Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:05] Welcome to ChatGPT Curious, a podcast for people who are, well, curious about ChatGPT. I'm, um, your host, Dr. Shantae Cofield, also known as the Maestro, and I created this show to explore what ChatGPT actually is really, though, are the files in the computer, how to use it, and what it might mean for how we think, work, create and move through life. Whether you're skeptical, intrigued, or already experimenting, you're in the right place. All that I ask is that you stay curious. All right, let's get into it.
[00:00:38] Hello, hello, hello, my curious people, and welcome to episode 28 of, uh, ChatGpt Curious. I am your grateful host, the Maestro, and today we're talking about ads. Fucking ads. And ChatGPT's newest tier, go tier.
[00:00:55] We knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time. And that time has come. As of January 16, ChatGPT has announced that it is rolling out ads those. We knew it was coming, funnily enough, and I guess, as is to be expected, uh, they didn't actually post this on their release notes, but rather on the. They didn't hide it though. It's on the open AI website in the news tab. But I, like, never actually go there. I go to. The release notes were just always easier for me to keep up with things. So I made a mental note to check the News tab instead of the release notes moving forward so I can stay in the know for myself and you curious people. Uh, I will link that ad that adds the, uh, announcement in the show, uh, notes, but the deets, the details of these ads. OpenAI plans to start testing ads in the coming weeks for logged in adults. That is a little point there. Adults in the United States on free and go tiers, subscribers on Pro and plus plans will not have ads yet. They didn't say yet. I'm saying that they better not fucking bring them. But right now it's only for, uh, free and the Go tiers. To start, OpenAI plans to test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT. When there's a relevant sponsored product or service based on the current conversation, ads will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer. You'll be able to learn more about why you're seeing that ad or dismiss any ad and tell us why.
[00:02:22] During the test, you will not m. Let me reverse that, then rewind that. During the test. We will not show ads. This is OpenAI speaking. We will not show ads in accounts where the user tells us or we predict that they are under 18 and ads are not eligible to appear near sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics. A little asterisk. Asterisks, uh, that's a hard word for me there with the under 18. That is a new thing that they rolled out as well, that they are using tech or whatever. I didn't even, honestly not. I didn't even read into it. I just saw the headline, um, to predict if the person is under 18.
[00:03:02] So, you know, I can go back and read that, uh, at some point and I'll share with you. But that's what that's about.
[00:03:08] Um, they shared an example of what it looks like and I mean, it's at the bottom of the page is what you would expect. And I just wish it wasn't the case. But I'm just here to report on the news. Uh, so who will be running the ads? I have no idea.
[00:03:21] All right. All that I found was that OpenAI has reached out to a small pool of advertisers. They didn't say who it was, and asked for spending commitments of less than $1 million over a several week period.
[00:03:32] Worth noting, this is a pretty significant sentiment reversal from OpenAI, despite the fact that we all knew it would happen at some point and that folks like Sam Altman, he's so weird. They're all prg, so weird, but he is. You know, all these people are just gonna be lying through their teeth. Uh, uh, but actually, and especially specifically at an event at Harvard University In May of 2024, Altman described ads as like a last resort for us.
[00:04:00] Like a last resort for us. Wow.
[00:04:04] Like a last resort for us. For a business model, characterizing ads plus AI is sort of uniquely unsettling.
[00:04:14] So here we are with the last resort. We knew it was coming. We all fucking knew it was coming. Right? But I want to circle back real quick to who's actually going to get hit with these ads so I can talk about the new tier. Like I said, users on the free tier and users on ChatGPT's newest tier, which is ChatGPT Go, will be the folks that are infected or actually see these ads.
[00:04:32] This GO tier, I've spoken about it in previous episodes, um, but it's been around since August of 2025 and it's currently available in 171 countries, with the United States becoming the most, most, uh, recent member on January 16th.
[00:04:48] Like I said, in those past episodes, it was only a matter of time before it came to the US and it is here. And we know, right? We know as Much as I hate this, I kind of like talking about this because it's like, overlaps with like business and economics and, and marketing. Um, it's a, I hate about business and marketing and, and economics, but I understand it doesn't make it right. It's not right at all. Um, but introducing this tier, this go tier, I think it's $8 a month. Uh, it's a pricing, it's a marketing strategy. We've seen it a million times before, most notably streaming services like, like Netflix, right? Obviously the play here is money, right? It's money both from ads and from increasing the number of paying users. Currently, only about like 4 to 5% of folks who use ChatGPT actually pay. And this is a guesstimate. Like there's such a significant lack of transparency in like, all aspects of, of, you know, these, these AI. Um, but chat GPT has a reported like 800 million weekly active users and they, they stay thrown at that number. So I'm like, I don't know what it actually is, but they say, talking about that 800 million weekly users, uh, and only 4 to 5% of those pay. And yes, I pay. I told you this before, I do pay.
