to be bad. In fact, I expect hilarious results.

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- Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Ask for pizza recipes, get an ad for Elmer’s Glue.
  
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horn_e4_beaver@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Surely the most obvious business model is blackmail of the users given the sensitive information they’ve handed over?

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belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
You can easily block these ads by never using the slop engine

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its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Can’t wait for it to turn its latest travesty Suicide Goodnight Moon into an ad for rope.

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- Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This stuff’s made in New York City!
  
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Godort@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I wonder if this is going to affect all those companies that have ChatGPT-powered customer agents.

It would be very funny to receive an ad for a competitor while trying to get help for something from the company that makes it.

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- dan@upvote.au ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  They’re unaffected as they pay for the OpenAI API (they don’t have a free API). This change only affects free users of ChatGPT.
  
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Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Lmao

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Rhoeri@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
LMAO. Good. Couldn’t be happier about it!

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solomonschuler@lemmy.zip ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Having watched the “wanna develop an app” episode from R&M, this is the end of openAI. Everyone hates ads and will say fuck this shit i’m out.

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dan@upvote.au ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
As far as I know, this is only for the free version of ChatGPT. It costs a lot of money to run, and they’re still not profitable, so it makes sense that they want to monetize the free version. The other option is to completely shut down the free version and only have the paid one.

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- skarn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  As far as I can tell, the paid one also loses then plenty of money (possibly more than the free one?)
  
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  - dan@upvote.au ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I think you’re right - people using the paid ones want to get their money’s worth. Even on the expensive plans like Claude Code’s $100/month subscription, people often end up using the equivalent of thousands of dollars worth of API usage, which doesn’t even cover the full cost of providing the service.
    
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  - darkkite@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    organizations buying by the dozens is good for openai and it shows they can get cash flow vs free users that are only taking up resources.
    
    it’s probably going to be like youtube
    
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danh2os@piefed.social ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Cancelled my subscription when I pay for it like I always do. I will NOT be renewing this month.

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