According to the Financial Times, OpenAI is considering expanding into advertising. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told the newspaper that the company is considering its advertising business model and plans to be “thoughtful” about when and where to advertise. In a subsequent statement, Friar emphasized that there were “no active plans to pursue advertising,” but the idea is clearly on the table. (The FT's report highlights a recent high-profile advertiser, ex-Google's Shivakumar Venkataraman.)
ChatGPT makers have traditionally relied on subscriptions to support the development of generative AI tools. However, the costs of producing and delivering these models are eye-wateringly high, and there are only billions of dollars of capital that investors are willing to throw into the fire.
Still, the move seems uncomfortable to OpenAI founder Sam Altman. In a recent talk at Harvard Business School, after being asked whether the company might adopt advertising to expand access options, he said it would be “a last resort…unless OpenAI considers advertising at all.” I'm not saying that, but I don't think so.” I like them in general, but I find advertising and AI to be uniquely disturbing to me. ”