Published on January 21, 2026
In Global Tech

Sam Altman Couldn’t Escape What He Hates: Ads

Advertising on ChatGPT was, after all, inevitable. But is it too late, and how will user experience change?

Image by Nalini Nirad

By Supreeth Koundinya

Fidji Simo comes with a very particular set of skills. At Facebook, she led the team that monetised mobile and turned the News Feed into an advertising machine—now the app’s primary revenue source. As CEO of US grocery delivery platform Instacart, she drove the company’s advertising model to 5,500 brand partners. The campaigns delivered an average 15% incremental sales lift, a figure Sequoia Capital called “almost unheard-of”. When OpenAI announced in May 2025 that Simo would join as CEO of Applications, the writing was on the wall. The Inevitable Turn In January, OpenAI announced that it would run advertisements in ChatGPT’s free and lower-priced Go tiers. The move represents a stark reversal for a company whose CEO, Sam Altman, once called advertising in AI products “sort of uniquely unsettling to me” and “a last resort”. https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/2012295849678602610?s=20 This decision comes amid mounting financial pre

Subscribe or log in to Continue Reading

Uncompromising innovation. Timeless influence. Your support powers the future of independent tech journalism.

Already have an account? Sign In.

📣 Want to advertise in AIM? Book here

Supreeth Koundinya

Supreeth is an engineering graduate who is curious about the world of artificial intelligence and loves to write stories on how it is solving problems and shaping the future of humanity.