This is an important point to consider. OpenAI is indeed exploring how to put ads on ChatGPT.
My main source of skepticism about this is that the marginal revenue from an online ad is extremely low, but thatâs fine because the marginal cost of serving a webpage or loading a photo in an app or whatever is also extremely low. I donât have a good sense of the actual numbers here, but since a GPT-5 query is considerably more expensive than serving a webpage, this could be a problem. (Also, thatâs just the marginal cost. OpenAI, like other companies, also has to amortize all its fixed costs over all its sales, whether theyâre ad sales or sales directly to consumers.)
Itâs been rumoured/âreported (not sure which) that OpenAI is planning to get ChatGPT to sell things to you directly. So, if you ask, âHey, ChatGPT, what is the healthiest type of soda?â, it will respond, âWhy, a nice refreshing CocaâColaÂŽ Zero Sugar of course!â This seems horrible. That would probably drive some people off the platform, but, who knows, it might be a net financial gain.
There are other âuselessâ ways companies like OpenAI could try to drive usage and try to monetize either via ads or paid subscriptions. Maybe if OpenAI leaned heavily into the whole AI âboyfriends/âgirlfriendsâ thing that would somehow pay off â Iâm skeptical, but weâve got to consider all the possibilities here.
This is an important point to consider. OpenAI is indeed exploring how to put ads on ChatGPT.
My main source of skepticism about this is that the marginal revenue from an online ad is extremely low, but thatâs fine because the marginal cost of serving a webpage or loading a photo in an app or whatever is also extremely low. I donât have a good sense of the actual numbers here, but since a GPT-5 query is considerably more expensive than serving a webpage, this could be a problem. (Also, thatâs just the marginal cost. OpenAI, like other companies, also has to amortize all its fixed costs over all its sales, whether theyâre ad sales or sales directly to consumers.)
Itâs been rumoured/âreported (not sure which) that OpenAI is planning to get ChatGPT to sell things to you directly. So, if you ask, âHey, ChatGPT, what is the healthiest type of soda?â, it will respond, âWhy, a nice refreshing CocaâColaÂŽ Zero Sugar of course!â This seems horrible. That would probably drive some people off the platform, but, who knows, it might be a net financial gain.
There are other âuselessâ ways companies like OpenAI could try to drive usage and try to monetize either via ads or paid subscriptions. Maybe if OpenAI leaned heavily into the whole AI âboyfriends/âgirlfriendsâ thing that would somehow pay off â Iâm skeptical, but weâve got to consider all the possibilities here.