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Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he\u2019s \u201csurprised\u201d that OpenAI has already moved to introduce ads within its AI chatbot. In an interview with Axios at Davos<\/a>, the AI leader was responding to a question about using ads to monetize AI services, saying the idea is something that the team at Google was thinking through \u201cvery carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n Hassabis also said that his team wasn\u2019t feeling pressure from the tech giant to make \u201ca knee-jerk\u201d decision around advertising, despite how key ads are to Google\u2019s core business.<\/p>\n The DeepMind co-founder\u2019s remarks followed Friday\u2019s news that OpenAI will begin <\/a>testing ads<\/a>\u00a0as a way to generate<\/span> additional revenue from the portion of the AI chatbot\u2019s 800 million weekly active users<\/a> who don\u2019t have a paid subscription. <\/p>\n While OpenAI may have been forced to consider ads, considering its growing infrastructure<\/a> and energy costs<\/a>, its decision could change how users view the service.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a little bit surprised they\u2019ve moved so early into that,\u201d Hassabis said, referring to OpenAI\u2019s adoption of ads. \u201cI mean, look, ads, there\u2019s nothing wrong with ads\u2026they funded much of the consumer internet. And if done well, they can be useful,\u201d he clarified.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in the realm of assistants, and if you think of the chatbot as an assistant that\u2019s meant to be helpful \u2014 and ideally, in my mind, as they become more powerful, the kind of technology that works for you as the individual\u2026there is a question about how ads fit into that model?\u2026 You want to have trust in your assistant, so how does that work?\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n Reiterating some early comments<\/a> from another Davos interview, Hassabis also said that Google didn\u2019t have \u201cany current plans\u201d to do ads in its AI chatbot. Instead, the company would monitor the situation to see how users respond.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Of course, we\u2019ve already seen consumer backlash to the idea of ads infiltrating people\u2019s conversations with AI assistants. When OpenAI last month began exploring a feature that suggested apps to try<\/a> during users\u2019 chats, for instance, people reacted negatively, saying these suggestions felt like intrusive ads. Shortly after, OpenAI turned off the app suggestions<\/a>, which it claimed were not actually ads as they had \u201cno financial component.\u201d<\/p>\n But whether or not money had exchanged hands was not what made users angry. Rather, it was how the app suggestions degraded the quality of the experience.<\/p>\n That\u2019s something that also concerns Hassabis, his remarks suggested. <\/p>\n He explained that using a chatbot is a much different experience than using Google Search. With Search, Google already understands a user\u2019s intent, so it can show potentially useful ads. Chatbots, on the other hand, are meant to become helpful digital assistants that know about you and can help you with many aspects of your life, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s very different from the search use case. So I think there, that has to be thought through very carefully,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Making Gemini more useful to each user is also the focus of\u00a0<\/span>newly launched personalization features announced today<\/a> for Google\u2019s AI Mode. Now, users can opt into having Gemini\u2019s AI tap into their Gmail and Photos for tailored responses in Search\u2019s AI Mode, similar to how Gemini\u2019s app just added a Personal Intelligence feature<\/a> that can reference users\u2019 Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history.<\/p>\n While personalized ad targeting is a business that sustains the free web, pushing an ad on the user while they\u2019re in a conversation with an AI assistant can feel off-putting. It\u2019s why customers rejected Amazon\u2019s earlier attempts to infuse ads into its Alexa experience<\/a> \u2014 they wanted an assistant, not a personal shopper<\/a> hawking things for them to buy. <\/p>\n Hassabis said he wasn\u2019t feeling top-down pressure to force ads into the AI product, either, though he admitted there may be a way to do them right later on. <\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t feel any immediate pressure to make knee-jerk decisions like that \u2014 I think that\u2019s been the history of what we\u2019ve done at DeepMind \u2014 is be very scientific, and rigorous, and thoughtful about each step that we take \u2014 be that the technology itself or the product,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n