OpenAI expands ChatGPT ads with Sponsored Agents

crest

"Nuke the entire site from orbit ... it's the only way to be sure."

grey-area

None of this would be necessary if they thought they were actually anywhere near AGI...hmm.

datakan

This sounds awful. AI Chatbots will be everywhere Shopify is. I just see a lot of popups in our future with fake names and faces pretending to be people asking us how they can help us.

pjc50

As usual with AI customer interaction, I have to ask who is liable for misleading advertising or unmet promises? The advertiser who isn't really in control of the chatbot, or OpenAI? (Law on this goes all the way back to Carbolic Smoke Ball )

haaz

Honestly I wish every ad had this. If I search for meal delivery services in my area and a sponsored result comes up, I would much rather ask an AI to trawl through the website to find out how much the meals cost, how much meat, protein, calories, etc are in them rather than do it myself

sigmar

I'm definitely more pro ad than the average HN user (I think they occasionally show me products I want to buy), but this seems bad and one step closer to "the LLM is biased by openai's financial interests." In the example of a "sponsored agent" at the top, how many people are going to think "chat with us" is just a way to continue the conversation? How soon before openai removes the friction of clicking that entirely? this is what openai said before: "Ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers. Ads run on separate systems from our chat model, and advertisers have no ability to shape, rank, or alter ChatGPT’s responses. Ads are separate and clearly labeled." https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt Do they need to rewrite that section? Because in the video there's an LLM chatbot inside the chatgpt app writing answers on behalf of "Heirloom grocery"

strongpigeon

This is awfully unimaginative. I don’t see people using this. Where is the incentive to continue your conversation with the sponsored agent as opposed to, you know, the one you’re already talking to.

khalic

The fact that it requires a user action to initiate is better than the previous solution, but that's a pretty low bar to have

pluc

How else are they to monetize text outputs? This was always the plan and it's going to get much worse (or better depending on which side of the fence you're on). Google did the same thing when it controlled web indexation: ads, sponsored results and SEO. All of these things will be coming to agents: you will be monetized or you will be paying not to be.

Imnimo

>Ads in ChatGPT help people find what they’re looking for or discover something they hadn’t considered. Here I foolishly thought that that was the job of ChatGPT itself.

ownerr

It's funny that at first OpenAI didn't want to add ads, but if they are adding them, they will be as dystopian as possible.

cmiles8

Who actually wants this? I guess we’re about to find out if this helps put out the massive pile of burning cash that OpenAI is trying to deal with, but I know nobody that wants this. OpenAI claims we’re near AGI and this is the best strategy they have? Oy vey!

RugnirViking

the only person who ever interacts with these will be the person who accidentally clicked on them. Surely they know this?

feverzsj

Soon, everybody will live in Truman show.

Nata_Elisym

I dont think its that bad. Another opportunity for businesses

floatrock

Like Uber and Lyft showed in the last cycle, AI has now reached the milestone where the game shifts from "offer unreasonably cheap service by burning investor money and gain marketshare" to "shit we need to show a profit". Or, now lets what the enshittification movement can do to this space.

altcognito

So you can pay $8 a month and see ads while using the already pared down offering. I think pushing back with cancellations is the only way forward.

dpmartinez

I wish ads never existed. The future is open source, no subscriptions, no purchases, 100% free and community supported. The sooner software gets to this point, the world will be a much more better place rather than everything being a subscription.

bluepeter

Found this: > Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts will not have ads. https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt

MisterMunchkin

The problem with ads in AI, is that they're incredibly creepy. People have told the apps all kinds of sensitive information that they never would have told a normal service. Obviously the advertisers are creaming themselves at that, but it's a new level of creeping. It also allows them to subtly influence the messaging. It would be like if somebody tried to not bring out the Heinz at a family gathering. It just wouldn't be the same, because of the subtle messaging that has been inserted into the content. How could you trust them?