Let the ChatGPT enshitification begin!
OpenAI: Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT
Today we’re bringing Go to the U.S. and everywhere ChatGPT is available, giving people expanded access to messaging, image creation, file uploads and memory for $8 USD/month. In the coming weeks, we’re also planning to start testing ads in the U.S. for the free and Go tiers, so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits or without having to pay. Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions will not include ads.
I'm sure in a few days we'll see a Stratechery post praising this move to high heaven, and I don't doubt it will start to earn real money for the company.
However, dear reader, I've been on this train before. Following Google Search for the past 20 years has been:
- Wow, Google is better than Yahoo and has no ads
- Okay, there are a couple ads, but they're clearly marked and not on all searches
- Now we've got some more ads and they're on every search
- Oh my god, basically the entire first page of results are ads!
- Wow, ChatGPT is better than Google and has no ads
- …
Sure, ads will help offset the costs of the most used piece of software to be released in the past decade, and giving people an $8 option is good for giving more access to people who can't afford the $20 price tag. That said, I will be shocked if ads don't become a revenue knob that OpenAI can crank up and up and up until users are as annoyed with them as they are with Google.