OpenAI begins testing ads inside ChatGPT

OpenAI has started testing advertisements within ChatGPT to help fund free access to the product. The company says ads will be clearly labeled, won't influence ChatGPT's answers, and come with privacy protections and user controls.

Why it matters: This is a major business-model shift for the most-used consumer AI product, mirroring the ad-supported path taken by search and social platforms, and it raises the same tensions between monetization and trust in an assistant users rely on for unbiased answers. Expect scrutiny over whether "answer independence" holds up in practice, and pressure on competitors like Gemini and Claude to clarify their own monetization plans.