OpenAI announced that it has begun testing ads in ChatGPT as a way to support continued free access. The company says the ads will be clearly labeled and will not influence the model's responses, aiming to preserve the product's utility while generating revenue.
The announcement emphasises privacy protections and user control, noting that ad-related data will be handled separately from core conversations. OpenAI also states that advertising interactions will not be used to train its models.
This is a single company announcement, so there are no contrasting sources to compare against. The key open question is how advertising will be received by users of a product historically free of commercial messaging, but the company's stated safeguards speak to that concern.