I Asked ChatGPT 500 Questions. Here Are the Ads I Saw Most Often

OpenAI has begun integrating ads into the free version of ChatGPT, marking a significant shift in its business model. A recent test by WIRED, involving 500 questions on the mobile app, found that ads appeared at the bottom of the chatbot's output for approximately one out of every five questions in a new conversation thread. These ads are contextually tailored to the user's prompt, featuring a website link and covering a wide range of topics from Uber and MBA programs to Booking.com and AI coding tools. OpenAI claims this rollout is part of a long-term strategy to keep ChatGPT broadly accessible and is not connected to any rumored IPO, emphasizing a slow and intentional deployment with a limited number of advertisers.

This move represents a notable pivot for CEO Sam Altman, who previously called ads in AI "unsettling" and a "last resort" business model. The company asserts that the ads do not impact the content of ChatGPT's answers and that full conversations are not shared with advertisers. However, the ads are influenced by the topic of the current question as well as past chats and stored memory. As online search habits evolve, experts like Columbia's Olivier Toubia note this taps into a multibillion-dollar market shifting from traditional search ads. The key challenge for OpenAI will be scaling ads without eroding user trust or driving free users to competitors like Google's Gemini or Anthropic's Claude.