ChatGPT is already returning lists of products (with photos and rating) saying they are impartial, I guess to collect affiliate fees. It's not a big jump to have sponsored products showing up first.

▲

unyttigfjelltol 6 days ago | parent [-]

If folks corrupt the integrity of LLM responses, as it were, they’ll destroy the value proposition.

More likely the model will be payment for low friction enablement of transactions rather than overt steering. Pick Door #1: the LLM states the product is fit for purpose. Pick Door #2: the LLM will directly complete the transaction or close to it.

▲

imiric 6 days ago | parent [-]

> If folks corrupt the integrity of LLM responses, as it were, they’ll destroy the value proposition.

Highly unlikely. Google's SERP is an ad-infested abomination that sometimes shows useful results, and yet people still use Google Search.

The same will happen with LLMs, except in far more subtle and insidious ways. Instead of showing you ads directly, they will be naturally interwoven in conversations, suggestions, and generated content. You won't be able to tell whether the content is genuine or promoted, as is common on the web today.

The ads will target you more accurately than ever before based on not just the data you've given them, but on the context of the conversation, your surroundings, and any other piece of real-time information they can use to secure a conversion, or to influence your thoughts on a particular matter. You will trust it more than any current ad channel since the AI will be personal, and the tone will be friendly.

As with the web, ad-free services will exist, but the only way to escape this entirely will be to use local and self-hosted models.

▲

LtWorf 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Google's SERP is an ad-infested abomination that sometimes shows useful results, and yet people still use Google Search.

I've personally stopped doing that. I understand it's not a mainstream decision since most people don't even know what alternatives are there, but doesn't mean that in a couple of years google won't start to feel it.

▲

baq 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

OTOH with the help of local models you should be able to post process any and all content on device to at least highlight, desensationalize if not outright remove quite a lot of those ads, at least until DRM folks lay their hands on it.

▲

hpdigidrifter 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>yet people still use Google Search

Google search is widely acknowledged as drastically drying up in the last year or so, that's despite more worldwide internet usage.

	▲	tanseydavid 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		IMHO a huge part of people choosing ChatGPT over Google for search is due to the absence of ads and other distractions. Doing search with ChatGPT feels like doing research in a library setting whereas Google search feels like doing research in Times Square.
	▲	lithocarpus 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Many people still use google search probably because the LLM response is at the top.