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- 💬 OpenAI releases ads in ChatGPT
💬 OpenAI releases ads in ChatGPT
Plus: Anthropic engineers confirm replacement fear, startups advertise 70-hour weeks
Reading time: 5 minutes
🗞️In this edition
ChatGPT Just Became an Ad Platform
Sponsored: Hugo – The AI Agent That Takes Over Customer Support
Anthropic's Team Confirms What Markets Feared
Startups Recruit for Brutal Hours Openly
In other AI news –
Why Half of Creators Are Saying No to Microsoft's $600K
Why Thiel Bet on a Gen Z Founder Targeting Factories Over Software
The Entrepreneur Who Saw AI Coming Now Sees Quantum's Arrival
4 must-try AI tools
The contradiction just became impossible to ignore.
OpenAI reversed a two-year position in three weeks. Anthropic's engineers said the quiet part out loud. And AI startups are now advertising 70-hour weeks like it's a competitive advantage.
The collision between what's being built and who's building it just accelerated.
The three stories in this edition show that tension from different angles.
Source: OpenAI
What's happening:
OpenAI launched ads in ChatGPT. Free and Go users see sponsored content below responses. Plus, Pro, and Enterprise stay ad-free.
The targeting works differently. ChatGPT matches ads to your current conversation, past chats, and previous ad interactions. It sees your full decision process, not isolated queries.
Altman resisted for two years. He called ads "uniquely unsettling" and "a last resort" publicly. Three weeks after Gemini forced code red, those principles disappeared.
Anthropic responded with Super Bowl ads positioning Claude as ad-free. Altman called their messaging "dishonest" on X.
Why this is important:
OpenAI just showed what AI monetization actually requires. The answer isn't subscriptions.
ChatGPT captures what Google never could. When you ask about mortgage rates, ChatGPT sees your entire reasoning process. Google sees a search term. That makes each impression exponentially more valuable.
The timeline reveals the truth. Two years building opposition to ads. Three weeks from code red to launch. Infrastructure commitments force decisions faster than principles hold.
The platforms that didn't make those commitments just won positioning. Ad-free isn't a feature anymore. It's the dividing line.
Most chatbots deflect. Hugo resolves.
Hugo is an AI agent designed to take full ownership of customer support conversations and tasks, without fragile workflows or per-resolution fees.
What early users are seeing:
• $28,000 saved through automated support conversations
• AI resolution rates doubled (from 20% to 40%) for SaaS teams
• Only 19% of conversations escalated to human support
• Live in minutes with existing integrations
Production-ready AI support, without losing the human touch.
Try Hugo today
Source: Futurism
What's happening:
Anthropic's engineers just admitted what everyone suspected. They're building technology to eliminate their own jobs.
"It kind of feels like I'm coming to work every day to put myself out of a job," one staffer told The Telegraph. Another said AI will "make me and many others irrelevant."
The company released plugins last week for legal, marketing, finance, and data analysis. Markets repriced $300 billion in software value within 48 hours.
This wasn't external criticism. This was the builders admitting what they're actually creating.
Why this is important:
The engineers just revealed the actual strategy. Anthropic isn't building augmentation. It's engineering replacement.
These employees see the roadmap outsiders don't. They know what ships next quarter, what's already solved internally. When they say "irrelevant," they mean obsolete.
Markets repriced on insider confirmation. Software categories built over decades collapsed in two days because the people building replacement systems admitted that's exactly what they are.
The competitive advantage isn't better tools anymore. It's systems that eliminate the need for tools entirely.
Comments from the editor:
For two years, AI companies marketed augmentation while building replacement. Anthropic's engineers said it out loud. That changes everything.
The confession reveals intent. These aren't productivity tools designed to assist. They execute work independently, completely, without humans. The legal plugin doesn't help lawyers. It performs legal analysis.
When builders admit replacement, every valuation model breaks. The companies positioned as "AI-enhanced" just got exposed.
What's happening:
AI startups are openly advertising 72-hour work weeks. It's called 996: 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Companies now list this schedule in job postings as a requirement.
China banned 996 in 2021 after linking it to worker deaths. U.S. tech founders adopted it anyway. They're offering free housing, meals, and dating app access in exchange.
The justification is speed. Founders claim AI's competitive window is narrow. Companies that don't work 996 lose. Magnus Müller, CEO of Browser Use, told The Washington Post: "Most of the stuff people count as work I don't."
Why this is important:
This isn't hustle culture. It's founders admitting the AI race requires burning through people to win.
The 996 model treats humans as disposable infrastructure. Work someone 72 hours until burnout, replace them, repeat. China banned it for causing deaths. U.S. companies market it as mission-driven commitment.
What changed is transparency. Previous tech eras hid brutal hours behind perks. Now companies advertise 996 upfront as a filter. If you won't commit, don't apply. That's elimination by design.
The admission reveals desperation. When founders say the window is narrow, they're admitting their advantage isn't sustainable. Companies building real moats don't need 72 hours weekly. 996 is the strategy when speed is your only edge.
Why Half of Creators Are Saying No to Microsoft's $600K – Half are taking $600K. Half are walking away. The split reveals what Microsoft actually needs to sell.
Why Thiel Bet on a Gen Z Founder Targeting Factories Over Software – Gen Z founder raises from Thiel to bring AI to factories—the $5 trillion market where Silicon Valley's playbook doesn't work.
The Entrepreneur Who Saw AI Coming Now Sees Quantum's Arrival – Sold AI company for $655M. Now betting quantum follows the same playbook—except enterprises need to prepare before it arrives.
Rizemail - An AI-powered email summarization tool that helps users get to the core of their unread newsletters and long email threads
Kastro Chat - An AI-powered chatbot platform that allows businesses to create their own chatbots without any coding knowledge
Verbalate - A video translation and lip sync software designed to help businesses reach a global audience
Taranify - A platform that uses AI technology to provide mood-based recommendations for music, Netflix shows, and books
OpenAI reversed two years of positioning in three weeks because infrastructure costs force decisions founders don't want to make.
Anthropic's builders broke the silence on replacement economics, triggering the fastest software repricing in history.
AI companies are now openly recruiting for 996 culture because whoever ships first controls the category.
The pattern connects: speed matters more than sustainability, market position beats worker protection, and the companies building AI aren't exempt from its consequences.
They're racing to automate themselves out of existence. And they know it.
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