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How ChatGPT serves ads

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Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#181

Post by zarzavat »

nine_k wrote: post #134
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 revenue from highly targeted ads, using even better profiles than Google Search or even Facebook could build, may be non-negligible. Commercial ads could be a smaller revenue source than political ads.

Political ads would destroy the value proposition. That would be an incredibly short-sighted move.

Chats with LLMs are often intensely personal, you don't want to create the perception that politicians have any level of access to it.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#182

Post by kakacik »

danparsonson wrote: post #170
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?

No, I suspect that "I kind of think of ads as a last resort" was doublespeak for "ads are coming eventually". I would tend to think of someone like him as a person who uses words to achieve a specific goal, rather than someone who speaks whatever is truly on their mind. Whether those words are lies or truth or somewhere in between is irrelevant; what matters to them is the outcome. It's likely a waste of time trying…

Exactly this. Words are cheap these days, people do say various things to further their goals. Days where leaders stood by their words as sort of moral testament of their character are gone, probably for good.

As we see many people will do or say just about anything to get more money, prestige or power.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#183

Post by tossandthrow »

agentbc9000 wrote: post #174

Google was built on ads and it wasn't bad for them, its no some tabu forbiden word or business model- as a power users its not for us, but for my mom - it will work

Adds should be a tabu word and business model.

It takes people's attention, makes people fat and anxious and generally makes the world a worse place.

Everybody using adds as a part of their business model should feel bad.

As an extention of this there is no moral issues with using add blockers, despite what the businesses living of adds try to tell you.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#184

Post by kakacik »

skywhopper wrote: post #176
agentbc9000 wrote: post #174

Google was built on ads and it wasn't bad for them, its no some tabu forbiden word or business model- as a power users its not for us, but for my mom - it will work

Bad for them how? I would argue it has destroyed the value of Google as a tool. Sure it makes them tens of billions of dollars a quarter, but it has ruined the service in the end.

Seems like people care about paychecks a bit more than some lofty goals and service to others.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#185

Post by netcan »

blackjack_ wrote: post #55

It is one of the eternal lessons; All tech business plans eventually lead to serving ads. At least until we ban pixels / 3rd party tracking.

> All tech business plans eventually lead to serving ads

IDK if this is true.

The boulevard of dreams is full of failed/misguided ad-based business plans. Contempt for the business model is sometimes the reason. An implicit assumption that all you need for success is traffic and a willingness to dirty yourself.

There are only a handful of success stories. Most involved a pretty deliberate and tenacious attempt. Success typically involves some very specific and strategic positioning. Data. intent. scale.

No one but Google had google's scale for search ads. 5-10% of the market just isn't enough. You do need tracking but the model works OK even without much targeting. Intent is built in, and that makes up for targeting. But the scale required for viability is very high.

Facebook ads didn't work until (a) they had pushed the envelope on targeting (to make up for lacking intent) and (b) scale was massive. Bing, reddit, etc.... They never had good ad businesses.

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#188

Post by tikotus »

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.

I've had two people reach out to me asking about one of my services. They both said ChatGPT recommended it to them.

My service does kind of exist. It's a small tool I created for a client while retaining full rights to the tool. So I created (vibe coded) a site around it, making it look like an established service. Even ran google ads for it for a while.

The service still doesn't show up on google with relevant search terms. There hasn't been another client. I forgot about the service. And then ChatGPT started recommending it to people.

I wonder what I did to achieve this. Did vibe coding the business page inject it into ChatGPT's training data?

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#189

Post by gleenn »

kakacik wrote: post #182
danparsonson wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I suspect that "I kind of think of ads as a last resort" was doublespeak for "ads are coming eventually". I would tend to think of someone like him as a person who uses words to achieve a specific goal, rather than someone who speaks whatever is truly on their mind. Whether those words are lies or truth or somewhere in between is irrelevant; what matters to them is the outcome. It's likely a waste of time trying…

Exactly this. Words are cheap these days, people do say various things to further their goals. Days where leaders stood by their words as sort of moral testament of their character are gone, probably for good. As we see many people will do or say just about anything to get more money, prestige or power.

So what is the best system to get people to be invested in the general welfare of all people? What are we supposed to do?

Re: How ChatGPT serves ads

#190

Post by michaelt »

TZubiri wrote: post #52
WD-42 wrote: post #10

Since they are served as distinct events then I would think they should be easy to block. Once the ads are injected directly into the main response is when things get interesting.

Blocking transparent ads is not a good idea. The consequence is that you will be fed opaque ads.

> Blocking transparent ads is not a good idea. The consequence is that you will be fed opaque ads.

Doesn't history show us you just get both?

You pay to get into the movies, then they show you adverts before the film, then the film includes paid product placement of cars, computers, phones, food, etc.

You watch youtube ads, to see a video containing a sponsored ad read, where a guy is woodworking using branded tools he was given for free.

You search on Google for reviews and see search ads, on your way to a review article surrounded by ads, and the review is full of affiliate links.

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