OpenAI said Wednesday it will introduce advertising to ChatGPT and roll out the service in Korea. The ads were first introduced in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. OpenAI said it had confirmed strong interest from companies in early pilot markets, including the United States, through a conversational environment based on user intent.
The ads will be shown only to adult users on ChatGPT's Free and Go plans. Users of the ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans will not see ads.
The ads are separated from the responses ChatGPT generates and are marked so that users can easily identify them as "sponsored content." Advertisers cannot influence the content of ChatGPT's responses. The ads also do not affect the objectivity and independence of responses. Users' conversation content and personal information are not provided to advertisers. Advertisers can only view aggregated performance information, such as ad views and clicks, and cannot access individual users' conversation content, conversation history or personal information.
Instead, users can hide displayed ads or provide related feedback. They can also directly manage ad personalization and their ad experience in settings. OpenAI plans to continuously improve the relevance of ads and the overall user experience based on user feedback. The company will also not show ads to accounts confirmed or presumed to belong to minors. It has designed the system so that ads are not displayed in conversations related to sensitive or potentially regulated topics, such as mental health and politics.
OpenAI is providing relevant guidance within the ChatGPT product to users covered by the advertising pilot. The company plans to continuously improve the ad experience by reviewing user experience and feedback during the pilot.
Kim Kyung-hoon, head of OpenAI Korea, said, "OpenAI's mission is to ensure that AI benefits all of humanity," adding, "Advertising can help expand access so that more people can use ChatGPT's useful AI features without cost burden."
