Ads ruined social media; now they’re coming to AI

CHATBOTS might hallucinate and sprinkle too much flattery on their users. “That’s a fascinating question!” one recently told me, but at least the subscription model that underpins them is healthy for our well-being. Many Americans pay about US$20 a month to use the premium versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini Pro or Anthropic’s Claude, and the result is that the products are designed to provide maximum utility.

Don’t expect this status quo to last. Subscription revenue has a limit, and Anthropic’s new US$200-a-month “Max” tier suggests even the most popular models are under pressure to find new revenue streams.

Unfortunately, the most obvious one is advertising – the Web’s most successful business model. Artificial intelligence (AI) builders are already exploring ways to plug more ads into their products, and while that’s good for their bottom lines, it also means we’re about to see a new chapter in the attention economy that fuelled the Internet.