OpenAI will start testing a new kind of ChatGPT ad later this month that appears while a user waits for ChatGPT to create an image they asked for. Until now, ChatGPT ads have run at the bottom of a conversation, either as a single unit with a headline, short description, image, and link, or as a carousel of products pulled from one retailer’s feed. The new ads lean on photos instead, showing a product, how it’s used, or the experience it offers. OpenAI said they’ll be labeled, kept separate from the user’s image, and won’t influence ChatGPT’s answers. The test starts with a first batch of US advertisers, and image generation is only the first place OpenAI will try the format.
