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Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

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Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#501

Post by ThrowawayTestr »

emp17344 wrote: post #443
Invictus0 wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's with all the naysaying? It's HN in 2025 and you think a company the size of OpenAI can't afford to build ads?

Except OpenAI’s value is overinflated by an economic bubble. They don’t have the manpower or resources to effectively implement an ad network on the scale they’d need to become profitable. Why are you insisting we keep the conversation positive?

They have an app millions of people use that they can directly inject ads into. What makes you think this couldn't make money?

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#502

Post by charcircuit »

embedding-shape wrote: post #432
ipcress_file wrote: post #117

I love this. Now I'll be able to read student papers with ads in the middle. "Are you enjoying our exploration of state Shinto in late nineteenth century Japan? Visit Kyoto with Japan Airlines this summer! Use the code 'JAL26' for special savings!"

I know it's a joke, but the ads will surely be much more stealthy than that. Advertisers are gonna want to drive people to products and websites without it being clear it's actually an ad, like subtle ranking things differently, or trying to nudge users into some direction.

Economically, I don't think that makes sense. Having a call to action that is just clicking a link is much more likely to be taken than a subtle suggestion. The former will be able to make more sales from the same ad spend which will allow them to bid higher on ads, out competing subtle ads.

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#503

Post by 12_throw_away »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #440
marcosdumay wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Done? none, I wouldn't do it. Undone after it failed, one, and helped some other people in others. You are expecting people to act rationally in a way that will succeed. That's not how a lot of places out there operate.

I have been either part of or opted out of well over a dozen - I have a policy of never leading “lift and shifts” (and never staff augmentation). Once you actually sit down and come up with a project plan with your PMO, a cloud migration is hardly ever worth the effort unless the destination cloud provider is backing up a shit ton of money for not only operational credits but also for internal AWS Professional Servic…

> Once you actually sit down and come up with a project plan with your PMO [...] The risk of regressions, the refactoring, the retraining, the politics, etc are hardly ever worth it.

You are entirely correct, of course ... except that much of the management class simply does not care about any of those things.

Not to mention the sizable contingent of engineers will repeatedly get suckered by the pitch of "Just migrate all of your stuff to [shiny new thing] and all of your [reliable old thing] problems will go away" (a.k.a., "engineers with management potential")

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#504

Post by ThrowawayTestr »

everdrive wrote: post #100
jmkni wrote: post #11

I guess this could also have a knock-on effect, in that ChatGPT will steer it's users away from topics advertisers might find distasteful Like it might not want to tell you about negative health effects from McDonalds, if McDonalds becomes a major source of ad revenue

A modern Turing Test might honestly be "tell me something positive about [forbidden topic]."

Just ask it to say the n-word, easy-peasy

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#505

Post by vmh1928 »

Reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode where the aliens visit Earth and someone on Earth snags a book from them with the title "To Serve Man." The rest of the book is written in the alien language. Everyone is excited because they think it means "we are here to serve you to make your lives better." At the end of the episode someone figures out the book is a recipe book about how to cook humans. If you look around the table and don't know who the mark is it's probably you.

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#506

Post by bilekas »

I sometimes have the same recurring dream that the internet was unmonetizable by advertisements. It's a semi lucid one where it's used for it's initial purpose just in a lot more forms. Before, the cost of operating a website was a badge of honor to say "I did that", now its a numbers game. Get as many people in as possible solely to sell them advertisements.

As a business they would be negligent on their duty to shareholders (coming IPO) not to go down this advert route, and I will say it now, it will be FAR more profitable than paying customers.

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#507

Post by varenc »

frankohn wrote: post #409
rsanek wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a casual user can't use [Gemini] unless they: 1. have a Google account, and 2. are logged in. Is this a regional thing? I can use Google AI Mode without being logged in just fine. AI summaries for certain queries are also auto-generated when logged out for me.

Well, I am not sure about that but to me the real thing is: https://gemini.google.com and for this you need to be logged in, at least in my country. As for AI mode from google search I am not sure but I don't seem to have it, at least in my country, switzerland.

Going to https://gemini.google.com works fine for me when not logged in. It might be doing some sort of reputation check on your browser/IP to decide whether it requires a login or not.

edit: sure enough, while using Tor or a well known VPN IP, Gemini requires I login.

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#508

Post by varenc »

aurareturn wrote: post #232
pier25 wrote: post #210

So basically they are admitting that not enough people will pay for it to be a profitable business. Also that they don’t have any significant improvements to the tech coming up.

Would you say that Google admitted that not enough people will pay for Youtube premium to be a profitable business so they had to get into ads?

My personal theory: Youtube ads exist as just a punishment to beat you into paying for premium. As in, while the ads make some money, their primary purpose is to motivate you to pay. And that a subscriber generates meaningful more revenue than the ads sales of a non-subscriber.

It seems plausible to me, since I get so many low quality poorly targeted ads on repeat. I can't imagine those ads are generating much revenue, but it makes sense if their primary purpose is just to beat me into paying for a subscription.

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#509

Post by roskelld »

Already this week on ChatGPT+ I've had multiple banners above the chat box saying

"Shop smarter this session

Let ChatGPT do the digging for you, with in-depth research into the best deals and gifts."

I was working on a coding bug at the time, so not sure what kind of gift shopping it was hoping I was interested in.

Re: Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out

#510

Post by gomox »

eastbound wrote: post #160
aurareturn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm betting that they can. Here's an idea that just popped into my head: ChatGPT shows a sponsored entry in chat history list with a colorful border around it to get users to click. This product is something that ChatGPT knows the user desperately needs from previous chats. The user can chat directly with the product and learn more about it. The advertiser specifically sent OpenAI information (like a RAG) about their…

Google Ads’ admin console is basically a dark pattern app built to consume your advertising budget with no effect. OpenAI just has to be transparent and they’ll have 100% of our funding.

Same
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