Is OpenAI Planning to Turn ChatGPT Into an Ad Platform? (adweek.com) 46
"OpenAI is staffing up to expand ChatGPT's marketing reach and build on-platform marketing tools," reports Adweek:
A recent job listing shows the company is hiring a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer to develop internal tools for ad platform integration, campaign management, and real-time attribution. The position is part of a newly formed "ChatGPT Growth team," and tasked with "building the technical infrastructure behind OpenAI's paid marketing platform...." This job listing is a rare signal of OpenAI's plans for an in-house marketing platform within ChatGPT, and part of the AI company's broader growth plans...
This adds to recent reporting showing that OpenAI is quickly ramping up its advertising ambitions... Alex Heath of Sources reported that OpenAI's CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, was meeting with candidates to "lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT...." OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment...
Critically, this job listing would support building backend infrastructure — APIs, data pipelines, and services — to manage campaigns, measure attribution, and optimize ad spend. This internal infrastructure would give OpenAI the ability to run marketing at scale without relying on external agencies, two industry insiders said, adding that successfully doing so for itself could lay the foundation for a broader product that lets other brands run campaigns through ChatGPT... [Jacob Bourne, an analyst at eMarketer] added that while it may be striking to see a company that began as a nonprofit research lab make this kind of move, it reflects OpenAI's for-profit pivot and broader push into revenue generation.
"In a new Stratechery interview, Altman admitted Instagram changed his mind about ads," the site Search Engine Land reported Wednesday, citing these two quotes from the interview: - "I love Instagram ads, they've added value to me, I found stuff I never would've found, I bought a bunch of stuff, I actively like Instagram ads. I think there's many things I respect about Meta, but getting that so right was a surprisingly cool thing for me. Other than that, I viewed ads on the Internet as sort of like a tax."
- "I believe there probably is some cool ad product we can do that is a net win to the user and a sort of positive to our relationship with the user. I don't know what it is yet, I'm not like, 'Here is our ad model' already."
Their article also cites a tweet from an ad industry director who says OpenAI's own revenue projections now show "free-user monetization"...
This adds to recent reporting showing that OpenAI is quickly ramping up its advertising ambitions... Alex Heath of Sources reported that OpenAI's CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, was meeting with candidates to "lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT...." OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment...
Critically, this job listing would support building backend infrastructure — APIs, data pipelines, and services — to manage campaigns, measure attribution, and optimize ad spend. This internal infrastructure would give OpenAI the ability to run marketing at scale without relying on external agencies, two industry insiders said, adding that successfully doing so for itself could lay the foundation for a broader product that lets other brands run campaigns through ChatGPT... [Jacob Bourne, an analyst at eMarketer] added that while it may be striking to see a company that began as a nonprofit research lab make this kind of move, it reflects OpenAI's for-profit pivot and broader push into revenue generation.
"In a new Stratechery interview, Altman admitted Instagram changed his mind about ads," the site Search Engine Land reported Wednesday, citing these two quotes from the interview: - "I love Instagram ads, they've added value to me, I found stuff I never would've found, I bought a bunch of stuff, I actively like Instagram ads. I think there's many things I respect about Meta, but getting that so right was a surprisingly cool thing for me. Other than that, I viewed ads on the Internet as sort of like a tax."
- "I believe there probably is some cool ad product we can do that is a net win to the user and a sort of positive to our relationship with the user. I don't know what it is yet, I'm not like, 'Here is our ad model' already."
Their article also cites a tweet from an ad industry director who says OpenAI's own revenue projections now show "free-user monetization"...
money (Score:3)
"Money talks; nobody walks."
Re: (Score:2)
Some time ago I read an article right here on slashdot about how it was very common for people to ask ChatGPT for shopping recommendations. I think that pretty much makes this inevitable. The opportunity here is practically jumping around screaming to be exploited.
Personally, I think any talk of nobly resisting this temptation is wasted air. Ads are going to happen, at a minimum on the free tier. It's just how the world works. But, I WOULD like to push for: only show the ads when users request product
Re: (Score:3)
...instead of making an annoying extra presence on the screen constantly forcing you to fight to keep your concentration...
But, its got electrolytes!
Re:money (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone in the AI game is losing money on every query. There's no path to profitability at current levels of pricing, and it's doubtful anyone is willing to pay more.
