Anthropic aired a spicy ad during this year’s Super Bowl blasting competitor OpenAI’s decision to populate ChatGPAT with ads for users who don’t pay for a subscription.
The tagline of the ad reads, “Advertising is coming to AI.” “But not to Claude.”
The marketing campaign appears to have created tension, leading OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – who had called ads a “last resort” only two years ago – into controversy, in which he accused Anthropic of “doublespeak”.
Needless to say, this is a hot-button topic in the AI ​​industry as companies look for new ways to recoup some of their big losses. Just last week, OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig announced his resignation in new York Times Essaywarning that the company could use ads “to manipulate users in ways that we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone stop.”
Ads have become so controversial in AI tools that even other players in the space are second-guessing them. In form of financial Times reportsAI startup Perplexity, which became one of the first generative AI companies to introduce advertising with a paid subscription in 2024, has now ditched advertising altogether.
The company announced it was shutting down ads after several months, citing fears of a loss of user trust.
An unnamed Perplexity executive explained, “A user has to believe that it is the best possible answer in order to be willing to continue using the product and pay for it.” footSaying that “the challenge with ads is that a user will start to be suspicious of everything… that’s why we don’t see it as a useful thing to focus on right now.”
“We’re in the business of accuracy, and the business is giving the truth, the right answers,” said another executive, arguing that the ads “are not tailored to what users want.”
This is a stunning 180 degree turn. Why did both the officers refuse to reveal their names in this? footThe reporting is vague, but the decision shows the company is acting out of an abundance of caution.
If other AI companies follow suit and introduce ads like OpenAI or Google, this is a serious assessment of the significant potential to shock the user. For now, some of the biggest players in the AI ​​field are offering extremely similar chatbots whose capabilities largely overlap. The fear: Ads could easily trigger an exodus of users, undermining AI companies’ efforts to differentiate themselves.
For now, Perplexity’s main source of revenue is paid subscriptions, which range from $20 to $200 per month. Anthropic similarly relies on subscriptions ranging from $20 to $100 per month for regular consumers.
But whether either company will be able to convince investors that the subscriptions are enough to offset the much larger expenses remains to be seen.
At a valuation of $18 billion, Perplexity is lagging far behind the AI ​​industry. But its latest move highlights a growing rift as companies consider how to dig out of a huge – and deepening – financial hole.
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