[00:05:57] Um, we've discussed the numbers, all the numbers. I've had multiple episodes. We talk about it, and OpenAI is losing money hand over fist.
[00:06:05] And we all knew, we all know that this model was never sustainable, right? Sustainability was never the point.
[00:06:12] OpenAI chose to operate at a significant loss, right? And it was intentional. Why? To create buy in and dependency and then monetize later via pricing and ads and enterprise lock in. It is straight out of Uber's playbook. We've seen it a zillion times, right? Uber lost. I don't know, maybe, maybe you didn't know this, right? But if you take Uber, I use Lyft, but either way it's the same shit. Uh, but they lost billions, you know, annually for years while keeping the fares artificially low, right? Getting those fares subsidized to build a habit, to build market dominance, to build dependency.
[00:06:46] Ride prices have since increased like 25 to 40% after they cut the subsidies and they cut the driver incentives. And here we are, you know, now it costs to get to the airport, it's like 50, and it definitely used to be where I am, about 25. So we know that we've seen this, the insertification of everything. This is actually, you know, a really good tie into last week's, last week's episode is why AI is so polarizing. It's because of like this, right? It's doing that is not unique to AI and it's just so pervasive in our lives and how these companies operate and they treat their, their customers well initially and then they them over and it's just like well great. So you know, how is OpenAI looking to justify or explain introducing ads? I don't think they fucking care. But what are they saying? Quote unquote. We're planning to start testing ads in the US for the free and go tiers so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits or without having to pay. Right. They are framing it as expanding access.
[00:07:54] And in some of the other, you know, writings they talk about this kind of, you know, pseudo communal effort to work towards achieving AGI artificial general intelligence. Insert massive eye roll. They just need more money and ads is the easiest way to get it.
[00:08:12] My top two concerns here, right, I, I don't like any of it but my top two concerns here is obviously number one, decrease trust. I use ChatGPT for information.
[00:08:22] How much less can I trust it? Now I, I've talked to you about this, I've taught you about this. Like we don't trust it point blank and you know, we ask it where do the sources from? And like let me see the sources, things like that. But now it becomes like what we've experienced with, with Google. Like we all go to it and use it and then the top like hits that it gives us, we just scroll right by because they're ads. And so having it, you know, where we go for information, this is even more invasive and in my opinion even more problematic. Right? Because at least with uh, you know, Google it's like static links and then you go and you check them out but this is like feeding you information and you're like, can I trust this?
[00:09:00] I see that an ad is getting served to me, but is that going to start getting baked into the answers that I am given?
[00:09:09] And of course they say no, but it says like I can't trust you for ever. The second concern, I have equal concern, you know, no order here is what I'm going to call the de democratization of this incredible technology.
[00:09:21] I really do believe in this technology and you know, I think that it's, I think it's incredible. Like absolutely incredible. So many different ways do I think that it's being abused and used in super shitty ways and there's a lot of problems to it. Absolutely. But that doesn't take away from the fact that it is absolutely incredible.
[00:09:37] And something that has always been a concern. And I actually, the very first time I ever spoke about chat GPT, I did a video in uh, 2022 and I said like uh, my concern is that it will only be available to folks who can afford it, right? That only folks who can afford this potentially life changing technology will have access. And right now it's like anyone who wants it because it's free.
[00:10:05] What happens moving forward? I do believe that we'll continue to see us dripping down, you know, and, or an unbundling of the lower tiers with the ultimate goal of pushing users to the paid tiers. Right. They can decrease the limits, they can limit the uh, model models that you have access to. And all right, so suddenly you're like, yeah, I use it for free, but it's like absolute.
[00:10:28] And so just to like have a usable experience, you know, a semi valuable, worthwhile, helpful user experience, you have to pay. And like that sucks.
[00:10:41] Will users leave? Who knows? Y' all know that uh, you know, as much as I'm like talking about the future, possibly making predictions is far from my preferred way to use my time.
[00:10:52] I think that, you know, whether or not people will leave will, will come down to some of the things that I discussed actually in a previous episode, episode 17, which was will chat GPT get Old Navy? Uh, I know that was like a really weird title, but if you go listen to the episode it makes sense. And uh, just talking about Chat GPT getting undercut by a cheaper model that does, you know, 90% of what it can do for a fraction of the price.
[00:11:13] But the biggest thing, and kind of to summarize that, I'll link that in the show notes. But the biggest thing here, and kind of to summarize what, what I said in that episode is that the user experience, in order for people to leave, the user experience has to decrease significantly enough and or the price has to go up, you know, so much that folks are willing to deal with the friction of leaving. Right?
[00:11:34] Two things that are worth thinking about regarding this, you know, leaving is that uh, there may not be that much friction for leaving for the casual user, right? Because they're not probably not paying as it is.
