Sam Altman Shows OpenAI is Just Another Click Engagement Op

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

"I kind of think of ads as like a last resort for us as a business model," Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, said back in 2024.

Fast forward to January 2026 and OpenAI has seemingly reached that last resort. The San Francisco-based AI research company announced Friday that it will be introducing ads on its free bot service ChatGPT and the lowest tier of its paid subscription service ChatGPT Go.

Posted by jpw at 03:49 PM | 4 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Wait, you mean the tech that is supposed to produce opulence for all is doing so well it needs to sell ads like every other online platform?

Seriously, how do people believe these turds so willingly?

#1 | Posted by jpw at 2026-01-20 03:50 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

And in the end, all these platforms are likely nothing more information harvesting operations dubiously packaged as the latest and greatest thing.

Nothing more than a slick sleight of hand to get people to willing hand over boatloads of information they otherwise might never consider giving to tech cos.

#2 | Posted by jpw at 2026-01-20 03:51 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

I haven't found anyway to make AI useful to me yet.

I do know people who use it to write text messages for them, but then they themselves are too uneducated to review the product to see if it makes sense. And if they were educated enough to do that they wouldn't need AI, would they?

#3 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-20 06:59 PM | Reply

AI is pretty good at fast book cover ideas.

Everything else I've ever used it for was a big failure.

#4 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-20 07:04 PM | Reply