Do you remember when you would go out to play with your friends, and whoever owned the ball had absolute power to decide who got to play and under what rules? Well, that is more or less what OpenAI is doing with advertising on ChatGPT.
The tech company has updated its advertising policies to ban ads on ChatGPT that promote generative AI image or audio tools belonging to its competitors. This change was communicated directly to the platform’s advertising partners, without any public announcement, and was revealed by The Information.
OpenAI aims to build an ecosystem that surrounds its users’ lives, with ChatGPT serving as a central part of it. The development of its advertising business is key to achieving this goal, since it is a direct source of revenue.
In recent months, the developer has been refining ChatGPT Ads, adding more features, controls, and metrics, evolving from a simple advertising platform into a model that seeks to compete with the major players. And it seems that, now that it has established the playing field, it has decided to enforce stricter rules (although this could get it into trouble over anticompetitive practices).
By banning ads for competing image and audio AIs on ChatGPT, OpenAI makes it harder for users to discover alternatives to its own tools, increasing its competitive advantage. According to the reports, the company’s decision coincided with the launch of ChatGPT Images 2.5 and ChatGPT Live’s new voice features.
Even so, OpenAI’s restrictions do not affect all competing tools, since, for now, ads for rival video-generating AIs have not been banned.
Some of OpenAI’s own partners, such as Adobe, have been affected. Earlier this year, the multinational software company had participated in OpenAI’s advertising pilot program by running promotional campaigns for Acrobat Studio and Firefly AI, its image AI. Doug Wyatt, Adobe’s Senior Director of Media for the Americas, told The Information that OpenAI had informed its advertising partners that campaigns for standalone image and audio generation products would no longer be approved.
The Information also notes that ChatGPT may have begun to limit links and organic recommendations to third-party image tools (such as image generators or editors) in action-oriented searches. In other words, if a user performs this type of search, the AI reduces direct mentions of external alternatives and prioritizes its own built-in features.
This, combined with the advertising restrictions within ChatGPT, would represent a major blow for external brands, as they lose visibility in a storefront accessed by millions of people. On the other hand, this behavior could end up attracting regulatory scrutiny if it is deemed that OpenAI is acting in an anticompetitive manner.
For example, in the case of the European Union, this very summer the body designated ChatGPT as a VLOSE (Very Large Online Search Engine) under the DSA (Digital Services Act), which implies greater obligations around transparency, risk assessment, auditing, and access to data and algorithms for authorities and certain researchers.
Likewise, the EU is assessing the possibility of designating OpenAI as a gatekeeper under the DMA (Digital Markets Act). In that case, the company would be subject to much more direct obligations to avoid favoring its own services over those of third parties, especially in rankings, recommendations, and access conditions. A potential combination of ad blocking and reduced organic visibility could then be examined under specific rules against self-preferencing.
Photo: Depositphotos
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Δ