[00:11:46] And so if they're free and not even logged in, then you know, they were never leaning on memory. These users were never leaning on ChatGPT memory. They're like, they don't have any lock in is what I'm saying. They don't have like, oh, this thing knows me and my preferences until it gets annoying to Leave. If there's asking casual questions, it's like, whatever, I'll just go use a different one.
[00:12:04] But, you know, people that do have a bit more skin in the game, at least have an account, maybe that changes, maybe that's different. I don't know. The flip side to this and something to consider is that I think that ads will come to all of the LLMs. Like, just like we see ads on every single fucking streaming platform with the exception of Apple tv, right? They all have an ads tier and like they're all supported by ad revenue. Uh, it feels like ChatGPT is just going to be the first.
[00:12:31] You know, I did a little bit of digging into why Apple tv, which has like the best shows as well, um, just finished the morning show Recommend, although season 4 I think got weird. It felt like they had different writers. But either way, I did a little digging into why Apple, um, TV doesn't have an ads tier. And it was just like, because it's not their main product and they, you know, Apple makes money by having actual products. And I was like, okay, that's cool. Uh, you know, I, you'd think that Amazon wouldn't need to have it, but they got ads. Like, I mean, I don't even have an Amazon subscription anymore, but they did have that ads tier. So, you know, it seems like part of it is values and obviously you'd be making money from other places, which I have said in a previous episode. I'm saying that a lot, but like, I talk a lot in these other, you know, I've got 28 episodes, but I talk a lot in each of them. Uh, but you know, I had said in one of the episodes, I think when I announced, when I spoke about Gemini, um, that's, that's Google's model that I said if I was forced to pick that it would be Google and it would be Gemini who wins this, this game and wins the AI race because they have money from elsewhere. Right?
[00:13:43] Uh, Chachi PT doesn't, Claude doesn't, you know, worth. It's worth noting also that there are different AI races. Like there's the enterprise race, which I think Claude is really doing well in.
[00:13:54] Um, there's going to the public, which is where ChatGPT sits. And they don't have any other products or offers or services. Right? So the money has to come from this. Unlike with Google, where they're already a household name and they have all this other stuff. Um, so they are, they make their money with ads. But I, I, I do think that Chad GPT is just gonna be first to introduce ads, and the other companies will see that it ends up being financially beneficial and so they will follow suit. And I'm saying this in the context of will people jump ship? And it's like, well, you know, out of the pan into the fire, and you just kind of go from one to the next. So who knows, we'll see. But what about you? I, you know, are you planning on staying with Chat? GPT? You jump and ship, let me know.
[00:14:43] I, uh, know that a, uh, handful of you had reached out and said that you're on the free tier.
[00:14:48] And honestly, most people are on the free tier. Uh, and I'd love to know if you start getting served ads. Are you leaving? Did you leave? Where, where are you at? Uh, hit me back, shoot me a text. 310-737-2345 shoot me a DM at the movement Mitro. No judgment, just what I'm gonna call a nosy curiosity. All right, let's get into that last section of the episode and then we'll wrap it up. So how I use ChatGPT this week? If you're new here, each episode I include a section where I briefly discuss how I use ChatGPT that week. This week I used, after cursing it and saying, why would you do this to people and introduce ads? I used it to turn screenshots of a PDF into a Word document. So again, I used screenshots I, uh, wanted to be able to download and read like it was a super short, like four page article. It was like, it was about economic principles. And the only way to download the article was to enter my email address. And I was like, why? You don't need it. Stop. I don't want to do that. So I took screenshots of the PDF and I asked Chat because I could read the whole thing. It wasn't like it was like behind a paywall or some something. It was just like they wanted my email address. And I was like, but I don't want to give it to you. So I took screenshots of it and I asked Chat to turn. To turn those screenshots into a docx file with the exact transcription. It took, uh, a few minutes, but that shit worked like a charm. And I was like, first I asked chat and I was like, can you do this? And it was like, yes, upload it and I'll do it. And I was like, okay, fingers crossed. And it actually did. It worked perfectly. So if you're looking for a way to turn screenshots into a word doc. There you go. All right folks, that right there, that wraps it up. That is all for today. Hopefully you found this episode helpful and not too depressing, but here we are. Sh ifation of everything.
[00:16:36] Uh, but if you did find it helpful, consider leaving a rating or review. I do read all of them. I do appreciate all of them.
[00:16:43] You know, sometimes folks that have podcasts say it helps folks find the show. I have no clue if ratings and reviews help people find the show, but I know I like them and I like reading them. So I will ask for them and I'm super grateful if you leave them. Don't forget I also have a companion newsletter, the Curious Companion, that drops every single Thursday that is basically the podcast episode in text format. So if you prefer to read or you just want a written record of the things, join the newsletter fam. You can head to chatgptcurious.com newsletter or you can check out the link in the show Notes. As always, endlessly, endlessly. One more time. Endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until we chat again next Thursday, stay curious.
[00:17:31] It.
