[exodust]

I suppose... If I ask Google's AI to walk me through the process of baking a chocolate cake, I don't care if the AI seamlessly recommends a brand of flour or appliance. As long as it doesn't compromise the fundamental cake-making advice.

Where it gets problematic, is if the AI pushes a specific brand as a necessary step of the cake-making process. Suddenly it's unethical.

It would also be a problem if the AI recommended a competing brand of appliance if I were specifically asking the AI to tell me how to use XYZ brand of appliance. Kind of like how Google lets advertisers buy ads for competitor keywords, which in my opinion is grubby and borderline unethical.