SAN FRANCISCO: AI startup Anthropic has announced that its chatbot, Claude, will remain permanently free from advertising. The pledge was revealed alongside the company’s first-ever Super Bowl advertising campaign, which clearly contrasts its approach with rival OpenAI’s recent move to test sponsored content inside ChatGPT.
Anthropic said conversations with AI assistants are not suitable places for ads. According to the company, users normally talk about personal sensitive matters, software complexities, and thought-provoking issues with Claude. Placing advertisements in such engagement would be clumsy, and the trust would be broken.
To highlight its stance, Anthropic aired a 60-second pregame ad and a 30-second in-game commercial during the Super Bowl. Both carried the tagline, “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.” The ads used satire, showing AI helpers like therapists suddenly interrupting serious conversations to promote products, underscoring how disruptive advertising could feel.
The company claimed that a high percentage of Claude conversations are about issues that individuals would have told their close advisors. Anthropic is certain that advertising during such times will compromise authenticity and user trust.
In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticized Anthropic’s campaign on X, calling it “clearly dishonest.” He justified the advertising intentions of ChatGPT, claiming that they would be formulated in a very responsible manner that would not affect responses. Altman also mentioned that advertising would make AI available to billions of individuals who would not be able to pay subscriptions.
The ad-free pledge comes as Anthropic demonstrates formidable revenue traction, having crossed $9 billion annual run rate within two years with over 80 percent deriving from enterprise customers through paid subscriptions and business contracts.
The financial momentum underpins Anthropic’s aggressive expansion strategy, with the company simultaneously pursuing massive capital raise that would more than triple its current $11 billion valuation achieved just weeks earlier in ElevenLabs-leading Series D round. Sources familiar with discussions indicate the $350 billion target valuation positions Anthropic among most valuable private AI companies globally.
While acknowledging that ads could be a lucrative option, Anthropic said an ad-based model would create conflicting incentives and go against Claude’s core principle of being genuinely helpful.
The company also stated that in the event that it decides to change the no-ads policy, it would make its intentions clear by stating the reasons why it needs to modify it.
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