It was quick! Microsoft slips ads into AI-powered Bing Chat

Microsoft is "exploring" placing ads in responses given by Bing Chat, its new search agent powered by OpenAI's GPT-4. Although these sponsored answers are clearly labeled as such, it makes us wonder how far we've really strayed from the old search engine ad model.

Microsoft confirmed this is happening, albeit in experimental form, in a blog post published today. Here's the relevant part from the very end after "a bit of background" explaining that no one should be surprised:

We're also exploring additional features for publishers, including our more than 7,500 Microsoft Start partner brands. We recently met with some of our partners to start exploring ideas and getting feedback on how we can continue to distribute content in a way that is meaningful in terms of traffic and revenue for our partners. As we look to continue to evolve the model together, we've shared some early ideas that we're exploring, including: • An expanded hover experience where hovering over a publisher's link will show more links from that publisher giving the user more ways to engage and drive more traffic to the publisher's website. • For our Microsoft Start partners, place a detailed caption of Microsoft Start licensed content next to the chat response, which helps increase user engagement with content on Microsoft Start, where we share ad revenue with the partner. We are also considering placing ads in the chat experience to share ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response.

Announcements have been reported anecdotally for a few weeks, but a tweet posted today by Debarghya Das de Glean captured them in the wild:

Others have pointed out that ads have been there since launch, but not enabled for all users. I tried my best to summon one, but to no avail - they don't seem to be enabled for my account (yet). But it's definitely a sign of things to come.

Let's assume that search engines, and now these search agents, are part of a business model and as such need some kind of monetization. But I think with all the talk of the search revolution and a fresh start, we were all expecting something a little better than the sponsored answers.

In the case of the ad above, the user does not know exactly what is being sponsored here. Does TrueCar sell this car and pay for placement in new Honda searches? Or are they just a benchmark or price checker site that pays to be the preferred car price provider for Bing? Why are these prices higher than those quoted at Honda? Does Microsoft get paid to not include Autotrader or Cars.com listings? Can the user request unsponsored results?

That doesn't mean that something bad is going on. But generally speaking, the user should understand what is being advertised. We learned how to analyze search results: ads are usually surrounded by a small frame and are at the top of the stack. You don't have to like it to understand it - and by understanding it, you can engage (or disengage) smarter with them.

In a case like this, I'd like to have a better "meta-conversation", if you will, a little thought bubble next to the chat that has their quotes and, if they exist, their advertisements. The answer itself shouldn't be tampered with - but in the metacon you have a few links and maybe a "If you're considering buying a new HR-V, 3 were listed last day at TrueCar. (Ad )"

The most serious side effect is that ads like this cannot be blocked with current tools. That's not to say they can't be blocked at all - it's not hard to imagine a uBlock Origin that overrides chatbot responses flagged as ads and prompts for another response. But the paradigm of ads as essentially predictable items in labeled placements is clearly fading.

On the one hand, well…good! Everyone hates ads, even though they're kind of the way the web (including, admittedly, this website) pays for itself. On the other hand, it is a potentially more subtle and subversive new form of advertising that may not be so easily delineated and ignored.

Making the user wonder if the chatbot was paid to say what it said is a great way to slow down or erode trust, even with "advertisement" labels. One can't help but wonder how honest these companies are about their dealings. Why shouldn't they have a premium ad level that influences results but isn't tagged? This is entirely in line with the shenanigans of the advertising industry.

While no one expects Microsoft, or Google, Amazon, Meta, and everyone else to exploit these expensive, computationally intensive language models out of sheer kindness (assuming they have heart and there is good in them), it would be nice to see a little m...