European users of ChatGPT's free and low-cost artificial intelligence agents will start seeing ads from August 24, as its builder OpenAI expands a plan for extracting more revenue from its models.

After initially rolling out advertising in the United States in February, OpenAI will now give advertisers access to users in 31 countries across Europe, the company said late Tuesday.

The ChatGPT maker is burning through cash even as it girds for an initial public offering that could value it at nearly $1 trillion, seeking funds to compete with US rival Anthropic as well as lower-cost Chinese models.

"This expansion gives marketers across Europe a new way to reach people while they are actively exploring, comparing, and making decisions," OpenAI said.

Ads will be added to the free service and to Go subscribers in Europe, who pay eight euros ($9.30) a month.

Only a small percentage of its nearly one billion users pay for its premium subscription services, which will remain ad-free.

Critics say OpenAI is running the risk that users will begin distrusting ChatGPT's content if they feel responses are being influenced by advertisers more interested in promoting their products or services.

Anthropic, meanwhile, has pushed to make its pledge to remain ad-free a key marketing tool.

In its statement, OpenAI said conversations would be private from advertisers and no customer data would be sold.

It added that “Ads in ChatGPT are always clearly labelled and separate from ChatGPT's answers, and advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides.”

Source: AFP

– Agencies