Ads Are Coming to AI Chatbots, and They May Shape the Answers You Get

OpenAI has introduced ads into ChatGPT, and Google is testing sponsored answers inside Gemini conversations. Both systems appear to use real-time bidding and microtargeting — the same infrastructure that already powers behavioral advertising across the web — now embedded directly into the AI response itself, not off to the side in a banner.

Researchers publishing in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing argue this creates risks that existing defenses aren't built to handle. Fact-checkers depend on claims being public and persistent; a fabricated allegation delivered privately inside a chatbot conversation may never surface for scrutiny. Existing legislation like the EU's Digital Services Act was designed for search engines and social media, not conversational AI. And AI companies' promises that ad revenue won't influence answer substance are, as the researchers put it, potentially accompanied by a quiet "for now."