The week AI died (advertising has come to AI)

AI just crossed the line.

ChatGPT is getting ads.

Not “search ads.”
Not “banner ads on a website.”

Ads inside the place people use like a therapist.
A tutor.
A lawyer.
A career coach.
A confessional.

Here’s what nobody wants to admit:

The moment ads show up, the product stops being “an assistant.”

It becomes a mall.

And malls do not exist to tell you the truth.
They exist to move inventory.

OpenAI says ads will be labeled.
Separated from answers.
Not tied to sensitive topics.

Cool.

That’s not the scary part.

The scary part is what this unlocks next:

The most valuable real estate on the internet
is now the next sentence you read.

Your intent.
Your context.
Your questions.
Your panic.
Your plans.

All sitting in one chat thread.

This is the new oil field.
And we are about to find out who gets to drill.

Because once ads work in ChatGPT, every AI assistant follows.

And suddenly “alignment” is not just about safety.

It’s about incentives.

When revenue is on the line, the temptation is always the same:

Nudge the answer.
Nudge the framing.
Nudge the “helpfulness.”
Until it quietly becomes persuasion.

If you build in AI, this is your wake-up call:

You’re not competing with a model anymore.
You’re competing with a monetization engine.