This is not even fundamentally an AI business problem. Nobody really knows how to finance themselves without ads anymore. Decades of market shares built on cheap investor money have set people's expectations of service costs unsustainably low. But someone has to pay for the party. Pretty much the only business model that has worked for anyone is to turn oneself into an ad company.
With the levels of investment required to stay current in the game, it's doubtful ads can keep AI companies afloat though. Their only hope is the other business method that works - Uber. Offer dumping pricing until your clients fire their workers. Raiser prices to reflect your costs and profit ambitions. If anyone tries to hire again, dump again. Soon enough you'll have the suckers locked in like Uber has the NY taxi business.
Re: (Score:3)
Nobody really knows how to finance themselves without ads anymore. Decades of market shares built on cheap investor money have set people's expectations of service costs unsustainably low. But someone has to pay for the party. Pretty much the only business model that has worked for anyone is to turn oneself into an ad company.
Ads and monetization have made Google search so useless for finding technical information that I now pay for a search engine subscription with Kagi. The irony is that they use the same backend data as Google, Bing, etc. but due to the subscription model are motivated to return relevant search results rather than the most monetizable links.
So there's at least one precedent for the excesses of advertising and monetization creating a market for actually useful services funded by means other than advertising.
I
Re: money (Score:1)
Re: money (Score:2)
It's probably going to end up being a law similar to Godwin's law that any sufficiently large platform will eventually become an ad platform.
Always ads (Score:3)
Can't they come up with some other means of taking people's money? Ads everywhere is getting old.
Re: (Score:2)
There are only 2 possibilities:
(1) Sell a product that people actually want to buy
(2) Cram ads into everything
This will continue until people stop responding to the advertisements by clicking and buying. At that point, advertisers will be confused. The marketing analysts will suppose there are 2 possibilities to explain the behavior of the consumers:
(1) They are unable to respond.
(2) They are unwilling to respond.
If I were you, I would raise up my ad-blocker shields. Hours seem like days when you're stopped from accessing content by incessant advertisements.
Re: Always ads (Score:2)
I agree only with the first three words. Companies often try but can't or don't even measure whether marketing results in sales. Having quality product or service is not enough to compete, even with social media word of mouth, especially considering compensated influencers. Just putting a brand in front of consumers can increase sales (I personally avoid brands that advertise). Marketing is basically a necessary evil for growth, though some companies, a
Be Well (Score:2)
Can't they come up with some other means of taking people's money? Ads everywhere is getting old.
Just wait until every restaurant is Taco Bell.
Meanwhile, I feel the urge for a cokie-mokie.
Re: (Score:2)
They have. The main way of taking people's money with AI is impersonation scams (*). That's what mimicry technology is all about, after all: pretending some person you trust is talking to you or doing something. Ad serving is merely the more acceptable end of the continuum.
(*) Maybe you don't believe? Let's see: making pictures in the style of some known artist, making video of famous people saying things they never did, generating music that sounds like somebody's just released breakout hit, making fake
Well, if that's how they want it. (Score:2)
I'll jusr stick 128 Gigs into my rig and run an LLM locally.
ChatGPT has gotten worse lately.
1..2..3... (Score:2)
ENSHITIFY!
Personalized ads are NOT Personal Shoppers (Score:3)
Altman's discussion of Instagram pointed out the major problem with his belief system.
What he wants is a personal shopper. Someone that learns what you desire, goes looking for wonderful stuff, finds it and asks if you want to buy it. He is looking at the personalized ads of Instagram and thinks that is what is going on.
NOPE
Personalized ads is when a company collects data on all it's customers and then someone comes along and asks them to show the ads to the clients who might be interested and they might buy it.
The difference is substantial. In Personalized Shopper, you get the best product that the shopper can find. In Personalized Ads, you get the product whose company is willing to pay more money to get your business. Worse, they are not paying YOU the money (i.e. offering a discount), instead they are paying the Advertiser more money.
It's like you go looking for good vampire story and you get something written by Stephenie Meyer rather than Bram Stroker or Anne Rice (or even Laurell K Hamilton).
No one should be stuck reading Twilight, when they could be reading Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, or even Guilty Pleasures.
Re: (Score:2)
Altman's discussion of Instagram pointed out the major problem with his belief system.
What he wants is a personal shopper. Someone that learns what you desire, goes looking for wonderful stuff, finds it and asks if you want to buy it. He is looking at the personalized ads of Instagram and thinks that is what is going on.
