ChatGPT ads land in U.K. as OpenAI outlines EU privacy rules

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, that distinction matters since consent requires a clear, affirmative action from the user, and can be withdrawn at any time.

“Your consent, for Free and Go users, when we ask for it to personalize the ads you see,” the policy states.

If people consent to their data being used in those apps then they will get personalized ads based on past chats, memory, ad history as well as advertiser provided data, per the policy. If they don’t consent to their data being used then they will get generic ads, which only use “limited information” like the context of their current ChatGPT conversation such as location and time of data. In other words, they will get contextual ads, not tightly personalized ones. 

The updates to the policy come as ChatGPT ads have started appearing in the U.K. though still with some caveats.

OpenAI’s Global head of ads Dave Dugan said as much as today. On LinkedIn, he posted: “We launched ChatGPT ads in the UK last night and proud to be working with the best talent in the industry like [director of AI, data and platform] Alejandro Saucedo and his team at Zalando!” Since then, Dentsu has also confirmed its clients are part of the U.K. ads pilot.

The trial itself for now is reminiscent of what happened when it launched initially in the U.S. in February. At the time, advertisers were able to buy ads via OpenAI reps, as the ads manager wasn’t available for the next several weeks. But when it launched, advertisers could then buy their ads directly via the self-serve platform. That feature is yet to be introduced to the U.K. Only people in the U.S. can buy the ads via the ads manager. 

The U.K. rollout echoes the U.S. launch playbook from February: rep-sold inventory first, self-serve to follow. The ads manager remains U.S.-only, though U.S. advertisers can use it to buy U.K. inventory. The region has appeared as an option in the ads manager for the past three days, according to screenshots and videos verified by Digiday.

“I noticed the U.K. was an option on June 2, so it’s still very recent, but shows how quick this pilot is moving,” said Andrea Tortella, CEO of Thrad.

He’s not the only one. The update has triggered a “mad scramble” for U.K. advertisers to get ready, according to Adthena’s CMO Ashley Fletcher, whose team has had advertisers participate in the pilot since February.

“We’ve heard from U.K. agency partners that some campaigns will be going live imminently in the U.K., but others, we are told, are going live over the next seven days,” he said. 

Expanding into Europe is just another example of OpenAI adding features and widening the pilot on an almost daily basis.

For U.S. users, they now have the ability to set “daily budgets” to campaigns within the ads manager as well as set optional “context hints” — a box within which advertisers can write the conversations, topics, or keywords where they think their products or services would be relevant to support OpenAI’s ability to target the right users.

Getting advertising right is critical for OpenAI. It needs a path to profitability as it hurtles toward becoming a publicly traded company and there are few better ways to do that than making money from selling ads. The company has already projected to make $2.5 billion in ad revenue by the end of the year, jumping up to $102 billion by 2030.

OpenAI did not respond to Digiday’s request for comment.