OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once described the idea of embedded ChatGPT ads as “unsettling” and “a last resort,” but there are now multiple indications that they are on the way.
It had been previously reported that the company was considering ads appearing in the AI chatbot, at least for free users, and code has now been spotted which points to preparation for this …
ChatGPT ads
As Engadget reports, Altman spoke at a Harvard Business School event last year and suggested that he would do everything possible to avoid embedding ads in AI chats – without actually ruling it out.
Altman said that combining ads and AI is “uniquely unsettling to me” and that it’s a “last resort for us as a business model,” but that he’s “not totally against them.”
The Information last month claimed that the company was considering embedding ads into user chats and code discovered in the latest Android app beta very much backs this.
As first discovered by Tibor Blaho on X, a beta version of ChatGPT’s Android app includes lines of code that heavily reference ads. According to the post, the 1.2025.329 beta version includes mentions of “ads feature,” “search ad” and “bazaar content.”
iPhone users will be able to avoid ads
The inclusion of ads in the free tier of ChatGPT seems inevitable, and once ads do roll out, it’s almost certain to apply to the iOS app as well as the Android one. However, for individual questions, iPhone users will be able to continue to access the service via Siri, which will almost certainly not include ads.
All you have to do is ask Siri a question it cannot answer (which, let’s face it, isn’t difficult …), and it will fallback to ChatGPT. Apple’s agreement with OpenAI means that these sessions are not used to train the AI, and it seems obvious that ads will similarly be excluded.
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