Damn, Sam. (We are Dr. Seuss, but not racist.)
Sam Altman, in an interview with Stratechery released today, once again made it clear: he’s not a fan of ads. (Hat tip to Reid Jackson for flagging this.)
See this exchange:
“Currently, I am more excited to figure out how we can charge people a lot of money for a really great automated software engineer or other kind of agent than I am making some number of dimes with an advertising based model.”
Is he wrong? Not really. Did it still hurt our feelings? Sort of!
Why This Matters:
OpenAI is still trying to solve the most basic question: how do you make money in generative AI? Based on Altman’s comments, ads are pretty low on that priority list—for now. But that doesn’t mean they’re entirely off the radar.
We’ve already seen other large language model platforms, like Perplexity, roll out ad-supported models. It’s all still experimental as these companies work to justify the soaring costs of compute, more advanced models, and sky-high valuations. Ads are part of that mix, but so far, they’ve mostly been treated like a side quest—with mixed results.
Still, AI-powered search and generative experiences are steadily eating away at the open web. Eventually, advertisers will demand ways to reach consumers there. That makes ads less of an option and more of an inevitability.
Experts React:
Here’s Reid’s original post on X, plus a few others that are great:
Our Take:
Altman’s comments reflect the broader ambivalence many genAI companies feel toward advertising. Ads are messy! They come with privacy concerns, potential for weird misalignment, and, let’s face it, a general “ick” factor for companies that fancy themselves focused on utility and product-led growth (OpenAI, in particular, prides itself on being a “higher-end” brand and ads can seem low-brow). Charging enterprises big money for powerful AI tools is simpler, cleaner, and easier to scale, at least in theory.
That said, genAI tools are already reshaping how people access information, often replacing traditional web searches entirely. Whether OpenAI likes it or not, ad dollars follow attention. As consumer behavior shifts, advertisers will push hard for access. It may not happen today or even this year, but the economic gravity of advertising is tough to escape. Eventually, even OpenAI may find that those dimes add up. (We worked hard on this pun!)
