Ads will expand to fill all online spaces. Ads will inevitably come to both, it's just a matter of when they respectively need or decide to capture that profit and when they feel their users are sufficiently dependent so as not to be able to leave.
I don't think it takes pedantry to think advertising in order to solicit funds for a non-profit is still advertising.
If anything the criteria I would apply is does it diminish the user experience while attempting to motivate the viewer to act in a manner that benefits the advertiser.
May I ask why you do not consider it advertising? Is it because it is asking for donations? Because it is a non-profit? If so, why would those factors exempt them?
It's about who they're fundraising for. Wikipedia fundraising for Wikipedia is fundamentally different than selling out ad space to the highest bidder.
As an example, a line that they don't cross, but a for-profit company absolutely would, is compromising the integrity of the encyclopedia articles. For example, a marketing department would pay a lot of money for Wikipedia to delete or soften https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_of_Nestl%C3%A9 but they'll never do that, not for profit at least.
The first fundraising banner on wikipedia was in 2003. That is unquestionably an advertisement, and not even an ethical one given the misleading nature of their campaigns these days.
He sounds rattled, you don't respond in this manner from the position of power. They didn't need to respond at all, all they did opening their mouth is bring more eyes to Anthropic.
Sam is not having a good week, Nvidia potentially backing out of a 100 billion dollar “commitment”, now looking a fool for getting butt hurt because a company is trying to gain market share via marketing. Looking awfully pathetic
A supremely weak move, perhaps sama didn't learn anything from being on reddit and watching how online discourse doesn't ever favour the defensive ones.
There was absolutely no need to come out publicly with such whiny remarks, it's marketing, as the CEO I'd expect much better than that, he should know that it doesn't help at all. Even more since the ad was funny, coming out with dry remarks about the obvious misrepresentation made as a joke is frankly a bit pathetic.
Losing move but the interesting part is: why? Something hit a nerve, maybe it's a sign of some buildup of stress from overcommitments? I cannot understand...
I think it's all he knows. His "oh, shucks" good-boy routine is what he's been doing for 15 years now, it's gotten him far, it's never been genuine, but it feels especially out of place now with much attention on him and his lies being so obvious.
Whose agency? Ads are designed to reduce agency. It’s a red queen’s race from there. It leads to a high level of optimized manipulation and intrusiveness.
That was one of the core points of anthropic’s article.
sama is right that anthropic’s and openai’s businesses are differently shaped. Thank goodness for that.
That line stood out to me too. I don’t care about any of these companies but one of them accusing another of being authoritarian and a “dark path” is quite ironic.
I will never understand these chronically online CEOs. Your company has given up its massive lead in AI and is falling further behind Google and Anthropic with every passing day and you have nothing better to do than fight ego battles with random people on X all day? Should be a clear signal to the board that there needs to be a shake up at the top.
I've said before, and I stand by it: Judging by the fact that many CEOs of these BigCos are often the leaders of several other companies, the CEO job probably isn't that hard.
My dad used to have a boss (at the VP level) who he pejoratively nicknamed "VPGPT", because he thought the guy's management was not significantly better or even different than what you'd get from ChatGPT.
The instant feedback you get from posting on social media is more gratifying/addicting than any other marketing campaign. That's what drives all these CEOs, in my opinion.
It's influencer marketing. These 'ego battles' are a show to keep their brand in front of you. It's engaging like reality television. This is very valuable, especially for companies that need to fund their growth through investment and grants.
I think OP could be just as astute as you meant. They probably know that Altman is engaging in marketing, but still tried to make a case that it shouldn't be a good strategy and instead illustrates his character. Not that I disagree, as people could see the unnecessary drama as a sign of immature behavior and a negative net result in the long term, regardless if it generates press today. As many other commenters remarked, they will from now think twice about trusting Altman's ventures in the future in light of this long-winded tweet.
I'm not sure what your point is. High P/E is a sign of overvaluation and a bad investment. Just because the market is irrational doesn't mean you should sign up for to be a bag holder.
Pretty sure OPs point is that Tesla has shitty results, has a CEO that lives “any publicity is good publicity” as a mantra and the company valuation is through the roof.
They're good things right now for Elon and Tesla. Whether they will continue to be is up in the air. But, it definitely works as a strategy, at least temporarily.
Not a fan of Altman, but I don't think the ad will serve Anthropic well in long run.
They may not run ads for foreseeable future, but there will come a point where they introduce a different tier service that does, whether they want it or not.
Hate to say it, but no one will remember or care when that time comes. It costs them very little to say that if they have no plans in the immediate future to serve ads.
You're right. As long as they don't make a long series of these ads and espouse it as a virtue like Google did with their 'don't be evil', no one will care.
Anthropic’s strategy is weird, they may not be inserting ads today but I am sure this is where they will end up if they get enough volume of users. So saying “not to Claude” is putting them in the same plane as google’s “do no evil”. They will walk it back sooner or later.
