OpenAI announced Monday the initiation of ad experiments in ChatGPT, following a humorous critique from Anthropic during the Super Bowl. This test, currently limited to US users with free or ‘Go’ subscription accounts, excludes Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu users from ads.

Anthropic, which avoids advertising, was criticized by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman for elitism. Altman emphasized OpenAI’s mission to make AI accessible to everyone, not just affluent users.

Facing the challenge of returning funds from a $60 billion investment, OpenAI isn’t alone in exploring ad revenue—Google also plans similar initiatives. The effectiveness of AI-driven ads remains uncertain, as Perplexity paused its ad operations last October.

OpenAI commits to user privacy, assuring that interactions with ChatGPT remain private from advertisers. While ad personalization is enabled by default, users can choose to disable it, influencing the kind of targeted ads they receive.

Ads, clearly marked and separated from responses, will appear post-chat. OpenAI emphasizes it does not endorse advertised products and is open to evolving its ad program if necessary.