alt Hacker NewsOpenAI expands ChatGPT ads with Sponsored Agents
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As usual with AI customer interaction, I have to ask who is liable for misleading advertising or unmet promises? The advertiser who isn't really in control of the chatbot, or OpenAI?
(Law on this goes all the way back to Carbolic Smoke Ball)
None of this would be necessary if they thought they were actually anywhere near AGI...hmm.
>Ads in ChatGPT help people find what they’re looking for or discover something they hadn’t considered.
Here I foolishly thought that that was the job of ChatGPT itself.
This sounds awful. AI Chatbots will be everywhere Shopify is. I just see a lot of popups in our future with fake names and faces pretending to be people asking us how they can help us.
The problem with ads in AI, is that they're incredibly creepy. People have told the apps all kinds of sensitive information that they never would have told a normal service. Obviously the advertisers are creaming themselves at that, but it's a new level of creeping.
It also allows them to subtly influence the messaging. It would be like if somebody tried to not bring out the Heinz at a family gathering. It just wouldn't be the same, because of the subtle messaging that has been inserted into the content. How could you trust them?
This isn't that different from the chat interfaces already available on Amazon regarding a particular product.
How else are they to monetize text outputs? This was always the plan and it's going to get much worse (or better depending on which side of the fence you're on). Google did the same thing when it controlled web indexation: ads, sponsored results and SEO. All of these things will be coming to agents: you will be monetized or you will be paying not to be.
The fact that it requires a user action to initiate is better than the previous solution, but that's a pretty low bar to have
Found this:
> Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts will not have ads.
Like Uber and Lyft showed in the last cycle, AI has now reached the milestone where the game shifts from "offer unreasonably cheap service by burning investor money and gain marketshare" to "shit we need to show a profit".
Or, now lets what the enshittification movement can do to this space.
So you can pay $8 a month and see ads while using the already pared down offering.
I think pushing back with cancellations is the only way forward.
Looks like your average ad with a chat interface after you click it. For most online shopping, I consider this stuff annoying. Top of funnel is more sensible IMHO. Advise me on what product to buy, and help me make an informed decision, but I guess that is not where the ad dollars sit.
I wish ads never existed.
The future is open source, no subscriptions, no purchases, 100% free and community supported.
The sooner software gets to this point, the world will be a much more better place rather than everything being a subscription.
It’s okay (i.e. understand able) having ads on a low cost subscription. Would i not want to be (part of) the product myself, i’d willing to pay premium price - and i do
What’s wrong with this choice ?
I guess you can pay OpenAI for the privilege of hosting a RAG database rather than having their agents trawl your site.
So you cant control the agents you have, and now they will be sponsored so at least they make money off the chaos?
Soon, everybody will live in Truman show.
Nice so we're getting closer to Black Mirror in real life.
i am not clear what exactly will these agents do? are they like ai sales rep for brand for talking to user if they want to explore the product further?
the only person who ever interacts with these will be the person who accidentally clicked on them. Surely they know this?
This is awfully unimaginative. I don’t see people using this. Where is the incentive to continue your conversation with the sponsored agent as opposed to, you know, the one you’re already talking to.
Here we go again..
Tell me a story of when a service introduced ads and that ended up being a great thing for users ? Because I don't know any. Instead I know many stories where ads poisoned and destroyed the service and turned the Internet into a shit show.
Oh, but in this case, dystopia is highly unlikely, right ?
I am surprised nobody brought up Accelerando yet.
I'm definitely more pro ad than the average HN user (I think they occasionally show me products I want to buy), but this seems bad and one step closer to "the LLM is biased by openai's financial interests."
In the example of a "sponsored agent" at the top, how many people are going to think "chat with us" is just a way to continue the conversation? How soon before openai removes the friction of clicking that entirely?
this is what openai said before: "Ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers. Ads run on separate systems from our chat model, and advertisers have no ability to shape, rank, or alter ChatGPT’s responses. Ads are separate and clearly labeled." https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt
Do they need to rewrite that section? Because in the video there's an LLM chatbot inside the chatgpt app writing answers on behalf of "Heirloom grocery"
Can I pay them to fuck off?
truth seeking interface + influence seeking commercial interface = conflict of interest
I dont think its that bad. Another opportunity for businesses
> make ads more useful for people
I don't understand why they still insist on inserting this line in every talk about advertising. Just be honest and address your piece to advertisers, no need to keep doing this pathetic and laughable sugarcoating.
start enshittification now
It's funny that at first OpenAI didn't want to add ads, but if they are adding them, they will be as dystopian as possible.
"Nuke the entire site from orbit ... it's the only way to be sure."
Honestly I wish every ad had this. If I search for meal delivery services in my area and a sponsored result comes up, I would much rather ask an AI to trawl through the website to find out how much the meals cost, how much meat, protein, calories, etc are in them rather than do it myself
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I pay $200/month for ChatGPT. Maybe people should just pay for the service instead of relying of freebies?
It’s worth it. Already saved me more than $30,000 in a business transaction by negotiating for me.
I’m not going to use a CPA in the coming tax seasons either. I’m determined to not pay for any white collar labor if I can avoid it.
Who actually wants this?
I guess we’re about to find out if this helps put out the massive pile of burning cash that OpenAI is trying to deal with, but I know nobody that wants this.
OpenAI claims we’re near AGI and this is the best strategy they have? Oy vey!