Just two years ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman floated the idea of filling his company’s blockbuster chatbot ChatGPIT with ads.last resort” But as the company recently announcedUsers will eventually get bored with the ads – an early sign of frustration as the company loses billions of dollars every quarter.
Insiders did not like this decision. This week, OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig declared in a new York Times Essay That she is resigning from the company.
“I do not believe the ads are immoral or unethical,” she wrote. “AI is expensive to run, and ads can be an important source of revenue. But I have deep reservations about OpenAI’s strategy.”
Hitzig argued that the risk of OpenAI exploiting its user base with fraudulent advertisements was too high.
Hitzig argued, “People tell chatbots about their medical fears, their relationship problems, and their beliefs about God and the afterlife.” “Advertising built on that collection creates the ability to manipulate users in a way that we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone stop.”
Although she was not concerned about the first generation of ads, which were “clearly labeled” and “will appear below the answers,” Hitzig is concerned that later iterations “will not follow those principles.”
He compared OpenAI to Facebook, which once promised that users would retain control over their data – a principle that was abandoned early on in dramatic fashion.
“So the real question is not about advertising or no advertising,” he wrote. “It’s whether we can design structures that prevent people from locking themselves out of these devices and potentially manipulating them as consumers. I think we can.”
The topic came to a head over the weekend, when OpenAI competitor Anthropic aired several ads claiming “ads are coming to AI,” but not for its Chatbot Cloud — without directly naming OpenAI — which sent Altman spiraling. He called the ads “dishonest” and accused the company of “double talk”, but whether there is any truth in Anthropic’s unfortunate vision of the future remains to be seen as OpenAI is working on how to implement the ads.
We’ve seen other highly publicized departures from the Altman-led company in the past year, including economics researcher Tom Cunningham, who left after reportedly expressing concerns over AI being bad for the economy — warnings that may ultimately be prescient.
Former OpenAI engineer Kelvin French-Owen, who helped create the company’s coding agent Codex, also left in July, corporate anarchy Behind the scenes.
Hitzig’s recent departure platformer reporting that OpenAI had breached it Mission Alignment TeamWhich was created in 2024 “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”
Instead, former team lead, Joshua Achiam, reportedly took on the role of “chief futurist” at OpenAI.
Hitzig is only the latest in a series of high-profile departures. On Monday, Anthropic researcher Mrinanka Sharma announced his resignation. posting a secret letter That was notably devoid of specifics, but highlighted concerns over the security of the technology being developed by the cloud chatbot maker.
He wrote, “It appears that we are approaching a limit where our intelligence must grow equal to our ability to influence the world, otherwise we will not suffer the consequences.”
At least half of the 12 co-founders of Elon Musk’s xAI have now also left. Earlier this week, two of them publicly announced their resignations within just 24 hours.
None of them made any mention of security concerns, suggesting that the departure was not a matter of principle. This is despite the company’s chatbot Grok being embroiled in a growing scandal over the spread of deepfake pornography and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
In short, all three companies – OpenAI, Anthropic and XAI – are seeing a steady outflow of talent, at exactly the time when they seem most desperate for a business model.
More about the AI company’s departure: Anthropological researcher resigns in secret public letter