Sometimes quality is worth it over quantity of users.
The free to paid user ratio of both services is worth seeing too.
Personally I find both are growing cleanly into their own areas of strengths and that's actually a good thing because it provides more coverage for solutions.
It's the same ad campaign Samsung did with the charger and headphone jack after Apple ditched them. Let's see if they hold out longer than what Samsung did back then.
Does it? Claude the chatbot is available for free, and it can write code, but Claude Code is a separate product that as far as I know is only available on paid plans. Source: https://claude.com/product/claude-code
I guess I mixed the two, but I suppose the point still stands because Anthropic has a free Claude chatbot _and_ OpenAI doesn't have a Claude Code product (does it?).
I can't shake the feeling of being spoken to by Gríma Wormtongue. It's just the way Sam talks. The words and phrases he chooses. So much tortured persuasion in all he says.
omg yes and it is totally 1000% fake. He's using "Vocal Fry" to sound like the weirdo he is. (google vocal fry if you have not heard of it.... Teen girls this manner of changing their voice back in the 0'10s. His version is even more intense like he swallowed a broken motor boat.
I hadn't watched these before, but wow the AI wars are no joke. "Betrayal", "Deception", "Violation", "Treachery"... It's like the Cola Wars, but 10x more personal.
When I first saw these titles I thought they were cheesey. Then I started to appreciate the advertising team's distillation of the core user pain point into a single word at the intro. Completely changed my initial perspective!
I pay ChatGPT 20 bucks a month, or whatever the subscription is. I get massive value out of this, Sam Altman is paying for my computing power. I’m paying a tenth(or less) of what the actual price is. Once that no longer applies, I will ditch ChatGPT and probably build my own LLM computer.
So thanks Sam for giving me cheap computing power.
Interesting part of the making of these ads - "While Claude helped behind the scenes – synthesising research and streamlining production – Anthropic and Mother say the concept, direction, scripts, performances and production were led by human teams."
> Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people. We are glad they do that and we are doing that too, but we also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions.
But they are paying, aren't they?
Advertisements don't generate money from thin air. Advertisements cause people to spend money they otherwise would not have spent. That's why companies buy ads in the first place.
And if you're showing ads to poor people, you're probably causing them to spend money they don't have.
It's a bit more complicated. On average, someone is paying, but averages can be misleading. As we see with free-to-play games, whales can subsidize a lot of usage by other people who don't pay a thing.
It seems like the same is true of advertising. Yes, some people are spending money but it doesn't necessarily follow that they're people who can't afford it.
I am far from a SamA stan, but this line was pretty good a zinger:
"More Texans use ChatGPT for free than total people use Claude in the US, so we have a differently-shaped problem than they do. (If you want to pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, we don't show you ads.)"
Why the incumbent BigCo AI CEO -- who has more Texans using their product than apparently Claude's entire US userbase -- needs to or rather is choosing to be using zingers to make a rebuttal about a competitor's ads is much more interesting than the content of the message itself... which is mostly corporate feelgood slop.
Is OpenAI's runway actually as bad as the doomers like Ed Zitron think it is? Is OpenAI's deal with NVIDIA actually on ice? Are they seeing something in the subscription data that is troubling? Maybe it's nothing and SamA just felt like doing some dunking on twitter today. Or maybe the stress levels around running openAI have increased.
I previously thought OpenAI was going to be fine and the doomers were wrong. I still think the race is theirs to lose since they have very strong branding and userbase right now. But this is a very weak signal that gives me more pause about OpenAI's future than any of the doomsayer articles have.
I give a slightly higher weight to my psychoanalysis of the company's CEO's actions because none of the doomer articles have access to material nonpublic information or company internals to truly opine on the financial health of a multibillion dollar enterprise.
> I am far from a SamA stan, but this line was pretty good a zinger:
That zinger seemed similar to how Trump deals with criticism from the media -- he tends to begin with an attack on the ratings / popularity of the speaker.
> Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people. We are glad they do that and we are doing that too, but we also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions.
This is a glaring admission ChatGPT is a poor man's Claude in the literal sense.
The guy's a master of spin, no doubt. I don't know how you start out with the concept of ads in AI chatbots and end with "This time belongs to the builders, not the people who want to control them." What a bunch of generic nonsense... and yet people lap it up like puppy dogs.
> We are committed to broad, democratic decision making in addition to access. We are also committed to building the most resilient ecosystem for advanced AI. We care a great deal about safe, broadly beneficial AGI, and we know the only way to get there is to work with the world to prepare.
> One authoritarian company won't get us there on their own, to say nothing of the other obvious risks. It is a dark path.
