✨ Why your AI assistant is suddenly selling to you（为什么你的 AI 助手突然开始向你推销）

💬 Sponsored chats are changing the way digital advertising works（赞助式聊天正在改写数字广告的运作方式）（原文来自经济学人^[1]）

🤖 段落 1

[EN] Chatbots are employed every day as teachers, counsellors, coders and escorts. Now they are taking on another role: salesmen. Advertisements are popping up ever more frequently in users’ conversations with large language models, punctuating chats with promotions. Consumers’ search queries, editing sessions and even intimate moments are increasingly at risk of interruption by sponsored messages.

[CN] 聊天机器人如今每天都在充当老师、咨询师、程序员，甚至陪伴者。现在，它们又多了一个身份：推销员。广告越来越频繁地冒出来，以促销信息穿插其间，打断用户与大语言模型之间的对话。消费者的搜索、编辑过程，甚至私密时刻，都越来越有被打断之虞。

🤖 段落 2

[EN] As chatbots become adbots, the future of two industries is at stake. For the artificial-intelligence business, ads represent a way to monetise a wildly expensive invention that most people currently use free of charge. For the ad industry, adbots are a possible answer to the existential question of how advertising will work if users move away from conventional search engines. Although it is early days, the outlines of a new kind of marketing are emerging.

[CN] 当聊天机器人变成“广告机器人”，两大行业的未来都系于一线。对人工智能行业而言，广告意味着一种把这项成本高得惊人、却仍被大多数人免费使用的发明变现的办法。对广告业来说，如果用户离开传统搜索引擎，广告究竟该如何运作，这个关乎存亡的问题，广告机器人或许能提供一种答案。尽管一切尚处早期，一种新型营销方式的轮廓已经开始浮现。

🤖 段落 3

[EN] Most of the AI giants are piling in. In February OpenAI said it would begin testing ads in ChatGPT, the most widely used chatbot. Google has been trialling them in its search engine’s “AI Mode” since last year, and Microsoft has woven them into its Copilot. Amazon’s shopping assistant, Rufus, allows brands to sponsor its replies. Meta’s chatbot does not yet show ads, but since December it has been passing on insights from chats to its sister companies, Facebook and Instagram, to help them serve better-targeted plugs.

[CN] 大多数 AI 巨头都在争相入局。今年 2 月，OpenAI 表示将开始在使用最广的聊天机器人 ChatGPT 中测试广告。谷歌自去年起就在其搜索引擎的 “AI Mode” 中试投这类广告，微软也已将其嵌入 Copilot。亚马逊的购物助手 Rufus 则允许品牌赞助它的回复。Meta 的聊天机器人尚未展示广告，但自去年 12 月以来，它已把聊天所得的洞察传递给旗下的 Facebook 和 Instagram，帮助后者投放更精准的广告。

🤖 段落 4

[EN] For OpenAI, which reportedly expects to burn 243bn, forecasts eMarketer, a research firm.

[CN] 对 OpenAI 来说，据称它今年将烧掉 250 亿美元现金，到了 2027 年还会烧掉两倍之多，因此寻找另一条收入来源已十分迫切。虽然它出售订阅服务，但 ChatGPT 每周逾 9 亿用户中，大多数仍停留在免费层。广告提供了将这些用户变现的方式。科技分析师 Benedict Evans 认为，更重要的是，这还可能让公司把最好的、也最昂贵的模型开放给不付费用户使用，从而加深参与度。即便谷歌眼下并无现金流之忧，如果 AI 对话真要在一部分用户那里取代搜索，它也有理由把广告带进聊天场景。研究机构 eMarketer 预测，谷歌今年将失去“数字广告最大卖家”的桂冠，Meta 将以 2430 亿美元的广告收入反超它。

🤖 段落 5

[EN] So far the experiments are modest. ChatGPT is showing ads in only about 1% of conversations, and Google in an even smaller share of AI Mode queries, estimates Similarweb, a data provider. But they are due to ramp up. OpenAI has reportedly told investors that it expects ChatGPT to generate 11bn in 2027, with a goal of hitting $100bn by 2030. That would make it one of the world’s largest sellers of ads.

[CN] 到目前为止，这些试验的规模还不大。数据提供商 Similarweb 估计，ChatGPT 只在约 1% 的对话中展示广告，而谷歌在 AI Mode 查询中的占比还要更低。但接下来，这一趋势势必会加速扩大。据报道，OpenAI 已告诉投资者，它预计 ChatGPT 今年将带来 25 亿美元广告收入，到 2027 年增至 110 亿美元，并以 2030 年达到 1000 亿美元为目标。若真如此，它将跻身全球最大的广告销售平台之列。

🤖 段落 6

[EN] The early evidence suggests that OpenAI and Google have different approaches to how a chatbot should sell. According to Similarweb, 98.5% of the ads in Google’s AI Mode appear in response to the user’s first query, rather like a conventional search engine. ChatGPT, by contrast, bides its time. Less than half its ads come in the chatbot’s first response, and nearly a third come after the tenth turn in the conversation—like a shop assistant waiting for the customer’s intent to become clear before they make their pitch. “This is not search. This is a new category of advertising,” argues Harel Amir of Similarweb.

