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How ChatGPT serves ads

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Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#151

Post by troyvit »

kingstnap wrote: post #105
Aurornis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ads are for the free tier and new $8 ad-supported plan. The revenue from a few ads on the free tier in exchange for limited queries to GPT-5.3 is negligible compared to what they pull in from API costs and the subscription plans. This looks like a play to justify the existence of the previously money-losing free tier as they go into an IPO. Throw some ads in there to make it closer to a neutral on the balance she…

The real question is what do you get out of advertising to people who don't have any money? Kinda squeezing blood from a stone. You'd be better off saying you use those people to A/B test changes and filling idle GPU batches while giving paying customers a more consistent experience.

> The real question is what do you get out of advertising to people who don't have any money?

Psychographic data. What they learn from these folks will create the most powerful manipulation technology yet.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#152

Post by m463 »

programjames wrote: post #68

Less than two years ago, Sam Altman said > I kind of think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model. I would do it if it meant that was the only way to get everybody in the world access to great services, but if we can find something that doesn't do that, I'd prefer that. So, is this OpenAI announcing they're strapped for cash?

more like "Sam Altman said"

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#153

Post by sheiyei »

nazcan wrote: post #139
lmbbuchodi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can block these URLs: |bzrcdn.openai.com^, ||bzr.openai.com^ It won't blanket block everything but will significantly reduce telemetry collected.

And that's why you gotta just use one domain. Or mix ads and important content on one domain.

No, wrong lesson. That's why you use UBlock Origin.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#154

Post by bluefirebrand »

bitvvip wrote: post #79
programjames wrote: post #68

Less than two years ago, Sam Altman said > I kind of think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model. I would do it if it meant that was the only way to get everybody in the world access to great services, but if we can find something that doesn't do that, I'd prefer that. So, is this OpenAI announcing they're strapped for cash?

Who can resist the temptation of profit? One always has to make money

Tons of people can resist the temptation, but they aren't likely to be the sort of person that gets put in a role like where Altman is

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#155

Post by peddling-brink »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #137
peddling-brink wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"OpenAI Powered Drone Destroys Elementary School, Hundreds of Children Dead" might last a while.

I mean Palantir’s targeting product led to EXACTLY that outcome and it seems to have been largely forgotten already, and they managed to avoid a lot of bad press about it.

Yes but that's "normal", _we_ all know that palantir is evil, so this is _normal_ for them. My extended family has never heard of palantir, and frankly this is the first time I've heard of them being linked to the horrific tragedy in Iran[0].

My entire extended family uses chatgpt. It would be a much juicier news wave if they were responsible.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/mar/26/ai-got-the-blam...

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#156

Post by dnnddidiej »

nerptastic wrote: post #74
programjames wrote: post #68

Less than two years ago, Sam Altman said > I kind of think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model. I would do it if it meant that was the only way to get everybody in the world access to great services, but if we can find something that doesn't do that, I'd prefer that. So, is this OpenAI announcing they're strapped for cash?

Well - I think the writing was on the wall when they announced they were going to be for-profit. Slippery slope and all that, but I’m sure some of this is because they’ve been giving out free tokens for years.

Even as a not for profit they would need cashflow.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#157

Post by ccppurcell »

staticshock wrote: post #127
programjames wrote: post #68

Less than two years ago, Sam Altman said > I kind of think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model. I would do it if it meant that was the only way to get everybody in the world access to great services, but if we can find something that doesn't do that, I'd prefer that. So, is this OpenAI announcing they're strapped for cash?

Feels to me like idealism crossing into realism. OpenAI could be the next Google, or the next Facebook, or the next… I don't know, Netflix? All those companies (and many other large tech companies) have discovered the same arbitrage that older media companies discovered decades ago, which is that we, on the average, are much more willing to pay with attention than with money, even where money would have been the bett…

I think your characterisation of this as discovery is a little naive. What you are describing is a part of enshittification and it happens too often to be an accident. Revenue maximisation is always the end goal. Also it's not that the user is willing to pay with attention. There is no alternative. In fact it's the very opposite, more than once now a product has basically been pitched as "pay us to avoid ads" and then once it dominated the market they introduce ads. That's users trying to choose to pay with money over attention and ultimately being unable to do so.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#158

Post by yfw »

staticshock wrote: post #127
programjames wrote: post #68

Less than two years ago, Sam Altman said > I kind of think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model. I would do it if it meant that was the only way to get everybody in the world access to great services, but if we can find something that doesn't do that, I'd prefer that. So, is this OpenAI announcing they're strapped for cash?

Feels to me like idealism crossing into realism. OpenAI could be the next Google, or the next Facebook, or the next… I don't know, Netflix? All those companies (and many other large tech companies) have discovered the same arbitrage that older media companies discovered decades ago, which is that we, on the average, are much more willing to pay with attention than with money, even where money would have been the bett…

So realistically no agi

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#159

Post by yfw »

torben-friis wrote: post #62

These are the less worrying kind of ads in our future. Seeing how google has been fighting SEO for ages, what's going to happen when companies figure out how to inject ads into the model? We haven't yet seen the problem of adversarial content in play, I think.

Can easily seo the knwlege chain or seo poison the sources

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#160

Post by Terr_ »

naruhodo wrote: post #75
kardos wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once the ads are injected directly into the main response is when things get interesting. This would be where you post-process the LLM response with a second LLM to remove the ad..

I think it will be difficult to remove bias when you ask a model to compare alternative products. The model will simply lie, as with a biased human opinion and you will need to consult multiple models for a diversity of opinion and presumably use a "trusted" model to fuse the results. Anonymity will be a key tool in reducing the model's ability to engage in algorithmic pricing. Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.

Not only that, but the underlying model may be tuned to omit mentions or data about competitors entirely, an absence which can't easily be filtered.

Extortionate economic shadowbanning, here we come.

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