"The public spat between OpenAI and Anthropic over ads inside chatbots was noisy, but the substance sits elsewhere. This is an early test example of how AI platforms intend to fund themselves without undermining user trust. Anthropic's decision to air Super Bowl campaigns mocking the idea of ads inside AI assistants was done with clear, strategic intentions. Its campaign, built around the tagline "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude" landed days after"
"OpenAI insists the satire misrepresents its plans. Ads, it claims, will be clearly labelled and will not influence responses, and the paid tiers will remain ad-free. But the unusually long response from chief executive Sam Altman suggested the issue touches a nerve. For all the back and forth earlier this week, both firms are responding to the same underlying pressure. Generative AI is extraordinarily expensive to run, and both titans need to find a way to monetise their platforms."
OpenAI announced tests of advertising on ChatGPT's free and low-cost tiers in the US while preserving ad-free paid tiers. The company says ads will be clearly labelled and will not influence assistant responses. Anthropic ran Super Bowl ads positioning Claude as ad-free and leveraging enterprise contracts and subscriptions as revenue. Both firms face very high compute and data-centre costs and multi-billion-dollar operating losses, creating pressure to monetise. Advertising offers a scalable subsidy for free users, while subscription and enterprise revenue provide alternative monetisation strategies.
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