AI search startup Perplexity is distancing itself from ads amid fears that users won’t trust chatbots with an upsell agenda. The move highlights an emerging crossroads for the AI industry as the field’s biggest players look for steady sources of income while controlling massive spending, with giants like OpenAI leaning into ads and others like Anthropic promising to keep them out.
“The challenge with ads is that a user will start to doubt everything… which is why we don’t see it as a useful thing to focus on right now,” said an unnamed executive. foot. Instead, the company will focus on producing something that consumers are “willing to pay for”, particularly business customers and high-power users such as finance professionals, lawyers, doctors, and CEOs.
Another executive did not rule out a return to advertising in the future, but said that introducing advertising “is not in line with what users want” and may not be needed for the company to thrive. “We’re in the business of accuracy, and the business is giving true, correct answers,” he said.
The pivot places Perplexity firmly on the anti-advertising side of the industry’s emerging divide over how AI should make money. Some, like Perplexity, are hoping the subscription will be enough and Anthropic has committed to keeping its chatbot cloud ad-free. Others, like OpenAI, have adopted ads, and last week, the company began testing ads for free ChatGPT users. The controversy has also reached the public sphere, with Anthropic Broadcast attack ads apparently targeting ChatGPIT at the Super Bowl, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called “dishonest”.
