Key points
- OpenAI monetization head Benji Shomair said Monday that user trust ranks first among priorities for the company's ads business.
- OpenAI will not share ChatGPT conversations with advertisers and will not sell user data to them, he said at a Luma Partners event.
- Adweek reports OpenAI began testing ads in February and posted a $38.5 billion net loss last year.
Why it matters for marketers: Marketers planning on ChatGPT ads should expect limited targeting and measurement data, since conversation content and user data stay off the table for outside partners.
OpenAI's head of monetization, Benji Shomair, told an audience of adtech and agency executives on Monday that user trust is the top priority as the company builds its advertising business. Speaking at an event hosted by the investment bank Luma Partners, he acknowledged that this principle puts limits on what OpenAI can give its partners.
Two commitments define those limits, according to Adweek. OpenAI will keep ChatGPT conversations private from advertisers, and it will never sell user data to them. Shomair said some partner requests will therefore go unmet. In his words, there are things partners want that OpenAI "just can't" do.
The comments come as OpenAI works to scale an ads operation that began testing in February. Adweek notes the company is also under heavy financial pressure, citing a net loss of $38.5 billion last year. That context suggests strong incentive to grow ad revenue, which makes the stated boundaries on data worth noting.
For marketers and agencies, the practical takeaway is that ChatGPT advertising is unlikely to resemble platforms built on deep user-level data sharing. Targeting, audience matching and measurement options may be narrower, and conversation content will not be a signal advertisers can access.
What to watch next is which products OpenAI does offer within these limits, and how adtech partners adapt. Teams considering early tests should ask directly what data, reporting and verification will be available, and plan budgets with those constraints in mind.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.