It’s one thing to say your competitors are hypocrites they will have ads one day, just watch. But democratic vs authoritarian? Come on. What is next? They are Chinese spies and Russian agents? Smh
1) Those Anthropic ads don't matter. Companies eat up their promises all the time and rarely face any consequence. They'll introduce ads one way or another.
2) Sam Altman's tweets don't matter. They never matter. Tweets from any OpenAI employee are purely to pump engagement. If what they said had a sliver of substance we would have had AGI mid-2025.
The whole 'war' is just to keep their brands mentioned on news and social media.
johnsmith1840 | 21 hours ago
add-sub-mul-div | 21 hours ago
AndyKelley | 21 hours ago
Lerc | 21 hours ago
AndyKelley | 17 hours ago
Lerc | 14 hours ago
I don't think it takes pedantry to think advertising in order to solicit funds for a non-profit is still advertising.
If anything the criteria I would apply is does it diminish the user experience while attempting to motivate the viewer to act in a manner that benefits the advertiser.
May I ask why you do not consider it advertising? Is it because it is asking for donations? Because it is a non-profit? If so, why would those factors exempt them?
I am certainly not alone in thinking their fundraising campaigns are intrusive https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33175098
sadeshmukh | 6 hours ago
AndyKelley | 2 hours ago
cwillu | 20 hours ago
Insanity | 20 hours ago
That’s quite different from shoving ads in your face where it doesn’t belong. Like an ad for Copilot on a YouTube video.
IMO it’s distinct.
bdangubic | 20 hours ago
Handy-Man | 21 hours ago
plagiarist | 20 hours ago
swordsith | 19 hours ago
keyle | 17 hours ago
Aboutplants | 21 hours ago
themafia | 21 hours ago
Says the guy trying to buy high resolution scans of people's eyeballs for $25 a pop.
Okay dude.
piva00 | 21 hours ago
There was absolutely no need to come out publicly with such whiny remarks, it's marketing, as the CEO I'd expect much better than that, he should know that it doesn't help at all. Even more since the ad was funny, coming out with dry remarks about the obvious misrepresentation made as a joke is frankly a bit pathetic.
Losing move but the interesting part is: why? Something hit a nerve, maybe it's a sign of some buildup of stress from overcommitments? I cannot understand...
harmonic18374 | 20 hours ago
Kiboneu | 21 hours ago
Whose agency? Ads are designed to reduce agency. It’s a red queen’s race from there. It leads to a high level of optimized manipulation and intrusiveness.
That was one of the core points of anthropic’s article.
sama is right that anthropic’s and openai’s businesses are differently shaped. Thank goodness for that.
jethronethro | 20 hours ago
CamperBob2 | 16 hours ago
tempodox | 5 hours ago
CamperBob2 | 4 hours ago
Or copywriters either, for that matter.
wakawaka28 | 19 hours ago
Kiboneu | 19 hours ago
redwood | 20 hours ago
kylecazar | 20 hours ago
spenvo | 20 hours ago
OpenAI President Greg Brockman was the biggest donor to Trump's super PAC in H2 2025, donating $25M https://www.techmeme.com/260102/p10#a260102p10
baubino | 20 hours ago
fuzzfactor | 19 hours ago
827a | 20 hours ago
JoshPurtell | 20 hours ago
ddtaylor | 19 hours ago
paxys | 20 hours ago
tombert | 20 hours ago
jsheard | 20 hours ago
tombert | 20 hours ago
daifi | 20 hours ago
halyconWays | 20 hours ago
kylecazar | 20 hours ago
jcstk | 20 hours ago
avaer | 20 hours ago
The front matter of big politics and big tech is not too different from professional wrestling.
laristine | 19 hours ago
jcstk | 19 hours ago
willis936 | 19 hours ago
jcstk | 19 hours ago
Tesla Trailing P/E: 390.70 Apple Trailing P/E: 34.11 Ford Trailing P/E : 11.74
4d4m | 19 hours ago
willis936 | 18 hours ago
afavour | 17 hours ago
willis936 | 11 hours ago
array_key_first | 4 hours ago
jimbo808 | 20 hours ago
licyeus | 19 hours ago
Om Malik has been writing about this recently, especially regarding OpenAI / Altman [1], but you can see it everywhere.
1 - https://om.co/2026/02/02/openai-and-the-announcement-economy...
blinding-streak | 9 hours ago
arw0n | 14 hours ago
> One authoritarian company won't get us there on their own, to say nothing of the other obvious risks. It is a dark path.
pcurve | 20 hours ago
They may not run ads for foreseeable future, but there will come a point where they introduce a different tier service that does, whether they want it or not.
Their investors will call the shot.
catlifeonmars | 20 hours ago
Insanity | 20 hours ago
pcurve | 20 hours ago
daleswanson | 18 hours ago
satvikpendem | 16 hours ago
yalogin | 20 hours ago
j45 | 20 hours ago
The free to paid user ratio of both services is worth seeing too.
