OpenAI’s Ads Push Starts Taking Shape

OpenAI executives have kept a tight lid on how the company could show advertisements to users of its popular ChatGPT chatbot, leaving the broader digital ad industry eager for clues. Behind the scenes, staff are working through key details.

Employees have discussed ways for AI models to prioritize sponsored information in ChatGPT’s responses when users ask relevant queries, a person familiar with the discussions said. The company does not plan to alter the main model powering ChatGPT, a company spokesperson said after this story was published. Instead, it plans to use other specially built AI systems, which include models, to evaluate whether a conversation has commercial intent and then pull up the most relevant ads in ChatGPT responses, said the spokesperson.