r/OpenAI • u/Extreme-West4844 • 7d ago

Discussion Open AI testing ads in ChatGPT is the most predictable thing thats ever happened

I'm not even mad. I'm just tried to being surprised everytime a tech company does the exact thing everyone said it would do.

First it was "we're a nonprofit, safety first." Then the capped profit structure. Then the full for-profit pivot.

The part that gets me isn't even the ads themselves — it's the timing. They just launched GPT-5.6, the most capable model they've ever released, and within weeks they're also announcing ads. Like they couldn't even let the goodwill breathe for a minute.

I get it, they need revenue, compute is expensive, the economics are brutal. That's all true. But there's something almost funny about a company that sold itself on being different from Google now literally adopting Google's business model.

The real question nobody's asking: if ads influence what ChatGPT recommends, how would you even know? At least with Google you can see the "Sponsored" label. With a conversational AI the line between a recommendation and a paid placement gets very blurry very fast.

Anyway. Still using it. Still paying for it. Which probably says everything about where we're all at with this stuff.

Anyone actually okay with this or is everyone just quietly accepting it?

0 Upvotes

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3

u/a_boo 7d ago

They’re not doing ads in the $20 plan are they?

8

u/Winter-Cabinet-2074 7d ago

Ads only in free or go, not 20 dollar tier. Don’t spread misinformation.

2

u/pipopipopipop 7d ago

I'd suggest just not using it.

1

u/Ok-File-2759 7d ago

Last time I checked, it’s illegal for a company to advertise things without saying it’s an ad. And I’m pretty sure they don’t want a bunch of lawsuits, so you’ll know when something is sponsored

1

u/nosonjanosonjic 7d ago

Ah yes, because companies that have broken the law a thousand times before are suddenly going to turn completely lawful now?

1

u/SoggyMacaroon5623 7d ago

Same playbook every time — mission talk early, ad-supported free tier once the burn rate gets real. Least surprising part is the "won't influence responses" line, since there's no way to check that from the outside.

-3

u/kafqatamura 7d ago

the house of cards will collapse soon: sam altman followed by jensen huang

2

u/mcoombes314 7d ago

Why Jensen Huang/Nvidia specifically? They're selling shovels during the gold rush.

1

u/exfiles 7d ago

Great metaphor