The ChatGPT chatbot may have ads, although Sam Altman doesn't like them very much

Apparently, ChatGPT may have ads. OpenAI is already reportedly testing its formats. New CFO Sarah Friar said the startup is considering ideas and thinking about where and when to implement it.

Details are few and far between

Sarah Friar says the company is currently only considering an advertising business model, but has no “active plans for advertising.” This means that the developers themselves do not yet know how everything will be and when the launch may take place, reports 24 Channel with reference to the Financial Times.

The ChatGPT developer has so far relied only on subscription to support the development of its generative AI tools. But the cost of creating and maintaining these models is staggeringly high. This includes buying a huge amount of powerful equipment with the latest chips, maintaining servers, and huge energy costs, and cooling, and many other costs.

Currently, Microsoft seems to be the main investor in OpenAI, whose cash infusions have already amounted to about $13 billion. Apple, as expected, was also supposed to become a major investor, but later information appeared that the deal had been canceled. So the company, which was unable to agree on new money, needs additional financing.

This step looks uncomfortable for OpenAI founder Sam Altman. In a recent talk at Harvard Business School, when asked if the company could use advertising to expand access, he said it would be a “last resort.”

I'm not saying OpenAI will never consider advertising, but I don't like it in general, and I think advertising plus AI makes me a little anxious, – said Altman.

Apparently, new CFO Sarah Friar was able to convince management of the need to add advertising.

It is difficult to say now what it will be: whether in the format of banners with ads somewhere in the interface, whether it will be woven into AI responses, or, for example, integrated into OpenAI's future search engine, issuing advertised links to user queries, as Google does.