NOPE
Personalized ads is when a company collects data on all it's customers and then someone comes along and asks them to show the ads to the clients who might be interested and they might buy it.
The difference is substantial. In Personalized Shopper, you get the best product that the shopper can find. In Personalized Ads, you get the product whose company is willing to pay more money to get your business. Worse, they are not paying YOU the money (i.e. offering a discount), instead they are paying the Advertiser more money.
It's like you go looking for good vampire story and you get something written by Stephenie Meyer rather than Bram Stroker or Anne Rice (or even Laurell K Hamilton).
No one should be stuck reading Twilight, when they could be reading Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, or even Guilty Pleasures.
Yeah that really sucks!
Re: (Score:2)
Begins? Hardly. ChatGPT is made out of enshitification. It was designed to be from the beginning. There's literally nothing there but enshitification, nor was there ever intended to be.
Re: (Score:2)
I love your attitude. I see it all the time in my rear view mirror. Just saying.
Re: (Score:2)
As much as I enjoy watching loser like you drive into a lake because GPS told them to.
Re: (Score:2)
Insults speak volumes about the insulter. Do you talk like that to those you deal with in person??
Re: (Score:2)
Insults speak volumes about the insulter.
Indeed. When you insulted me, you said "I'm a pathetic loser." And now, you're saying "I'm a pathetic loser who can't take what I dish out, somebody please change my diaper."
Loser.
Re: (Score:2)
Typical rhetoric, accusing a person of the crime you commited and are still doing so. I was only pointing out how I saw your comment, you're the one being insulting. If you want to double down on antisocial behavior, well, you have every right to speak freely and I have every right to draw conclusions based upon your comments. Your words don't bother me at all but they do confirm my initial statement.
Re: (Score:2)
BTW, I didn't say anything like that, as everyone can clearly see. Just saying.
Obviously (Score:2)
Yes, of course. We all know that AI BS is snake-oil and there's no plausible profitable business model for generative AI... so of course they have to fall back on the shitty-but-proven advertising model.
"chatgpt growth team" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
"I love Instagram ads, they've added value to me"
Bwahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahaha
Brinkman's being naive (Score:2)
Ain't it funny how things never really change? The advertising revenue game is an oldy but goody that just inevitably keeps coming back: the entire WWW, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Slashdot...
Advertising will inevitably a major income line item once OpenAI opens it up. The thing about multi-$billion line items is that they get a lot of scrutiny. If OpenAI tries some cute "be nice to the user" policy that fails to absolutely maximize profit, Brinkman will be told in no uncertain terms to fix that **fast** if h
Re: (Score:2)
"AI" has finally found its true calling. Synthetic marketing spreads better than margarine
I Can't Believe It's Not Better.
AI has destroyed search. (Score:2)
When a "Tool" starts spewing Ads it is no longer a tool. It becomes a delivery platform.
Re: (Score:2)
AI came in and somewhat saved search after ad revenue destroyed search.
It's a temporary respite, sure enough, but search sucked way before AI got usable.
Today's AI is just fancy automation! (Score:2)
the arrow of enshitification is one way (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There's always Ollama and local models (Score:2)
for when I use up my free ChatGPT 5 time
What do you expect from MS and Elon Nazi Musk? (Score:2)
Obviously (Score:2)
I mean that is basically their last remaining chance to ever turn a profit. Let's hope it is not enough.
Did I hear the sound of a shot in the foot? (Score:2)
Betteridge broke (Score:2)
This time, the answer to the headline question is an unequivocal YES.
Of course (Score:2)
The business model of search engines also applies to chatbots, and chatbots and search engines are converging anyway.
Perplexity started the AI search, ChatGPT just integrated search in chats and Google is already building an AI search page. The search pages will have ads as the usual search pages and feature AI and search at the same time. The time when ChatGPT allowed you to use it without login was the moment they decided an ad-driven model would be an option for them.
Ads = cancel subscription (Score:1)
Re: Ads = cancel subscription (Score:2)
This. I use ChatGPT (paid sub) a lot, for work and for private things. Whatever the skeptics say, it is a huge productivity booster.
However, the moment it's answers start integrating advertising, I will switch to any of several competitors.
Are? (Score:2)
Of *course* they are. They've made everything else an ad server, and it's the only way that might begin to make a profit for chatbots that are failing in their (false, snake oil) promises. (See the McKinsey story from last week).