4 ms·

Pretty bold move to release this at the peak of the Open Models vs Proprietary Models debate. Feels like a really easy decision when it's framed this way.

moritzwarhier 3mo ago
If not now, when?
128byte 3mo ago
Soon OpenAI will change the model output to include astroturfing!
ofjcihen 3mo ago
Right? Complete speculation on my part but that makes this feel desperate.
IsTom 3mo ago
I think it kind of makes sense. Casual users won't even know about things that aren't chatgpt or gemini and they don't really need much more than gpt3 level of performance. They're also the ones who don't use adblockers and are used to ads being everywhere on the web.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
tempacct2cmmnt 3mo ago
I’m mostly amused they dropped this after the clusterfuck that was their new desktop app. My most recent ChatGPT experience is “wait, where did all my conversations go?!”. Concurrent enshitiffication is a bold move.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
Someone1234 3mo ago
I suspect they're ignoring that debate since they have reason to anticipate a US Government action that allows them to not need to compete in a free market.
vovavili 3mo ago
A median non-technical ChatGPT user is: -Less likely to pay for ChatGPT use -Will not self-host an open-source model -Quite unlikely to use an adblocker
- nomel 3mo ago
  And, most people have no interest in trying something new.
paxys 3mo ago
This isn’t relevant to that debate. A billion people use the ChatGPT app without paying a dime. They don’t care what score the model gets on a hundred technical benchmarks. They don’t care if the weights are open or closed. They are definitely not hosting anything on their own. They want to ask a question and get an answer. If OpenAI can monetize that audience with ads at the level of Google then who cares about Anthropic or Deepseek?
- KerrAvon 3mo ago
  It's relevant politically, and the discussion in question is political.
- altmanaltman 3mo ago
  at the level of Google? Like you are underestimating how massive google is when it comes to ads. It is not that easy to just be at the level of google in advertising even if you are oai
  - monster_truck 3mo ago
    This should be upvoted more. Saying it is not easy is an understatement. The chasm is so large that if you were to represent it on a globe it would rival oceans. I've been brought into places that were bought for half a billion+ to try and claw back half of a tenth of a percent of traffic. A redesign is pushed through that minimizes content, inflates metrics, and triples the ads. Users leave, everyone is fired, it's written off and the cycle repeats. OAI is going to try and ape facebook's opening plays. Burn at any expense to optimize for time spent, give you what you want, establish usage habits, dial it back to foster a dependency. Leverage their position as an arbiter of truth, claim they are going to act like x and do y. Fuck people up, roll out shiny new safeguards, silently peel them back. Dig a regulatory moat that makes anything resembling competition prohibitively expensive. The only time I have gone to best buy in the past 10 years was because they have a garbage can full of sand ready to accept any spicy pillows (batteries that have become genuinely dangerous).
    - 3mo ago
dgellow 3mo ago
They need to show numbers for the IPO. It’s not like they plan to actually make money, just need to have a good story to tell to hype the audience before the public offering
Aurornis 3mo ago
The people who care about open versus proprietary models or even care about using good models at all aren’t using the ChatGPT free and ultra low cost tier, where these ads show up. Any discussion about ChatGPT ads attracts all these assumptions that it’s going into your $20 or $200 per month plan, but they’re not. There’s a snarky “not yet” reply that keeps coming up from people who really want a reason to be angry about this right now regardless of the facts, but most people don’t care to get angry about something that isn’t planned and probably won’t happen.
jillesvangurp 3mo ago
Open models still need to run somewhere. If that's not your machine, expect to pay or watch some ads.

moritzwarhier 3mo ago

If not now, when?

128byte 3mo ago

Soon OpenAI will change the model output to include astroturfing!

ofjcihen 3mo ago

Right? Complete speculation on my part but that makes this feel desperate.

IsTom 3mo ago

I think it kind of makes sense. Casual users won't even know about things that aren't chatgpt or gemini and they don't really need much more than gpt3 level of performance. They're also the ones who don't use adblockers and are used to ads being everywhere on the web.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

tempacct2cmmnt 3mo ago

I’m mostly amused they dropped this after the clusterfuck that was their new desktop app. My most recent ChatGPT experience is “wait, where did all my conversations go?!”. Concurrent enshitiffication is a bold move.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

Someone1234 3mo ago

I suspect they're ignoring that debate since they have reason to anticipate a US Government action that allows them to not need to compete in a free market.

vovavili 3mo ago

A median non-technical ChatGPT user is: -Less likely to pay for ChatGPT use -Will not self-host an open-source model -Quite unlikely to use an adblocker

nomel 3mo ago
And, most people have no interest in trying something new.

paxys 3mo ago

This isn’t relevant to that debate. A billion people use the ChatGPT app without paying a dime. They don’t care what score the model gets on a hundred technical benchmarks. They don’t care if the weights are open or closed. They are definitely not hosting anything on their own. They want to ask a question and get an answer. If OpenAI can monetize that audience with ads at the level of Google then who cares about Anthropic or Deepseek?

KerrAvon 3mo ago
It's relevant politically, and the discussion in question is political.
altmanaltman 3mo ago
at the level of Google? Like you are underestimating how massive google is when it comes to ads. It is not that easy to just be at the level of google in advertising even if you are oai
- monster_truck 3mo ago
  This should be upvoted more. Saying it is not easy is an understatement. The chasm is so large that if you were to represent it on a globe it would rival oceans. I've been brought into places that were bought for half a billion+ to try and claw back half of a tenth of a percent of traffic. A redesign is pushed through that minimizes content, inflates metrics, and triples the ads. Users leave, everyone is fired, it's written off and the cycle repeats. OAI is going to try and ape facebook's opening plays. Burn at any expense to optimize for time spent, give you what you want, establish usage habits, dial it back to foster a dependency. Leverage their position as an arbiter of truth, claim they are going to act like x and do y. Fuck people up, roll out shiny new safeguards, silently peel them back. Dig a regulatory moat that makes anything resembling competition prohibitively expensive. The only time I have gone to best buy in the past 10 years was because they have a garbage can full of sand ready to accept any spicy pillows (batteries that have become genuinely dangerous).
  - 3mo ago

dgellow 3mo ago

They need to show numbers for the IPO. It’s not like they plan to actually make money, just need to have a good story to tell to hype the audience before the public offering

Aurornis 3mo ago

The people who care about open versus proprietary models or even care about using good models at all aren’t using the ChatGPT free and ultra low cost tier, where these ads show up. Any discussion about ChatGPT ads attracts all these assumptions that it’s going into your $20 or $200 per month plan, but they’re not. There’s a snarky “not yet” reply that keeps coming up from people who really want a reason to be angry about this right now regardless of the facts, but most people don’t care to get angry about something that isn’t planned and probably won’t happen.

jillesvangurp 3mo ago

Open models still need to run somewhere. If that's not your machine, expect to pay or watch some ads.