OpenAI ChatGPT
OpenAI recently announced that ads are coming to ChatGPT. Well, that decision has become the target of a Super Bowl ad from rival AI company Anthropic. One of four ads Anthropic released on Wednesday opens with the word ‘BETRAYAL’ in big letters. The commercial shows a man asking a chatbot for advice on how to talk to his mom. The chatbot, clearly meant to depict ChatGPT, gives normal tips at first, like listening and going on a nature walk. Then the message takes a strange turn. The chatbot suddenly promotes a fake cougar dating website called Golden Encounters. The ad ends with Anthropic saying that while ads may come to AI chatbots, they will not come to its own product, Claude.
The ad was clearly aimed at OpenAI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later wrote a long post on X criticising Anthropic and calling the AI lab ‘dishonest.’ He said the commercial wrongly suggests ChatGPT would interrupt chats to push ads. ‘We would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them,’ Altman wrote. ‘We are not stupid and we know our users would reject that.’
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OpenAI has said ads will be clearly labelled and will not change how ChatGPT answers questions. Still, the company has also said ads could be based on what users are talking about. Last month, OpenAI explained in a blogpost, ‘We plan to test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.’
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Altman also attacked Anthropic in other ways. He claimed the company mainly serves wealthy users, writing, ‘Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people.’ He said OpenAI wants to bring AI to people who cannot afford subscriptions. However, both companies offer free versions and paid plans. He also accused Anthropic of being too controlling and even called it ‘authoritarian.’