"We've both fought against needless promotional content before and lamented that frontier AI platforms are falling into the same pattern. As designers and users, we've learned that "free" usually means putting up with interruptive, slightly creepy ads that feel more like a tax than a benefit - a frustration tax that now colors how we approach free‑tier services and now AI tools."
"While advertisements in free services like ChatGPT risk frustrating users & harming brand trust, frontier AI models have a unique opportunity to replace the traditional "Sponsored" tag with promotional features that genuinely enhance the utility of threads & responses instead of undermining them. Before exploring how digital ads might actually do this, I want to briefly revisit how ads evolved on TV and YouTube, then look at the unique opportunities frontier AI platforms have."
OpenAI announced testing ads in the free and Go tiers of ChatGPT in the U.S., promising clear labels and no influence on answers. Free tiers often carry interruptive, slightly creepy ads that act like a frustration tax and degrade user trust. Frontier AI platforms risk repeating traditional promotional mistakes unless ads are rethought. Ads can be designed as promotional features that genuinely enhance the utility of chat threads and responses rather than undermining them. Historical ad formats on TV and YouTube provide context for possible improvements. A concrete electrician example can illustrate how ads might improve an AI chat interaction.
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