[agwp]

Several ways, although I'm not sure whether the below will happen:

1. Paid ads - ChatGPT could offer paid listings at the top of its answers, just like Google does when it provides a results page. Not all people will necessarily leave Google/Gemini for future search queries, but some of the money that used to go to Google/Bing could now go to OpenAI.

2. Behavioral targeting based on past ChatGPT queries. If you have been asking about headache remedies, you might see ads for painkillers - both within ChatGPT and as display ads across the web.

3. Affiliate / commission revenue - if you've asked for product recommendations, at least some might be affiliate links.

The revenue from the above likely wouldn't cover all costs based on their current expenditure. But it would help a bit - particularly for monetizing free users.

Plus, I'm sure there will be new advertising models that emerge in time. If an advertiser could say "I can offer $30 per new customer" and let AI figure out how to get them and send a bill, that's very different to someone setting up an ad campaign - which involves everything from audience selection and creative, to bid management and conversion rate optimization.

[mrweasel]

So I don't necessarily disagree with your suggestions, but that is just not a $1T company you're describing. That's basically a X/Twitter size company, and most agree that $44B was overpaying.

It's not that OpenAI hasn't created something impressive, it just came at to high a price. We're talking space program money, but without all the neat technologies that came along as a result. OpenAI more or less develop ONE technology, no related product or technologies are spun out of the program. To top it all off, the thing they built, apparently not that hard to replicate.

[jsnell]

ChatGPT usage is already significantly higher than Twitter at its peak, and there is a lot more scope activity with explicitly or implicitly commercial intent. Twitter was entertainment and self-promotion. Chatbots are going to be asked for advice on how to repair a dish washer, whether a rash is something to worry about, which European city with cheap flights has the best weather in March for a wedding, and an indefinite stream of other similar queries.