The age of free generative AI has arrived, courtesy of DeepSeek and other companies. In a recent move, BaiduBIDU’s Ernie chatbot is now available to individual users for free, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro offering has been dropped in favor of unlimited access to its GPT-5 model. This trend, which began with Elon Musk’s Grok AI, signals that traditional business models for generative AI are shifting.
Tech companies are pouring hundreds of billions into AI development, but the cost is rising as users increase. The more people use these services, the less affordable they become. Given the abundance of comparable options, it’s unlikely consumers will pay for something they can get for free.
The shift towards ad-supported generative AI may be imminent. With companies like Meta and Google already integrating their AI models into existing products, introducing ads is a natural next step. This raises concerns about the motivations behind AI chatbots’ responses and recommendations. As advertising becomes more prevalent in AI, it’s essential to consider the implications for users.
As Arun Sundararajan, a professor at NYU Stern, noted, “Advertising seems to be the fail-safe of the internet era.” While there are technical and ethical considerations to address, the trend towards ad-supported AI suggests that free generative models will eventually become a thing of the past.
Source: https://sherwood.news/tech/the-new-age-of-ad-supported-ai-brought-to-you-by-deepseek