ChatGPT to feature ads as company explores revenue opportunities

• OpenAI is set to introduce ads feature for free and lower-tier users in the United States
• The rollout should be coming soon enough, as the company is looking to raise extra revenue
• How the feature would impact different industries, including gaming, remains to be seen

OpenAI, the company behind the poster boy of the AI revolution - ChatGPT - has announced that it would be tentatively testing a new feature in a bid to boost revenue.

The feature is ads, which will apply to the agent’s free and lower-tier subscribers, and comes ahead of higholy speculative rumors about an Initial Public Offering (IPO), as OpenAI continues to bid on advancing AI beyond its current limitations and possibly reach Artificial General Intelligence, in layman’s terms, a technology able to comprehend and interpret information like the human brain.

OpenAI set to roll out ChatGPT ads

OpenAI confirmed that ads will be coming to some US users first, last Friday, and said that the Go-tier users will also see the ads. OpenAI argues that the ads would be tailored to the search query.

"We plan to test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there's a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation," the company said, and ensure that any such messaging is clearly defined and understood.

OpenAI is already thinking about safeguards. No ads will be appearing to users under the age of 18, for example, nor will the company ever sell user data to advertisers in the same way web searches and services do.

"We’ll always offer a way to avoid ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that’s ad-free," the company said. This move is not at all surprising, as OpenAI is burning through billions of dollars at a time when many competitors are emerging, and the company is limited in certain senses.

The knock-on impact on industries remains to be seen

For example, OpenAI does not have the computing power or chip prowess of rival Google, which means that the company is plowing vast amounts of money just to keep the lights on, to speak naught of advancing its models further.

How this new feature would impact users is unclear, nor what it would mean for the gambling industry. Would ChatGPT recommend online casinos to its users or link to self-help resources dedicated to problem gambling, or would the ads need only come from commercial partners? All of this remains to be answered.

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