The free version of the ChatGPT chatbot may receive advertising in the future. This statement was made by OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar in an interview with the Financial Times, 9to5Mac reports.
Friar and other OpenAI executives see advertising on ChatGPT as a way to increase revenue. Training new models requires a lot of resources, and the company's only revenue now is a paid version of ChatGPT with more features and several business solutions.
Advertising on ChatGPT could help monetize the platform and keep it free for users. By the way, in early 2024, OpenAI hired several advertising specialists from Meta and Google, which confirms its plans to introduce advertising.
Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, has previously stated that the company considers the introduction of advertising as a "last resort" because it generally dislikes advertising in products. But given that the company is rapidly running out of money, the "last resort" may be needed sooner than expected.
We remind you that, among other things, the company is planning to reclassify itself from a non-profit to a commercial organization. On the way to this, the company has introduced its own search engine built into ChatGPT and is considering creating a browser to compete with Google, possibly in the advertising industry.