The pilot advertising project of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the United States has surpassed $100 million in annual revenue six weeks after its launch, a company spokesperson announced on Thursday, highlighting the strong initial demand for the emerging advertising activity of the AI startup.
OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, announced in January that it would start displaying ads in ChatGPT to certain American users, intensifying its efforts to generate revenue from the AI chatbot to finance the high costs of technology development. The ads were supposed to be tested with users of the company’s free version and the cheaper Go version.
The ads are separate from the responses generated by ChatGPT and do not influence its results. User conversations are not shared with marketers, the company said at the time.
While about 85% of users are currently allowed to see ads, less than 20% of them see them daily, leaving considerable room to increase ad monetization within the existing user pool, the spokesperson stated.
“We observe no impact on consumer confidence indicators, low ad rejection rates, and continuous improvements in ad relevance as we learn from feedback,” OpenAI stated.
The company plans to expand the test to a global scale in the coming weeks, including in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
OpenAI has now expanded to over 600 advertisers, and nearly 80% of small and medium-sized businesses have shown interest in ChatGPT ads, the spokesperson said.
The ChatGPT manufacturer is set to launch self-service features for advertisers in April to broaden access and drive growth.
David Dugan, former Meta ads executive, was appointed earlier this week to head OpenAI’s global advertising solutions team.
Analysts have noted that ads could unlock a significant revenue stream from millions of ChatGPT users, but this decision could potentially upset some customers and undermine confidence in the product.
