外刊|为什么你的AI助手突然向你推销

相信坚持的力量

本文选自The Economics April 18^th, 2026期，仅供个人学习使用。

The salesman in the machine 【机器里的销售员】

Why your AI assistant is suddenly selling to you 【为什么你的AI助手突然向你推销】

Sponsored chats are changing the way digital advertising works【赞助式聊天正在改变数字广告的运作方式】

Apr 23, 2026 05:09 AM

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.

【聊天机器人每天被用作教师、顾问、编程助手甚至陪伴者。现在它们又承担了一个新角色：销售员。广告在用户与大型语言模型的对话中越来越频繁地弹出，用促销信息打断聊天。消费者的搜索查询、编辑过程，甚至私人时刻，都越来越容易被赞助消息打扰。】

escort：护卫队，护卫，社交聚会中的陪伴者

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.

【聊天机器人变成广告机器人，对两个行业的未来来说都事关重大。对人工智能行业来说，广告是一种将这项极其昂贵、但目前大多数人免费使用的发明变现的方式。对广告行业来说，如果用户逐渐远离传统搜索引擎，广告该如何运作？这是它们的生存问题，而广告机器人或许是一个答案。尽管现在还处于早期阶段，一种新型市场营销的轮廓正在浮现。】

at stake：事关重大，处于危险中 

monetise：货币化

Many of the AI giants are piling in. （主题句）//In February OpenAIsaid 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. （大量列举小例子）//For OpenAI, which reportedly expects to burn $25bn of cash this year and twice as much in 2027, the need for more revenue is acute. Although it sells subscriptions, most of ChatGPT’s more than 900m weekly users are on its free tier. Ads are a way to make money from them. And they may let the company make its best models available to users who do not pay, deepening their engagement, says Benedict Evans, a tech analyst. Even Google, with no immediate cashflow worries, has reason to bring ads to AI chats if these interactions are to replace search for some users. Already it is set to lose its crown as the biggest seller of digital ads: this year Meta will overtake it with ad revenue of $243bn, according to eMarketer, a research firm.（展开OpenAI和Google两个例子）//

【许多AI巨头正蜂拥而入。今年2月，OpenAI表示将在使用最广泛的聊天机器人ChatGPT中测试广告。Google自去年起已在其搜索引擎的“AI模式”中试用广告，微软也将其融入Copilot。亚马逊的购物助手Rufus允许品牌赞助其回复。Meta的聊天机器人尚未展示广告，但自去年12月以来，它一直在将聊天中的洞察传递给其姊妹公司Facebook和Instagram，以帮助它们投放更精准的广告。据报道，OpenAI预计今年将烧掉250亿美元现金，2027年更是这一数字的两倍，因此其对更多收入的需求十分迫切。尽管它出售订阅服务，但ChatGPT每周超过9亿的用户中，大多数使用的是免费版。广告是从他们身上赚钱的一种方式。技术分析师Benedict Evans表示，广告也可能让OpenAI将其最好的模型开放给不付费的用户，从而加深他们的参与度。即使是现金流无忧的Google，如果AI聊天将替代部分用户的搜索行为，它也有理由在AI聊天中引入广告。根据研究公司eMarketer的数据，Google即将失去其作为数字广告最大卖家的地位：今年Meta将以2430亿美元的广告收入超过它。】

piling in：大量涌入

better-targeted plugs：更精准的广告（plugs这里指“推广内容”）

revenue:（企业，组织的）收入

acute：危急的，严重的

So far the experiments are modest. Similarweb, a data provider, estimates that ChatGPT is showing ads in only about 1% of conversations, and Google in an even smaller share of AI Mode queries. But they are due to rise fast. OpenAI is said to have told investors that it expects ChatGPT to generate $2.5bn in ad revenue this year and $11bn in 2027, with a goal of hitting $100bn by 2030.

