OpenAI has begun restricting its generativeAI competitors with updates to its advertising policy.
OpenAI has quietly updated its ChatGPT advertising policy to restrict its competitors from promoting their products on its platform.
The policy explicitly bans firms such as Adobe from promoting audio and image generating tools within ChatGPT, The Information reported.
ChatGPT recently launched a new image generator of its own called Images 2.5, alongside live voice capabilities.
The restrictions don’t currently apply to video generation tools.
Competitor tools have ben informed their ads would no longer be approved by OpenAI’s review system and that standalone image and voice generation products were no longer able to be advertised on the site.
Organic discovery within ChatGPT will also be affected with the conversational interface no longer returning external links for action-focused image queries, including requests for image and photo editors.
This has a huge impact on firms like Adobe, which has previously promoted its Firefly AI image generator to ChatGPT users.
As SEO loses ground to AI discovery tools, brands are relying more heavily on AI platforms. At the same time, AI platforms are expanding their capabilities and catalogue of tools to broaden their offerings.
If ChatGPT bars rivals within its site while expanding its range of products, there could be a huge number of software platforms unable to reach their desired audience.
OpenAI’s approach here mirrors broader publishing networks, which routinely reject ads from competitors.
The company is fiercely protecting its own interest by adopting these changes, underlining its shift from a platform working with partners to an encompassing, direct-to-consumer product provider.
Rejecting ad dollars from large advertisers such as Adobe could prove costly for ChatGPT, which is already set to fall short of projected ad revenue by as much as 90%. As OpenAI’s product offering expands, so may the list of exclusions, meaning a slimmer pool of advertisers.
