OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly rebuked competitor Anthropic for its Super Bowl ad campaign, which suggested rival AI models would inject intrusive ads into user conversations. In a social media post, Altman called the ads a "clearly dishonest portrayal" and stated OpenAI would never implement advertising in the manner depicted, while also criticizing Anthropic for serving an "expensive product to rich people."
The spat underscores the escalating rivalry between the two prominent AI labs. Anthropic's campaign, tagged "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude," directly targeted OpenAI's recent confirmation that it would test advertising in ChatGPT. The public conflict illuminates the different monetization strategies and philosophies of firms at the forefront of the AI race, which are heavily backed by Microsoft (OpenAI) and Google (Anthropic).