OpenAI will begin showing advertisements to all users of the free and Go versions of ChatGPT in the US within the coming weeks, the ChatGPT-maker confirmed in a statement to news agency Reuters. For the company, the move aims to diversify its revenue streams as the cost of running and expanding its AI infrastructure continues to climb, even as the competition in the generative AI market intensifies from rivals including Google, Anthropic and Meta.
What is Criteo and how the Ad system works
The report said that to power its advertising plans, OpenAI has integrated Criteo, a major advertising technology firm, into its ChatGPT ad pilot. Criteo provides the interface through which brands can buy ads and improve their targeting, and has been actively pitching advertisers on committing between $50,000 and $100,000 in spending to participate, according to The Information (via Reuters).OpenAI has also been advising advertisers that providing more variations of ad text and visuals can increase how frequently their ads are shown and improve overall campaign performance, the report added. Three of the world’s largest advertising agency groups – WPP, Omnicom and Dentsu – are already part of the testing programme, lending the initiative significant industry credibility, a separate report by CNBC.
Why there is frustration ‘behind the scenes’
The report noted that despite the high-profile participation of major players, the early experience with OpenAI’s ad pilot has left a number of partners unhappy behind the scenes. Multiple advertising industry sources, speaking anonymously to CNBC, described the rollout as moving too slowly to justify the investment required to participate.The financial bar to enter the test was notably high. Some brands committed between $200,000 and $250,000 to participate. For some companies, this money came from funds set aside for testing innovative new channels. The problem is that with the pilot programme scheduled to run through the end of March, the slow pace of ad delivery may mean that several participants are unlikely to spend anywhere near their full committed budgets before the deadline.
OpenAI says the slow rollout is deliberate
OpenAI pushed back on the frustration, telling CNBC that the conservative pace of the rollout is entirely intentional.“We’re in the early testing phase of ads in ChatGPT, and the goal right now is to learn and refine the experience for consumers before expanding it more broadly. We’re encouraged by early signals from users and participating brands, and continue to see strong interest from advertisers,” the company was quoted as saying.
