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Ads ruined social media. Now they’re coming to AI
Chatbots are pivoting to the ad model and optimising for eyeballs, just like social media did. Remember how that turned out?
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Tech companies will inevitably claim that advertising is a necessary part of democratising AI.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH
Parmy Olson
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Chatbots might hallucinate and sprinkle too much flattery on their users – “That’s a fascinating question!” one recently told me – but at least the subscription model that underpins them is healthy for our wellbeing. Many Americans pay about US$20 (S$26) a month to use the premium versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini Pro or Anthropic’s Claude, and the result is that the products are designed to provide maximum utility.
Don’t expect this status quo to last. Subscription revenue has a limit, and Anthropic’s new US$200-a-month “Max” tier suggests even the most popular models are under pressure to find new revenue streams.
