OpenAI Preparing to Stuff Ads Into ChatGPT, According to Beta Code in App

"Brace yourselves, for your cozy little conversations with OpenAI's ChatGPT are about to be stuffed with ads. At least, that's the findings of a software engineer who dug through the code of an experimental build of the chatbot's app. The engineer, Tibor Blaho, flagged roughly a dozen lines of code in the latest beta release of the ChatGPT app for Android, 1.2025.329, labelled "feature ads," with strings referencing commercial-sounding stuff like "search ad," "search ads carousel," and "bazaar content.""

"It's yet another sign that OpenAI is preparing to cash in on its hundreds of millions of users by showing them ads, amid growing pressure on the company to demonstrate it can make a profit while its spending - and AI capital expenditures at large - continue to balloon past what subscriptions can support. OpenAI leadership has played coy when asked about ads."

"CEO Sam Altman has sent similarly mixed messages. He once called the idea of integrating ads into ChatGPT "unsettling" and described them as a "last resort." But this year, Altman said he wasn't "totally against" advertising, that it was something he expected to "try at some point," and praised Instagram's ad model (which, it's worth noting, has attracted an immense amount of criticism from non-CEOs.)"

A software engineer discovered lines of code in a ChatGPT Android beta labelled "feature ads" with strings like "search ad," "search ads carousel," and "bazaar content." OpenAI appears to be preparing to monetize ChatGPT with advertisements to help cover rising operational and AI capital expenditures that subscriptions may not fully support. Company executives have given mixed public statements about advertising, with the chief financial officer indicating exploration of an ad model then denying active plans, and the CEO describing ads as unsettling yet later saying he is not totally opposed and expects to try advertising. The company has recruited ad talent from major rivals and posted ad-related roles on LinkedIn.

Read at Futurism