Once ads start to make their way up to the Plus paid tiers (and they will), I’ll probably switch to something else like local LLM on my home machine or put something together myself to use a non adware LLM via API (for example with Replicate). Especially if these are just intended to be spammy blocks at bottom or in between discussion threads, or worse, audio conversations.
From what I’ve read, this will be about ads in chat as suggestions? So “active” ads on response?
Why not go the approach of passive background “agentic” ad suggestions like, “hey, we know X, Y, and Z about you - would you like us to monitor certain brands related to your interests for deals and allow advertisers to pitch these deals to you?” And make these hyper specific so you can opt in.
I, like many people who dabble with music as a hobby, have GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) - why not let me toggle something like “ok, I don’t want ads, but if any of your partnered brands have a sale or good deal on X, feel free to email me, and use your ChatGPT smarts to pitch me on why it’s a good deal and how it suits my current gear set up”
I used ChatGPT to set up my guitar pedal board so surely this isn’t a huge leap.
Same principle as I use everywhere else, if I pay for it, I'm not seeing any ads, and if I do, I'm no longer paying.
Cancelled Netflix for the same reason, as well as their draconian attitude towards "account sharing" meaning I have to authenticate every. god. damned. time. I login from my summerhouse. So yeah, i cancelled and dug out the old eye patch.
I did the exact same thing when CDs began to have sadistic levels of "anti piracy". The fact that I could download a DRM free copy of just about any CD, but the one I just bought would only play in my car kinda settled the deal. I pay for a product, fail to deliver that, and there's no benefit to me buying said product any more.
I doubt my quitting made any difference, but the government deciding that the "state tax on blank media" was going away (was going straight to the record companies pockets) as CDs had sufficient protection anyway, made copy protection completely go away.
Said blank media tax is still there. It's on everything containing storage, even smartphones, where a new iPhone 17 base model includes ~$10 in "blank media tax".
If there have to be ads, I need them to be fenced off, not intertwined into whatever response it provides. Once the enshittifcation gets to that point (and it will) it’s over.
Sadly, ads on Google used to be fenced off too. Then they slowly evolve to look more and more like part of the search result. I expect the same to happen here.
In all of these stories I've never seen it talk anybody into suicide. It failed to talk people out of it, and was generally sycophantic, but that's something completely different.
There are numerous documented examples of where chat LLMs have either subtly agreed with a user's suicidal thoughts or outright encouraged suicide. Here is just one:
In some cases, the LLM may start from a skepticism or discouragement, but they go along with what the user prompts. That's in comparison to services like 988, where the goal is to keep the person talking and work them through a moment of crisis, regardless of how insistent they are. LLMs are not a replacement for these services, but it's pretty clear they need to be forced into providing this sort of assistance because users are using them this way.
Claude will live or die on the quality of its product because it lacks the protective most that ChatGPT and Gemini have - name recognition and existing user base.
All LLM-search tools are slathered in ads already via LLM-SEO hacking.
The only difference here is that they will be providing a direct paid channel in this case and will get a cut instead of paying for compute. If it's responsibly disclosed it may even lead to a net more transparent shopping experience for the average user.
ChatGPT with ads (in this initial proposed form) still seems better than Gemini with these stupid video recommendations I can't turn off, because they do influence the answer itself (the model itself might give me less details just to make me watch the video).
Based on the news and conversations I have with people, the general population is having intimate conversations with these chatbots. In the name of ads, all this data will be mined, and humans will be tagged with categories, and that info will be sold. It’s not if, it’s when.
Readit News
From what I’ve read, this will be about ads in chat as suggestions? So “active” ads on response?
Why not go the approach of passive background “agentic” ad suggestions like, “hey, we know X, Y, and Z about you - would you like us to monitor certain brands related to your interests for deals and allow advertisers to pitch these deals to you?” And make these hyper specific so you can opt in.
I, like many people who dabble with music as a hobby, have GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) - why not let me toggle something like “ok, I don’t want ads, but if any of your partnered brands have a sale or good deal on X, feel free to email me, and use your ChatGPT smarts to pitch me on why it’s a good deal and how it suits my current gear set up”
I used ChatGPT to set up my guitar pedal board so surely this isn’t a huge leap.
Cancelled Netflix for the same reason, as well as their draconian attitude towards "account sharing" meaning I have to authenticate every. god. damned. time. I login from my summerhouse. So yeah, i cancelled and dug out the old eye patch.
I did the exact same thing when CDs began to have sadistic levels of "anti piracy". The fact that I could download a DRM free copy of just about any CD, but the one I just bought would only play in my car kinda settled the deal. I pay for a product, fail to deliver that, and there's no benefit to me buying said product any more.
I doubt my quitting made any difference, but the government deciding that the "state tax on blank media" was going away (was going straight to the record companies pockets) as CDs had sufficient protection anyway, made copy protection completely go away.
Said blank media tax is still there. It's on everything containing storage, even smartphones, where a new iPhone 17 base model includes ~$10 in "blank media tax".
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/openai-chatgpt-suicide-law...
In all of these stories I've never seen it talk anybody into suicide. It failed to talk people out of it, and was generally sycophantic, but that's something completely different.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/openai-chatgpt-suicide-law...
In some cases, the LLM may start from a skepticism or discouragement, but they go along with what the user prompts. That's in comparison to services like 988, where the goal is to keep the person talking and work them through a moment of crisis, regardless of how insistent they are. LLMs are not a replacement for these services, but it's pretty clear they need to be forced into providing this sort of assistance because users are using them this way.
Well that settles it.
Dead Comment
Between Claude and Gemini it just wasnt needed.
Will openai be the MySpace of this era?
Claude will be the first company to fall as developers find something slightly better.
The only difference here is that they will be providing a direct paid channel in this case and will get a cut instead of paying for compute. If it's responsibly disclosed it may even lead to a net more transparent shopping experience for the average user.