[CN] 现有的早期证据表明，OpenAI 和谷歌在“聊天机器人该如何卖货”这件事上走的是不同路线。根据 Similarweb 的数据，谷歌 AI Mode 中 98.5% 的广告都出现在用户的第一条查询之后，很像传统搜索引擎。相比之下，ChatGPT 会先等待时机。它不到一半的广告出现在首轮回复里，近三分之一甚至要等到对话超过十轮之后才出现——就像店员要先等顾客的意图变得足够明确，才开始推销。Similarweb 的 Harel Amir 说：“这不是搜索。这是一种新的广告类别。”

🤖 段落 7

[EN] So far the results are mixed. ChatGPT’s targeting sometimes seems sophisticated: for instance, advertising job-interview coaching to a user drafting a professional email. Other times it is comically literal. One user asking about cryptographic “private keys” was served an ad for metal safety-boxes from Bed Bath & Beyond. OpenAI’s fledgling ad service so far offers advertisers little in the way of performance data or the ability to target specific demographic groups, says Caelean Barnes of Gauge, which helps brands track how chatbots talk about them.

[CN] 到目前为止，效果可谓好坏参半。ChatGPT 的定向投放有时显得相当老练：比如，用户正在起草职业邮件时，它会推送求职面试辅导广告。但有时它又字面得可笑。有位用户询问密码学中的 “private keys（私钥）”，结果收到的却是 Bed Bath & Beyond 金属保险箱的广告。帮助品牌追踪聊天机器人如何谈论自身的机构 Gauge 的 Caelean Barnes 表示，OpenAI 这项刚起步的广告服务，目前几乎没有为广告主提供多少效果数据，也缺乏针对特定人口统计群体的投放能力。

🤖 段落 8

[EN] OpenAI and Google also seem to be going after different kinds of advertisers. Google’s Direct Offers allow companies to promote a discount code for a product the user is researching in AI Mode. OpenAI, meanwhile, is focused on brand-building ads designed to burnish a company’s image rather than trigger a click. So far 81% of its ads fall into that category, by Similarweb’s analysis. It may reckon that users deep in a coding or editing session are unlikely to break off to pursue an offer.

[CN] OpenAI 和谷歌似乎也在争夺不同类型的广告主。谷歌的 Direct Offers 允许企业在用户于 AI Mode 中研究某件商品时，推广该商品的折扣码。与此同时，OpenAI 则把重点放在品牌塑造型广告上，这类广告意在擦亮形象，而不是立刻促成点击。根据 Similarweb 的分析，目前其 81% 的广告都属于这一类。它或许判断，深陷编码或编辑任务的用户，不太可能中断手头工作去追逐某个优惠。

🤖 段落 9

[EN] The good news for chatbot-makers is that users do not seem to be repelled by ads. Some competitors have steered clear of sponsored replies, fearing these will hurt trust: in February Perplexity stopped showing ads and Anthropic skewered its ad-toting rivals with a series of skits showing therapists and professors suddenly launching into sales pitches. Yet Similarweb finds that 72% of ads shown on ChatGPT are not on the final turn of the conversation—in other words, users keep chatting. Conversations incorporating ads last an average of about 20 turns, the same as those without.

[CN] 对聊天机器人厂商来说，好消息是用户似乎并不会因广告而被劝退。一些竞争对手一直刻意回避赞助式回复，担心这会伤害信任：今年 2 月，Perplexity 停止展示广告；Anthropic 还用一系列短剧尖刻讽刺那些夹带广告的对手，剧中治疗师和教授会突然切换成推销口吻。不过，Similarweb 发现，ChatGPT 上 72% 的广告并非出现在对话的最后一轮——换言之，用户还会继续聊下去。含广告的对话平均大约持续 20 轮，与不含广告的对话相同。

🤖 段落 10

[EN] For advertisers, AI ads present two challenges. The first is measurement. If users keep chatting rather than clicking through, post-view attribution—the murky science of determining whether a user eventually buys the product elsewhere—will become the main way to assess a campaign’s effectiveness. The second challenge is brand safety. Mark Zuckerberg has painted a picture of a future where advertisers simply tell Meta their objective and let the AI handle the rest. But letting a chatbot write its own creative copy is a gamble. Personalised ads are proven to be more effective than generic ones. Companies may nevertheless be wary of a silicon salesman who could hallucinate a deal too good to be true.

[CN] 对广告主而言，AI 广告带来两大挑战。第一是衡量效果。如果用户继续聊天而不是点进链接，那么曝光后归因——那门多少有些暧昧的“科学”，即判断用户是否最终会在别处买下该商品——就会成为评估一场广告活动成效的主要方式。第二个挑战是品牌安全。马克·扎克伯格曾描绘过这样一种未来：广告主只需告诉 Meta 自己的目标，由 AI 处理剩下的一切。但让聊天机器人自己撰写广告创意文案，本身就是一场赌博。个性化广告已被证明比通用广告更有效；即便如此，企业仍可能会忌惮这样一个硅基推销员——它也许会凭空编造出一个好得令人难以置信的优惠。

🤖 重点词汇对照（24 个）

• • popping up — 冒出来
• • punctuating — 穿插其间
• • at risk of interruption — 有被打断之虞
• • at stake — 系于一线
• • monetise — 变现
• • existential question — 关乎存亡的问题
• • piling in — 争相入局
• • trialling — 试投
• • woven them into — 嵌入
• • acute — 迫切
• • deepening their engagement — 加深参与度
• • forecasts — 预测
• • ramp up — 加速扩大
• • bides its time — 等待时机
• • intent — 意图
• • sophisticated — 老练
• • comically literal — 字面得可笑
• • demographic groups — 人口统计群体
• • burnish — 擦亮形象
• • repelled — 劝退
• • skewered — 尖刻讽刺
• • post-view attribution — 曝光后归因
• • brand safety — 品牌安全
• • hallucinate — 凭空编造

🔖 引用链接

[1] 经济学人: https://www.economist.com/business/2026/04/19/why-your-ai-assistant-is-suddenly-selling-to-you