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OpenAI Introducing Ads to ChatGPT

FILE PHOTO: OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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OpenAI Introducing Ads to ChatGPT

FILE PHOTO: OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

OpenAI announced Thursday it will begin testing advertisements on ChatGPT in the coming weeks, as the wildly popular artificial intelligence chatbot seeks to increase revenue to cover its soaring costs.

The ads will initially appear in the United States for free and lower-tier subscribers, the company said in a blog post outlining its long-anticipated move into advertising.

The integration of advertising has been a key question for generative AI chatbots, with companies largely reluctant to interrupt the user experience with ads.

But the exorbitant costs of running AI services may have forced OpenAI's hand.
Only a small percentage of its nearly one billion users pay for subscription services, putting pressure on the company to find new revenue sources.

Since ChatGPT's launch in 2022, OpenAI's valuation has soared to $500 billion in funding rounds -- higher than any other private company. Some expect it could go public with a trillion-dollar valuation.

But the ChatGPT maker burns through cash at a furious rate, mostly on the powerful computing required to deliver its services.

With its move, OpenAI brings its business model closer to tech giants Google and Meta, which have built advertising empires on the back of their free-to-use services.

Unlike OpenAI, those companies have massive advertising revenue to fund AI innovation -- with Amazon also building a solid ad business on its shopping and video streaming platforms.

"Ads aren't a distraction from the gen AI race; they're how OpenAI stays in it," said Jeremy Goldman, an analyst at Emarketer.

"If ChatGPT turns on ads, OpenAI is admitting something simple and consequential: the race isn't just about model quality anymore; it's about monetizing attention without poisoning trust," he added.

OpenAI's pivot comes as Google gains ground in the generative AI race, infusing services including Gmail, Maps and YouTube with AI features that -- in addition to its Gemini chatbot -- compete directly with ChatGPT.

To address concerns about its pivot into advertising, OpenAI pledged that ads would never influence ChatGPT's answers and that user conversations would remain private from advertisers.

"Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you," the company stated, according to AFP. "Answers are optimized based on what's most helpful to you. Ads are always separate and clearly labeled."

In an apparent reference to Meta, TikTok and Google's YouTube -- platforms accused of maximizing user engagement to boost ad views -- OpenAI said it would "not optimize for time spent in ChatGPT."

"We prioritize user trust and user experience over revenue," it added.

The commitment to user well-being is a sensitive issue for OpenAI, which has faced accusations of allowing ChatGPT to prioritize emotional engagement over safety, allegedly contributing to mental distress among some users.

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Technology

‘Stealth Hit’ Pokemon Game Sends Nintendo Shares Soaring

Japan's Nintendo has enjoyed bumper sales for its latest Switch 2 console. (AFP)
Japan's Nintendo has enjoyed bumper sales for its latest Switch 2 console. (AFP)
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‘Stealth Hit’ Pokemon Game Sends Nintendo Shares Soaring

Japan's Nintendo has enjoyed bumper sales for its latest Switch 2 console. (AFP)
Japan's Nintendo has enjoyed bumper sales for its latest Switch 2 console. (AFP)

Fan buzz around life-simulation game "Pokemon Pokopia" sent Nintendo shares soaring on Wednesday, with some hailing the new title as a welcome antidote to global conflicts.

Japan's Nintendo has enjoyed bumper sales for its latest Switch 2 console, but some have called the line-up of new games for the device lackluster.

So early success for "Pokemon Pokopia", released on March 5 to rave reviews and reports of store sell-outs around the world, has relieved investors.

"Pokemon Pokopia" launched as a Switch 2 exclusive, "immediately becoming a viral stealth hit", analyst Atul Goyal from investment bank Jefferies said.

"The title successfully bridges the gap between core gamers and casual audiences," Goyal said.

The new Pokemon game has an aggregated review score of 89 on Metacritic, which Goyal described as a high for the three-decade-old video game franchise.

Nintendo shares were up nine percent in mid-morning trade on Wednesday, also likely boosted by the release of the final trailer for the star-studded upcoming "Super Mario" movie sequel.

Players have compared the game, in which they control a human-like character to rejuvenate a village, to "Animal Crossing" -- another Nintendo life-sim that became a hit during the pandemic.

"If you're looking for a mental break from the world def get Pokopia, it's like therapy," US-based influencer Ashley Duncan wrote on X.

"For Covid we had Animal Crossing. For WW3 we have Pokopia. Thank you for the distractions, Nintendo," said another X post from fan account Pokemon Daily Post, which has nearly 90 million followers.

The basic premise of Pokemon, inspired by the Japanese summer childhood tradition of bug-collecting, is to catch and train in battle hundreds of round-eyed "pocket monsters".

The phenomenon has evolved since the first 1996 game release with anime series, movies, a trading card game and the augmented reality smartphone app "Pokemon Go".

Nintendo's Switch 2, the world's fastest-selling games console, launched in June 2025 as the successor to the first Switch.

The original is now the second top-selling console of all time after Sony's PlayStation 2, boosted by the popularity of games including "Animal Crossing".