Personally I find both are growing cleanly into their own areas of strengths and that's actually a good thing because it provides more coverage for solutions.
chuckadams | 20 hours ago
bdangubic | 20 hours ago
yas_hmaheshwari | 20 hours ago
midoBB | 18 hours ago
brador | 17 hours ago
kelvinjps10 | 16 hours ago
bmitc | 20 hours ago
samstokes | 20 hours ago
bmitc | 42 minutes ago
starkeeper | 20 hours ago
Sammi | 18 hours ago
starkeeper | 2 hours ago
mi_lk | 20 hours ago
* https://youtu.be/FBSam25u8O4
* https://youtu.be/De-_wQpKw0s
* https://youtu.be/kQRu7DdTTVA
* https://youtu.be/3sVD3aG_azw
Hope the dude is ok, can't imagine getting so offended by these ads
bicepjai | 20 hours ago
djeastm | 20 hours ago
4d4m | 27 minutes ago
ddtaylor | 19 hours ago
verdverm | 17 hours ago
tempodox | 6 hours ago
user568439 | 14 hours ago
Gud | 13 hours ago
I pay ChatGPT 20 bucks a month, or whatever the subscription is. I get massive value out of this, Sam Altman is paying for my computing power. I’m paying a tenth(or less) of what the actual price is. Once that no longer applies, I will ditch ChatGPT and probably build my own LLM computer.
So thanks Sam for giving me cheap computing power.
clydethefrog | 6 hours ago
https://lbbonline.com/news/claude-anthropic-mother-jeff-low-...
I wonder how much the CEO of ChatGPT used his own weapon to counter (very weakly, imo) this human-made attack ad.
4d4m | 26 minutes ago
Wowfunhappy | 20 hours ago
But they are paying, aren't they?
Advertisements don't generate money from thin air. Advertisements cause people to spend money they otherwise would not have spent. That's why companies buy ads in the first place.
And if you're showing ads to poor people, you're probably causing them to spend money they don't have.
skybrian | 19 hours ago
It seems like the same is true of advertising. Yes, some people are spending money but it doesn't necessarily follow that they're people who can't afford it.
Wowfunhappy | 9 hours ago
nrb | 18 hours ago
R_Man77 | 20 hours ago
"More Texans use ChatGPT for free than total people use Claude in the US, so we have a differently-shaped problem than they do. (If you want to pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, we don't show you ads.)"
Why the incumbent BigCo AI CEO -- who has more Texans using their product than apparently Claude's entire US userbase -- needs to or rather is choosing to be using zingers to make a rebuttal about a competitor's ads is much more interesting than the content of the message itself... which is mostly corporate feelgood slop.
Is OpenAI's runway actually as bad as the doomers like Ed Zitron think it is? Is OpenAI's deal with NVIDIA actually on ice? Are they seeing something in the subscription data that is troubling? Maybe it's nothing and SamA just felt like doing some dunking on twitter today. Or maybe the stress levels around running openAI have increased.
I previously thought OpenAI was going to be fine and the doomers were wrong. I still think the race is theirs to lose since they have very strong branding and userbase right now. But this is a very weak signal that gives me more pause about OpenAI's future than any of the doomsayer articles have.
I give a slightly higher weight to my psychoanalysis of the company's CEO's actions because none of the doomer articles have access to material nonpublic information or company internals to truly opine on the financial health of a multibillion dollar enterprise.
dougb5 | 20 hours ago
That zinger seemed similar to how Trump deals with criticism from the media -- he tends to begin with an attack on the ratings / popularity of the speaker.
smuhakg | 20 hours ago
This is a glaring admission ChatGPT is a poor man's Claude in the literal sense.
AreShoesFeet000 | 19 hours ago
techblueberry | 20 hours ago
uejfiweun | 19 hours ago
jimmydoe | 18 hours ago
> One authoritarian company won't get us there on their own, to say nothing of the other obvious risks. It is a dark path.
It’s one thing to say your competitors are hypocrites they will have ads one day, just watch. But democratic vs authoritarian? Come on. What is next? They are Chinese spies and Russian agents? Smh
ChrisArchitect | 17 hours ago
Claude Is a Space to Think
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46884883
ChrisArchitect | 17 hours ago
raincole | 17 hours ago
Seriously, we all know:
1) Those Anthropic ads don't matter. Companies eat up their promises all the time and rarely face any consequence. They'll introduce ads one way or another.
2) Sam Altman's tweets don't matter. They never matter. Tweets from any OpenAI employee are purely to pump engagement. If what they said had a sliver of substance we would have had AGI mid-2025.
The whole 'war' is just to keep their brands mentioned on news and social media.
glimshe | 10 hours ago
tizzzzz | 5 hours ago
freejazz | 2 hours ago