OpenAI looks to add advertising to AI products, CFO tells FT

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)-backed generative AI company OpenAI is discussing plans to introduce advertising to its range of products, as the ChatGPT maker seeks new revenue sources, chief financial officer Sarah Friar told the Financial Times.

The San Francisco-based group, which in October secured $6.6B in new funding, has been hiring advertising talent from big tech rivals such as Meta (META) and Google (GOOGL), the report said, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.

In a statement following the interview, Friar added: “Our current business is experiencing rapid growth and we see significant opportunities within our existing business model. While we’re open to exploring other revenue streams in the future, we have no active plans to pursue advertising.”

Its smaller rival Perplexity is already piloting advertising in its AI-powered search engine. Friar, who previously held leadership roles at companies such as Nextdoor, Square and Salesforce, pointed to the wealth of advertising experience between herself and the company’s chief product officer Kevin Weil.

Elon Musk, meanwhile, on Saturday filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, to prevent the company from engaging in what Musk’s lawyers claim is anticompetitive behavior.

In other news, OpenAI has reportedly considered launching its own web browser to challenge Google Chrome (GOOG), which has dominated the search space for more than a decade.

A group of Canadian news media companies have also sued OpenAI for illegally using their content to train its artificial intelligence models.