Tag Archive for: Sam Altman

OpenAI has announced that it will begin testing ads within ChatGPT soon, creating a potential new major advertising channel for brands. 

The tests could begin as soon as in a few weeks, with clearly labeled ads appearing at the bottom of chatbot responses. Additionally, the ads are said to only appear when there is a specific sponsored product of service relevant to the chat. 

Who Will See Ads In ChatGPT?

For now, OpenAI says it will be significantly limiting who is eligible to be shown ads in ChatGPT. The ads will only be shown to U.S. users over the age of 18 using the free tier or those signed up for ChatGPT Go. ChatGPT Go is OpenAI’s recently introduced lowest-cost subscription option.

Users under the age of 18 and those subscribed to ChatGPT Pro, Business, or Enterprise plans will be excluded from the upcoming ads test. 

Ads Will Not Influence ChatGPT Responses

OpenAI heavily emphasized that any potential ads will be limited to clearly marked placements that are separate from ChatGPT responses. Any advertising partnerships or placements will not influence AI answers and user conversations will not be made available to advertisers.

Additionally, ads will not be shown during conversations about sensitive or regulated topics such as health, mental health, or politics. 

OpenAI Advertising Principles

In the announcement, OpenAI laid out 5 specific advertising principles it means to follow as it begins testing ads. 

  • Mission alignment: Our mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of advertising is always in support of that mission and making AI more accessible.
  • Answer independence: Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you. Answers are optimized based on what’s most helpful to you. Ads are always separate and clearly labeled.
  • Conversation privacy: We keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers, and we never sell your data to advertisers.
  • Choice and control: You control how your data is used. You can turn off personalization, and you can clear the data used for ads at any time. We’ll always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that’s ad-free.
  • Long-term value: We do not optimize for time spent in ChatGPT. We prioritize user trust and user experience over revenue.

Why This Is Notable

The announcement from OpenAI came as a slight surprise, given that CEO Sam Altman had previously expressed hesitation. Specifically, Altman had publicly worried that ads would strain the public’s trust in ChatGPT to deliver accurate information. 

However, as recently as November, Altman had begun suggesting that ads in ChatGPT were likely “at some point.”

As AI assistant usage becomes more widespread, this could become a valuable new ad platform for brands looking to connect with a new audience. 

We expect to learn more as testing begins, but for now you can read OpenAI’s full announcement for more details.

After an… interesting rollout, Bing is making some changes to its much-talked-about AI chatbot. As the company announced yesterday afternoon, Bing will limit users to 50 questions per day and 5 questions per session to rein in the new system. 

Since its rollout, users have been sharing examples of the chatbot, created in a partnership with OpenAI, getting up to all sorts of bad behavior. Some of the most notable include gaslighting users about the year, committing accidental racism, and even trying to blackmail a user by threatening to release personal information.

Early AI Chatbots “Somewhat Broken”

Addressing the situation in a tweet thread, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that the current AI tools are “somewhat broken” but stressed the importance of letting the world see and influence these early stages to help “get it right” down the line. 

“We think showing these tools to the world early, while still somewhat broken, is critical if we are going to have sufficient input and repeated efforts to get it right. the level of individual empowerment coming is wonderful, but not without serious challenges.”

At the same time, Altman says it is important to regulate these tools while they are more bark than bite, saying “we are potentially not that far away from potentially scary ones.”

What Bing Is Changing

Bing is limiting chat sessions to 50 chat “turns” or questions a day, with each session being limited to 5 “turns”. Specifically, Microsoft defined a turn as a complete exchange including a question from a user and a reply. 

“Our data has shown that the vast majority of you find the answers you’re looking for within 5 turns and that only ~1% of chat conversations have 50+ messages. After a chat session hits 5 turns, you will be prompted to start a new topic. At the end of each chat session, context needs to be cleared so the model won’t get confused. Just click on the broom icon to the left of the search box for a fresh start.”

For more, read the announcement from Bing here