Ask ChatGPT for a picture, and soon an ad may appear beside it. OpenAI will test visual ads next to images generated in ChatGPT, starting later in October in the United States with a first group of advertisers, TechCrunch reports.
Until now, ads in ChatGPT were text. The new format shows pictures built around a product. It also comes as the company says ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people a week, so any change to how it makes money touches a very large audience.
Who sees them
The ads are meant for people on the free and low-cost plans. OpenAI says they "will also be clearly labeled and won't influence the answers ChatGPT provides." It also says the ads will be kept separate from the images the AI makes for the user.
OpenAI launched its ads product earlier this year and expanded it to India in August. For the new format it works with measurement firms such as AppsFlyer and Adjust, and with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science, which check whether ads appear next to suitable content.
What is not said
OpenAI has not named the first advertisers or said when the ads will reach other countries. It has also not said how an ad is matched to an image, beyond the promise that ads do not change the answers.
The test starts in the US, and the rest of the world comes later.
