Advertising is coming to AI chatbots — and it could influence the answers you get

OpenAI has introduced ads in ChatGPT, and Google is testing sponsored answers in Gemini. Unlike banners, ads are embedded in the dialogue itself, making them hard to audit and potentially influencing output. Perplexity has already abandoned sponsored conversations.

• OpenAI launched ads in ChatGPT, Google tests sponsored answers in Gemini
• About half of consumers use AI chats for information search
• Perplexity tested sponsored conversations and shut down the program
• Ads in dialogue are hard to audit: no access to data and algorithms