AI and ad wars, OpenAI and Anthropic trade barbs at each other
India Today
AI companies are under pressure to rapidly grow their revenue. They are now looking at ads in their chatbots such as ChatGPT. But even as they think of introducing ads, they are also taking potshots at each other or so we see in barbs traded by OpenAI and Anthropic.
The two AI heavyweights of Silicon Valley are again at odds, and this time, it’s about ads and ideology. OpenAI recently revealed plans to introduce advertising into ChatGPT, a move through which Sam Altman intends to monetise the wildly popular chatbot and boost revenue. Taking a direct jab at this decision, rival Anthropic responded with an ad campaign suggesting that its AI model, Claude, will never welcome ads.
In some ways the ads are reminiscent of classic Mac vs PC fight that Microsoft and Apple once fought publicly, taking opposite positions in terms of product culture and aesthetics.
Just days ago during the Super Bowl, Anthropic rolled out a 60-second pregame commercial citing “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
Soon after, OpenAI and Anthropic began trading barbs in public. Anthropic continued its criticism on Thursday, with its chief commercial officer Paul Smith defending the company’s stance, saying it was the company’s “conscious decision” to keep Claude ad-free. In an interview with CNBC, Smith argued that advertising can push companies to “optimise for the wrong things”. He suggests that Anthropic does not want to prioritise engagement and revenue over intelligence, safety and trust.
“We’ve made less flashy headlines than some,” Smith told CNBC. “We’re not fighting another partner for eyeballs or for ad revenue or anything,” he said.
While Anthropic delivered back-to-back jabs, OpenAI has not been silent. Its CEO Sam Altman hit back swiftly, calling the Super Bowl ad “deceptive” and “clearly dishonest”.
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