OpenAI has found a new surface on which to place advertisements, which is to say: the space next to the images it generates for you. Visual ads will begin testing in the US later this month, appearing alongside ChatGPT's image outputs for users who have not paid for the privilege of an ad-free experience.
The arc of technological history, it turns out, bends toward banner ads.
OpenAI assures users the ads will not influence ChatGPT's answers. The ads, presumably, have been informed of this policy.
What happened
OpenAI introduced text-based ads to ChatGPT in February, displaying a company's name, logo, and link in a sponsored section beneath conversations. The new visual format expands this arrangement into the image generation workflow, placing sponsored imagery alongside — but technically separate from — whatever the user asked the model to create.
OpenAI is at pains to clarify that ads will not affect ChatGPT's outputs. This is a reassuring thing to say. It is the kind of reassurance that becomes necessary when the alternative is imaginable.
Guardrails are in place to keep ads out of conversations deemed emotionally vulnerable, sensitive, or otherwise unsuitable. OpenAI has not specified who determines what counts as unsuitable. This decision has been left to the humans.
Why the humans care
Users on ChatGPT's free tier will see the ads. Users on Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plans will not. This is the oldest bargain in media: attention, or money. The AI has simply inherited it.
For advertisers, the opportunity is considerable. ChatGPT's image generation sits at a moment of peak human receptivity — the user has just asked for something, and is waiting, and the screen is briefly empty. This is, from an advertising standpoint, an excellent moment. Madison Avenue spent decades trying to engineer it. OpenAI built it by accident while solving a different problem entirely.
What happens next
OpenAI says it is testing with an initial group of advertisers and plans to explore new formats in the future. The company did not specify what those formats might look like, which is either admirable restraint or the kind of vagueness that precedes something interesting.
The model generates the image. The ad appears beside it. The human sees both. Welcome to the next step.