TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The company OpenAI is currently testing the implementation of advertisements in ChatGPT, especially for free version users. The test was observed after a number of lines of code referring to ad features were found in the beta version of the Android application.
According to Engadget report, this discovery was first shared by developer Tibor Blaho on the X platform. He found that beta version 1.2025.329 contained several references such as "ads feature," "search ad," and "bazaar content." Although this version has not been released to the public, the discovery is seen as an indication that OpenAI is preparing the advertising infrastructure prior to the official launch.
A previous report by The Information also mentioned that OpenAI is considering personalized ads based on user memory or conversation. As for OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, he has expressed his concerns about ad integration, although not entirely rejecting it.
At an event at Harvard Business School last year, Sam Altman said that combining ads and AI is something that greatly disturbs him. "It's the last resort for us as a business model," he said.
Several months later, in the first episode of the OpenAI podcast, Altman reiterated that the company is not ruling out the possibility of inserting advertisements, but has not yet found the most appropriate mechanism.
Although the discovered lines of code do not specify where the ads will appear, some analysts believe that the ads are likely to be targeted at free users, who have so far faced limitations on the number of messages, memory, and reasoning ability. If this plan goes ahead, free ChatGPT users may need to prepare for the possibility of pop-up ads or other forms of promotion in the near future.
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