ChatGPT users may soon start seeing ads in their chats as OpenAI announced on Monday that it is officially starting testing ads on its AI platform. They will appear as links labeled “Sponsored” below ChatGPT answers, but OpenAI says the ads “do not influence the answers provided by ChatGPT.”
Currently, ads will only appear to users on the free version of ChatGPT or the lowest-cost $8 per month Go plan. Users in the Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education plans will see no ads, so anyone who wants to avoid these will have to pay at least $20 per month for a Plus subscription. There is one loophole – OpenAI notes that users can “opt out of ads in the free tier in exchange for fewer daily free messages.”
Users of the Go tier cannot opt out of seeing ads, but users of both the Free and Go plans can dismiss ads, share feedback on ads, turn off ad personalization, opt out of ads based on previous chats, and delete their ad data. According to OpenAI, advertisers will only get data on “aggregated ad views and clicks”, not personalized data or content from users’ ChatGPAT conversations.
Additionally, all users and chats will not be eligible for ads, including users under the age of 18 and conversations on certain sensitive topics such as “health, mental health or politics.” Even adult users on the chatbot’s Free & Go plan won’t start seeing ads immediately as the feature is still in testing.
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