The US company OpenAI will begin placing advertising inside its popular chatbot ChatGPT in Germany and other European countries from next week. According to OpenAI, the change affects users of the free version and of Go, the cheapest paid plan. Users on the Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans will continue to see no advertising, as will users whom OpenAI considers to be minors. The company has been looking for ways to make money from the chatbot for some time.
OpenAI stresses that neither the ads nor the advertisers have any influence on ChatGPT's answers. Advertising will be displayed below the end of a response and labelled as "sponsored". Initially, according to OpenAI, there will also be no personalised advertising in Europe. "Sensitive or regulated topics" such as health or politics are likewise to remain free of advertising.
Users can switch off the ads, OpenAI says, by moving to a paid, ad-free plan. There are also options that are both free of charge and free of advertising. These, however, come with restrictions on what users can do with the service.
OpenAI already began building advertising into the product in the United States earlier this year. Numerous European countries are now following, among them Germany, Austria, France and Spain. ChatGPT launched in 2022, and OpenAI's valuation has since climbed to more than 850 billion dollars. At the same time, the chatbot costs enormous sums of money to operate, above all for the computing power it requires. OpenAI's expenditure still far exceeds the company's revenue.
Advertising in ChatGPT represents a change of strategy. OpenAI chief Sam Altman had previously spoken out strictly against advertising inside the chats.
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