ChatGPT sponsored replies

ChatGPT feels old now. I remember when everyone was freaking out that AI would take their jobs. To be fair, AI has taken some jobs (and it’s preparing to take more), but I find myself regularly frustrated or unimpressed with the responses I get from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and other AI applications I frequently use.

To be clear, these products are amazing and have allowed me to do things I previously would not have imagined myself doing, but there are still a lot of kinks to work out.

Zooming out, it’s wild that OpenAI raised another $6.6 billion in October to continue building its platform. The tool only costs $20 a month, and I don’t see how they become profitable soon. That said, they must be running the Silicon Valley “growth at all costs” playbook.

This made me think, “What if they needed to push for monetization quickly?” You can imagine a world where brands sponsor replies from ChatGPT.

I bet this will happen soon, as you can argue these platforms are an extension of existing search applications. However, there are likely many instances where surfacing an ad could border on misinformation. My guess is a lot of people would hate this feature, but if it meant ChatGPT is free (or more free than it already is?), people would use it.

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