Senator Markey of OpenAI questions ‘deceptive ads’ in ChatGPT

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is pressing OpenAI on its move to bring advertising to ChatGPT, and asking several other companies if they have similar plans. In letters to the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap, and xAI, Markey wrote that including ads in AI-based chatbots “raises significant concerns about consumer protection, privacy, and safety for young users.”

OpenAI It will start testing ads for free ChatGPT users In the coming weeks, products and services will appear as “Sponsored” at the bottom of conversations with the chatbot. The company says it will show ads relevant to your conversation, though it won’t show them to users under 18, or during conversations related to physical health, mental health, or politics.

Even with these safeguards in place, Markey says adding ads in ChatGPT and other AI platforms “represents a major and potentially dangerous shift” in the advertising industry, as a user’s “emotional connection” to a chatbot could allow companies to “exploit the very relationships their systems have fostered.” Markey also points to OpenAI’s statement that “conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links,” which could make it harder for someone to recognize what is and isn’t an ad in the future.

Markey also talks about potential privacy risks, saying that AI companies should not use an individual’s “personal thoughts, health questions, family issues, and other sensitive information” for targeted ads. While OpenAI says it won’t show ads when users talk about sensitive topics, Markey wonders whether the company will continue to use this information to personalize ads in subsequent chats.

“AI companies have a responsibility to ensure that AI chatbots do not become another digital ecosystem designed to secretly manipulate users,” Markey writes. It gives OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap, and xAI until February 12 to answer questions about ads in AI-powered chatbots and what they do to protect users.