OpenAI's new sponsored agents are happy to chat about selling you things

Advertisers can now ask ChatGPT to help create their ChatGPT ads, because what's more relatable than an ad crafted by a bot?

There's a new kind of agent coming to ChatGPT ads, and this one wants your money. OpenAI has begun testing Sponsored Agents, advertiser-backed bots that try to sell you things as part of a custom conversation.

OpenAI said in a Wednesday announcement that Sponsored Agents were now being tested with select US advertisers already using its platform to put sponsored content in front of ChatGPT users.

Despite the “agent” label, however, it seems from OpenAI’s description of the new feature that it’s more like a typical sponsored content chatbot that appears unasked on websites, bombarding users with the opportunity to ask a virtual customer service agent what product is right for them. In this case, the customer service agent lives right in ChatGPT instead of users having to go to an advertiser’s actual website to learn more - you wouldn’t want those humans navigating away until the last possible minute, after all. 

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“After seeing a relevant ad, a user can choose to start a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored agent in ChatGPT,” the announcement explains. “The user can explain what matters to them, ask follow-up questions, and follow a link to the business’s website when they’re ready to take the next step.”

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As an example, a brief video included with the announcement shows a user asking for a recipe and instead being told they shouldn’t worry about trying to plan their meals before being shunted into an ad for a subscription meal kit. The sponsored agent from the meal kit company in the ad simply provided options on which of its kits was the fastest to prepare for a weeknight meal. 

“For businesses, it’s an opportunity to help interested customers explore their offerings through a personalized conversation,” OpenAI added. In other words, this is pretty much exactly like the chatbots you see on company websites, only run by OpenAI and embedded in its products instead. 

Yo dawg, we heard you liked AI ads …

OpenAI mentioned a couple of other new AI advertising tools alongside the sponsored agents, one of which is sure to make the ads you see in your slop-filled ChatGPT responses even sloppier. 

“Advertisers can now use simple, natural-language prompts to create, update, and analyze campaigns directly in ChatGPT with the Ads Manager plugin,” the company said. In other words, why even have an advertising professional create the campaigns you cram into ChatGPT when ChatGPT can do it for you? 

“When drafting an ad, advertisers can now receive suggested copy and imagery based on their landing page and campaign objective,” OpenAI added. Perfect: Slop ads served in slop responses. What more could you ask for?

HubSpot users and Shopify merchants are also getting new ChatGPT ads connections, the company said, enabling more businesses to cram more ads in front of more ChatGPT users, we suppose.

“These launches reflect how we’re building an advertising platform with AI at its center,” OpenAI said. We get the internet we deserve, and it looks like it’s going to be one with ever more sloppy, artificial content crammed wherever advertisers can find a space. ®