Last week, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT would display ads if it was used for free or subscribed to the ChatGPT Go plan. It was seen as a move to boost the company’s revenue, which is reportedly set to run out of money by 2027 due to high operating costs. This raises questions about whether OpenAI’s move will be followed by other AI services.
Speaking at the Davos Economic Forum, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis was quoted as saying that Google has no current plans to introduce ads in Gemini. He simply said that it was interesting to see OpenAI doing so “maybe they feel they need to generate more revenue.”
OpenAI generated more than $20 billion in revenue last year, a sharp increase from $6 billion in 2024. However, the cost of building various data centers like Stargate and the majority of ChatGPT users are free, leaving the company still incurring losses.
