Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) is pressing OpenAI about its move to bring advertising to ChatGPAT, and is asking several other companies if they have similar plans. In Letter to the CEO of OpenAIAnthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap and XAI, Markey writes that embedding ads in AI chatbots “raises significant concerns for consumer protection, privacy and the safety of young users.”
OpenAI will begin testing ads for free ChatGPT users in the coming weeks, and they will appear as “sponsored” products and services at the bottom of conversations with the chatbot. The company says it will show ads related to your chats, though it won’t show them to users under 18 or during conversations related to physical health, mental health or politics.
Even with these safeguards, Markey says that adding ads to Chatbots and other AI platforms “represents a significant and potentially dangerous change” in the advertising industry, as a user’s “emotional connection” to a chatbot could allow companies to “prey on the relationships that their systems have fostered.” Markey also points to OpenAI’s statement that “conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to move beyond static messages and links”, potentially making it harder for someone to identify what is advertising and what is not in the future.
Markey also brought up potential privacy risks, saying AI companies should not use a person’s “personal thoughts, health questions, family issues and other sensitive information” for targeted advertising. And while OpenAI says it won’t show ads when users are talking about sensitive topics, Markey raises questions about whether the company will still use this information to personalize ads in subsequent chats.
“AI companies have a responsibility to ensure that AI chatbots do not become yet another digital ecosystem structured to covertly manipulate users,” Markey writes. He is giving OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap and XAI until February 12 to answer questions about ads in AI chatbots and what they are doing to protect users.
