Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he was “surprised” that OpenAI was already moving to introduce advertising within its AI chatbots. In an interview with Axios at Davos, the AI leader answered a question about using advertising to monetize AI services, saying the idea is something Google’s team is considering “very carefully.”
Hassabis also said that despite how important advertising is to Google’s core business, his team feels no pressure from the tech giant to make decisions about advertising “on the fly.”
The DeepMind co-founder’s remarks came on the heels of Friday’s news that OpenAI will launch Test ads as a way to generate Additional revenue from the portion of the AI chatbot’s 800 million weekly active users who do not have a paid subscription.
OpenAI may have been forced to consider advertising due to growing infrastructure and energy costs, but that decision could change the way users view the service.
“I’m a little surprised they got into it this early,” Hassabis said, referring to OpenAI’s introduction of advertising. “I mean, look, advertising, there’s nothing wrong with advertising…advertising funded a lot of the consumer internet, and if done well, it can be helpful,” he clarified.
“But in the area of assistants, if you think of chatbots as assistants that are supposed to be helpful, I think as chatbots become more powerful, the ideal technology would be to act as individuals…The question is how does advertising fit into that model?…We want to trust the assistant, but how does that work?” he asked.
Repeating earlier comments from another Davos interview, Hassabis also said that Google has no “current plans” to advertise on AI chatbots. Instead, the company plans to monitor the situation and see how users react.
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Of course, we’ve already seen consumer backlash against the idea of ads intruding into people’s conversations with AI assistants. For example, when OpenAI started exploring a feature last month that would suggest apps to try while users chat, people reacted negatively, saying these suggestions felt like intrusive ads. Shortly after, OpenAI turned off app suggestions, but claimed that app suggestions were not actually advertisements because they had “no financial component.”
However, what made users angry was not whether money was exchanged or not. Rather, it was about how the app’s suggestions degraded the quality of the experience.
His remarks suggested that it also concerned Mr. Hassabis.
He explained that using a chatbot is a very different experience than using Google search. With search, Google already understands your intent so it can show you ads that may be helpful. Chatbots, on the other hand, are intended to be useful digital assistants that can understand users and assist them with various aspects of their lives, he said.
“I think that’s very different from the search use case, so I think we need to think about that very carefully,” he added.
The focus is also on making Gemini more useful for each user. Announced today, Google’s newly launched personalization features for AI mode. Users can now choose to have Gemini’s AI access their Gmail and photos to give them customized responses in AI mode for search. This is similar to how Gemini’s app added a Personal Intelligence feature that allows users to see their Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history.
Personalized ad targeting is in the business of keeping the web free, but pushing ads to users while they’re talking to an AI assistant can be off-putting. That’s why customers rejected Amazon’s early attempts to incorporate ads into the Alexa experience. Customers wanted an assistant, not a personal shopper selling things to shoppers.
Hassabis said he doesn’t see any top-down pressure to force ads into AI products, but acknowledged there may be a way to include them later.
“We don’t feel any immediate pressure to make such hasty decisions. I think that’s been the history of what we’ve done at DeepMind. We’re focused on being very scientific and rigorous and thoughtful about each step we take, whether it’s the technology itself or the product,” he said.
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