Technology

AI Offers Hope for Young Filmmakers Dreaming of an Oscar

Chinese USC student SiJia Zheng speaks about how he used artificial intelligence to modify his face and make him into all the different characters of his short film 'Torment'. Frederic J. BROWN / AFP
Chinese USC student SiJia Zheng speaks about how he used artificial intelligence to modify his face and make him into all the different characters of his short film 'Torment'. Frederic J. BROWN / AFP
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AI Offers Hope for Young Filmmakers Dreaming of an Oscar

Chinese USC student SiJia Zheng speaks about how he used artificial intelligence to modify his face and make him into all the different characters of his short film 'Torment'. Frederic J. BROWN / AFP
Chinese USC student SiJia Zheng speaks about how he used artificial intelligence to modify his face and make him into all the different characters of his short film 'Torment'. Frederic J. BROWN / AFP

Studying at the film school where Oscar-nominated "Sinners" director Ryan Coogler honed his craft, SiJia Zheng dreams of winning an Academy Award.

Now with the recent developments in artificial intelligence, he can see a shortcut to achieving his ambition.3

"That's a chance for beginners like me who can use AI to just make a film and to announce to the world that I have the ability to be a director," he told AFP.

Zheng, 29, who hails from China, is one of a burgeoning class of students at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, studying animation in a place that has long been a training ground for future Pixar and DreamWorks talent.

He has used his time at the Los Angeles university to learn about the emerging field of AI animation.

That has included producing his seven-minute short film "Torment" about a masked killer terrorizing a high school.

The film, which was recognized at the LA Shorts festival, was generated entirely by AI -- in just one week.

Zheng recorded himself in front of a green screen and then asked the software to modify his face to make him into all the different characters in the movie.

The technology also allowed him to set his story in an Asian school and have scenes in a swimming pool -- two things that would have cost a fortune if he had filmed them traditionally.

"As a student, it's impossible to have that much money" to produce a film, he said.

- 'Tool' -

Not everyone in Hollywood feels so positively about AI.

The technology was one of the key sticking points in the writers' and actors' strikes that paralyzed Hollywood in 2023.

Guillermo del Toro, the director of "Frankenstein," which will compete for the best picture Oscar on Sunday, is notoriously anti-AI, insisting he would "rather die" than use it.

Zheng said he had been impressed by the Mexican director's "amazing" film, particularly the opening scene where the monster attacks a 19th-century three-masted ship, which del Toro's prop department constructed specially for the movie.

But "when I watched the film...I was just thinking: 'Oh, using AI to do that would be much cheaper and...make something pretty similar.'"

He insists, however, that it doesn't replace the filmmaking spark.

"AI is just a tool, and people can use it to become even better."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body that will hand out the Oscars in Hollywood on March 15, seems to agree -- last year the body updated its rules to say it was neutral on the technology.

"Generative Artificial Intelligence and other digital tools...neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination," it said last April.

- 'Ethical' use -

At the University of Southern California (USC), teachers like Debra Isaac are trying to navigate the ethics around the emerging technology of AI.

The animation professor said she was shocked by an AI video that rocketed around the internet in recent weeks.

The short sequence, created by Seedance -- the AI generation model developed by TikTok's parent company, Bytedance -- shows an ersatz fight between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Neither star was compensated.

But, used properly, AI does not need to be exploitative, and is not a lazy way to make films, Isaac said.

"It's not just about, 'Hey, I have a prompt, and I'm just gonna type a few words and I'll get my image, and I'll get my animation, and I'm done,'" she said.

"Some of these tools are not ethically dubious at all. They're trained by people that are using their own work," she added.

That's precisely what Xindi Zhang, a recent graduate of the program and winner of a Student Academy Award for her short film "The Song of Drifters," did.

For the mini-documentary about the difficulty of feeling at home anywhere, the 29-year-old artist fed the AI dozens of her drawings.

The database then served as graphic inspiration, allowing the computer to stylize the shots of the cities where the film takes place, accelerating production that would otherwise have taken years.

Even with the help of AI, she spent nearly a month perfecting certain shots.

It's "a craft that nobody really appreciates right now," she says.

But anyone who looks at the use of AI will soon find it's not a compromise-free shortcut to perfection.

"Good, cheap and fast will never happen, no matter what tool you use," Zhang said.

Technology

Saudi Arabia Leads Globally in Women’s AI Empowerment with Groundbreaking Initiatives

Saudi Arabia Leads Globally in Women’s AI Empowerment with Groundbreaking Initiatives
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Saudi Arabia Leads Globally in Women’s AI Empowerment with Groundbreaking Initiatives

Saudi Arabia Leads Globally in Women’s AI Empowerment with Groundbreaking Initiatives

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made significant strides in empowering women in the data and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors, aiming to elevate their global competitiveness as part of Saudi Vision 2030.

Numerous initiatives have increased the participation of Saudi women in advanced technologies, with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) offering specialized programs and workshops in partnership with global technology leaders, SPA reported.

In just one year, over 666,000 Saudi women received training in data and AI, positioning the Kingdom first globally in women’s AI empowerment, according to the 2025 AI Index by Stanford University. Key initiatives include the Artificial Intelligence Academy with Microsoft, the Generative AI Academy with NVIDIA, the "SAMAI" initiative (targeting one million Saudis in AI), and the development of a national data and AI curriculum for university students.

These programs have enhanced women's skills and facilitated their contributions to crucial sectors such as health, energy, and education.

SDAIA has created a supportive work environment for women through flexible digital infrastructure, enabling remote work and work-life balance. This commitment reflects the Kingdom's dedication to building a sustainable, data-driven economy, with Saudi women now playing vital roles in shaping the future of advanced technologies.