Frontier AI Labs: the Call Option to AGI

All AI systems will end up significantly leaning on ads for funding in the near future. The only question is just how invasive & sneaky the approach. Will it use the conversational and personal connection it makes with users to push them product suggestions? Will the Agent sent on a shopping trip recommend specific sponsors? Or it will be the more obvious banner ads?

I'd bet on as many as they can get away with. With the investors in these AI systems assuming ads-based revenue is coming to AI free users, there will be a moment when the switch flips, the revenue is asked about, and the first platform breaks the seal. Then they'll be desperate to build as much inventory in every possible format they can, quickly and all at once.

For a while publishers have been dealing with the pressure generated on them by LLM systems stealing clicks from Google Search or failing to deliver on conversions from a chat context. They'll have to build in a plan to combat the downward pricing pressure that comes from billions of pageviews opening up at once; and you can be sure that ad buyers will treat it like social media--not nearly as nit-picky as they are about news media when it comes to brand safety.

"investors are clearly pricing in AI labs’ ability to monetize free users"