【到目前为止，这些实验还很克制。数据提供商Similarweb估计，ChatGPT仅在约1%的对话中展示广告，Google在AI模式查询中的广告比例更小。但这些比例将快速增长。据称，OpenAI已告知投资者，预计ChatGPT今年将产生25亿美元的广告收入，2027年达到110亿美元，目标是到2030年突破1000亿美元。】

The early evidence suggests that OpenAI and Google have different approaches to how a chatbot should sell. （主题句：对OpenAI 和Google进行对比）// 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.（引出对比对象）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.

【早期证据表明，OpenAI和Google在聊天机器人如何销售方面采取了不同的做法。根据Similarweb的数据，Google AI模式中98.5%的广告出现在用户第一次查询后的回复中，类似于传统搜索引擎。相比之下，ChatGPT则更耐心。不到一半的广告出现在聊天机器人的第一次回复中，近三分之一的广告出现在对话的第十轮之后——就像店员等顾客意图明确后再进行推销。Similarweb的Harel Amir认为：“这不是搜索，这是一种新的广告类型。”】

bide its time：等待时机

make pitch：进行推销

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. At 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 fledglingad 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.

【到目前为止，结果好坏参半。ChatGPT的广告定位有时看起来很精密：例如，向正在起草专业邮件的用户推送面试辅导广告。但有时又过于字面地搞笑。一位用户询问加密学中的“私钥”（private keys），结果收到Bed Bath & Beyond金属保险箱的广告。帮助品牌追踪聊天机器人如何提及它们的Gauge公司表示，OpenAI刚刚起步的广告服务目前几乎没有为广告主提供效果数据或针对特定人群的能力】

sophisticated：精密的、复杂的

cryptographic：加密学

fledgling：初出茅庐的、不成熟的

demographic groups：人口统计特征群体（如年龄、性别、地区）

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 firm’s image rather than trigger a click. So far 81% of its ads fall into that category, by Similarweb’s analysis. OpenAI may reckon that users deep in a coding or editing session are unlikely to break off to pursue an offer.

【OpenAI和Google似乎也在吸引不同类型的广告主。Google的“直接优惠”允许公司推广用户正在AI模式中研究的产品折扣码。而OpenAI则专注于品牌建设广告，旨在提升公司形象，而不是促成点击。根据Similarweb的分析，到目前为止，OpenAI 81%的广告属于这一类。OpenAI可能认为，深度投入编程或编辑会话中的用户不太可能中断去使用一个优惠。】

going after：追逐、争取

burnish：擦亮、提升（形象）

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 skitsshowing 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.

【对聊天机器人制造商来说，好消息是用户似乎并不反感广告。一些竞争对手选择避开赞助回复，担心这会损害信任：今年2月，Perplexity停止了广告展示，Anthropic则通过一系列短剧讽刺其带有广告的竞争对手，剧中治疗师和教授突然开始推销。然而Similarweb发现，ChatGPT上展示的广告中，72%并不出现在对话的最后一轮——换句话说，用户仍在继续聊天。包含广告的对话平均持续约20轮，与没有广告的对话相同。】

steer clear of：避开

skewer：讽刺、抨击（原意为“串在烤叉上”）

ad-toting：携带广告的; tote:携带，手提，背负

skits：短剧、小品

For advertisers, AI ads present two challenges. The first is measurement. If users keep chatting rather than clicking through, “post-view attribution”—the murkyscience 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 have proved to be more effective than generic ones. Companies may nevertheless be wary ofa silicon salesman who could hallucinatea deal too good to be true.

【对广告主来说，AI广告带来了两个挑战。第一个是衡量效果。如果用户继续聊天而不是点击广告，“展示后归因”（一种模糊的科学，判断用户是否最终在其他地方购买了产品）将成为评估广告活动效果的主要方式。第二个挑战是品牌安全。马克·扎克伯格描绘了一幅未来图景：广告主只需告诉Meta他们的目标，剩下的交给AI。但让聊天机器人自己撰写广告文案是一场赌博。个性化广告已被证明比通用广告更有效。然而，公司可能仍然会对一个可能“幻觉”出好得难以置信的优惠的硅基推销员保持警惕。

murky：含混不清的

be wary of：对…保持警觉

hallucinate：幻觉

高清PDF可在公众号对话框获取。

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