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Just wait till there are ads for free users, which is going to happen. Depending on how insidious these ads are, they could be extremely profitable too, like re

Just wait till there are ads for free users, which is going to happen. Depending on how insidious these ads are, they could be extremely profitable too, like recommending products and services directly in context.

Sevii 1y ago
They could dynamically update the system prompt with ad content on a per request basis. Lots of options.
handfuloflight 1y ago
Why do you equate contextual with insidious?
- Workaccount2 1y ago
  Because then the AI isn't working for you anymore, it's working for the advertisers. Which isn't necessarily bad, but we can be pretty confident that the AI will not be upfront about this, and instead try to act like it's working for you.
  - handfuloflight 1y ago
    If the advertising is contextually relevant, how is it working against you?
    - pigeons 1y ago
      Just being contextually relevant doesn't mean its in your interests as opposed to in the interests of the advertised or that the levers are transparent.
      - handfuloflight 1y ago
        Are you assuming all commercial relationships are adversarial? Why can't advertisers and those advertised to have aligned interests? What transparent levers do non-advertised results have, how do you know search rankings don't have hidden commercial incentives? Why trust undisclosed bias over disclosed relationships? Isn't transparency about incentives better than pretending they don't exist?
        withinboredom 1y ago
        You: "Hey; I need a flight to London tomorrow; leaving at noon! Can you book it for me!" AI: "Of course! I see there is a flight at 6am tomorrow morning; the next one after that is at 3pm. Will that be a problem?" You: "I was hoping for something more around lunch time. But if that is the only option; go for it." AI: "Consider it done. I will send you the details via email in a few minutes." The insidious part: there was a flight; they just weren’t paying for advertising. Yes. Interests are aligned here; but not yours.
        handfuloflight 1y ago
        You: "Hey; I need a flight to London tomorrow; leaving at noon! Can you book it for me!" AI: "Here are all available flights, economy class: 6am (£250), 12pm (£350), (Sponsored) 3pm (£300). The 12pm flight best matches your preference. Sponsor offer: Save £50 by booking the 3pm flight through TravelDeals and get a free upgrade to business class. Which would you prefer?" In any case this is disingenuous, we're discussing LLM results augmented with advertising, not a fully sponsored agent which deliberately hides information. Today's LLMs pull comprehensive data anyway. You've strawmanned contextual advertising into outright fraud.
        withinboredom 1y ago
        I was illustrating the point; not strawmanning you. In any case, AI does this kind of thing all the time and but usually by overcomplicating things and pretending like there isn’t something simpler or builtin unless you point it out.
- loudmax 1y ago
  The OP is not equating contextual with insidious. They're pointing out, correctly, that contextual ads can be insidious. And if they're profitable, they probably will be. A lot of the companies offering LLM services are in a race gain market share and build expertise. Right now, they can burn through millions of dollars of VC money, with the expectation that they'll turn a profit at some point in the future. If that profit comes from advertising, and critically, if users don't expect advertising in their free LLMs, because they didn't see ads in generated output in the past, that will be very insidious.
  - handfuloflight 1y ago
    > If that profit comes from advertising, and critically, if users don't expect advertising in their free LLMs, because they didn't see ads in generated output in the past, that will be very insidious. Are the free LLM providers offering their service with a contractual obligation to the users that they will not add advertising to the outputs? If not, how is it insidious? What definition of insidious are you using per https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insidious https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insidious?
    - wredcoll 1y ago
      Weirdly, no part of that merriam-webster link includes the word "contract". I'm not sure you know how words work.
      - handfuloflight 1y ago
        Why does it need to include the word "contract"?
slt2021 1y ago
most likely you will be targeted with ads based on what you give to the model. if you ask chatgpt about electric cars, expect a wave of ads coming at you from EV automakers from all channels: socials, media, email, mail, etc - trying to close you on their car brand

Sevii 1y ago

They could dynamically update the system prompt with ad content on a per request basis. Lots of options.

handfuloflight 1y ago

Why do you equate contextual with insidious?

Workaccount2 1y ago
Because then the AI isn't working for you anymore, it's working for the advertisers. Which isn't necessarily bad, but we can be pretty confident that the AI will not be upfront about this, and instead try to act like it's working for you.
- handfuloflight 1y ago
  If the advertising is contextually relevant, how is it working against you?
  - pigeons 1y ago
    Just being contextually relevant doesn't mean its in your interests as opposed to in the interests of the advertised or that the levers are transparent.
    - handfuloflight 1y ago
      Are you assuming all commercial relationships are adversarial? Why can't advertisers and those advertised to have aligned interests? What transparent levers do non-advertised results have, how do you know search rankings don't have hidden commercial incentives? Why trust undisclosed bias over disclosed relationships? Isn't transparency about incentives better than pretending they don't exist?
      - withinboredom 1y ago
        You: "Hey; I need a flight to London tomorrow; leaving at noon! Can you book it for me!" AI: "Of course! I see there is a flight at 6am tomorrow morning; the next one after that is at 3pm. Will that be a problem?" You: "I was hoping for something more around lunch time. But if that is the only option; go for it." AI: "Consider it done. I will send you the details via email in a few minutes." The insidious part: there was a flight; they just weren’t paying for advertising. Yes. Interests are aligned here; but not yours.
        handfuloflight 1y ago
        You: "Hey; I need a flight to London tomorrow; leaving at noon! Can you book it for me!" AI: "Here are all available flights, economy class: 6am (£250), 12pm (£350), (Sponsored) 3pm (£300). The 12pm flight best matches your preference. Sponsor offer: Save £50 by booking the 3pm flight through TravelDeals and get a free upgrade to business class. Which would you prefer?" In any case this is disingenuous, we're discussing LLM results augmented with advertising, not a fully sponsored agent which deliberately hides information. Today's LLMs pull comprehensive data anyway. You've strawmanned contextual advertising into outright fraud.
        withinboredom 1y ago
        I was illustrating the point; not strawmanning you. In any case, AI does this kind of thing all the time and but usually by overcomplicating things and pretending like there isn’t something simpler or builtin unless you point it out.
loudmax 1y ago
The OP is not equating contextual with insidious. They're pointing out, correctly, that contextual ads can be insidious. And if they're profitable, they probably will be. A lot of the companies offering LLM services are in a race gain market share and build expertise. Right now, they can burn through millions of dollars of VC money, with the expectation that they'll turn a profit at some point in the future. If that profit comes from advertising, and critically, if users don't expect advertising in their free LLMs, because they didn't see ads in generated output in the past, that will be very insidious.
- handfuloflight 1y ago
  > If that profit comes from advertising, and critically, if users don't expect advertising in their free LLMs, because they didn't see ads in generated output in the past, that will be very insidious. Are the free LLM providers offering their service with a contractual obligation to the users that they will not add advertising to the outputs? If not, how is it insidious? What definition of insidious are you using per https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insidious https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insidious?
  - wredcoll 1y ago
    Weirdly, no part of that merriam-webster link includes the word "contract". I'm not sure you know how words work.
    - handfuloflight 1y ago
      Why does it need to include the word "contract"?

slt2021 1y ago

most likely you will be targeted with ads based on what you give to the model. if you ask chatgpt about electric cars, expect a wave of ads coming at you from EV automakers from all channels: socials, media, email, mail, etc - trying to close you on their car brand