ChatGPT has bitten the bullet to become the first LLM to put ads in its interface, and that’s given its rivals ammunition to take potshots at it.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis hasn’t held back in questioning OpenAI’s strategy, particularly the contrast between Sam Altman’s bold claims about achieving artificial general intelligence and the company’s recent decision to introduce advertising. Hassabis raised pointed questions about the apparent contradiction in OpenAI’s approach during a recent conversation.
“I think actions speak louder than words,” Hassabis said. “Going back to the original conversation we were having with Sam and others claiming AGI’s around the corner, why would you bother with ads then? So that is, I think, a reasonable question to ask.”
The Google DeepMind CEO emphasized that his company has no immediate plans to follow OpenAI’s path. “From our point of view, we have no plans at the moment to do ads. If you’re talking about the Gemini app, right? Specifically I think we are going to, obviously, we’re going to watch very carefully what the outcome of what ChatGPT saying they’re going to do. I think it has to be handled very carefully.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Demis Hassabis has directly attacked OpenAI. When OpenAI had claimed to have used its model to solve an Erdos problem, Hassabis had called the claim “embarrassing” after it had turned out that the problem had previously been solved by a human, and GPT-5 had merely found the existing solution. Hassabis has now questioned OpenAI’s ad strategy, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had previously called a “last resort” in looking to make money.
But Hassabis’s skepticism cuts to the heart of a fundamental question: if OpenAI truly believes AGI is imminent, why would it need to monetize through advertising? The implicit suggestion is that ChatGPT’s move toward ads reveals a more prosaic reality—the company needs revenue streams to sustain its expensive infrastructure and ambitious research goals.
The timing of this critique is particularly significant given the competitive dynamics between Google and OpenAI. While ChatGPT has said it would soon start running ads, potentially degrading the user experience, Google operates from a position of financial strength. The tech giant generates hundreds of billions of dollars annually from advertising on Search and YouTube, giving it the luxury to keep Gemini ad-free while its rival experiments with monetization strategies that could alienate users.
This financial asymmetry creates a strategic advantage for Google. OpenAI needs to fund its massive infrastructure buildout and ongoing research costs, making ads a practical necessity despite Altman’s grandiose predictions about AGI. Meanwhile, Google can afford to play the long game, maintaining a cleaner user experience while watching how users react to ChatGPT’s advertising experiments. If the ads damage ChatGPT’s reputation or user satisfaction, Google’s Gemini stands ready to capitalize on that discontent—all while Hassabis takes well-aimed verbal shots at his competitor’s apparent contradictions.