[notatoad]

this was supposed to be the business model for alexa. amazon had all the pieces - they had the product listings, marketplace, ordering infrastructure, the smart speaker in your home always listening to you, and they built exactly that product.

it hasn't exactly taken off, and i don't think OpenAI has addressed any of the problems that prevented amazon's version from being a success. and that was without taking advertiser money to choose which product to sell you, amazon was happy to just make a sale. if the product choices the AI shopping assistant makes are driven by advertiser dollars instead of product quality, i really don't expect consumers to accept it.

[danpalmer]

What do you see the problems that prevented Amazon as being?

I don't know much about this, but I'd have thought it was the lack of display or ability to critique the choices Alexa makes. But ChatGPT doesn't have that problem because you can see and "discuss" the buying decisions.

[array_key_first]

As soon as the cat is out of the bag and consumers know that ChatGPT is a vehicle for advertisement, consumers will reject it.

If I, a consumer, want to buy a car, I need to do research. Where do I go? Online, across many websites. I talk to my friends. I talk to my coworkers.

Where do I NOT go? To the car salesman, and ask him for help. Because of course he will lie - he's a car salesman, he wants to sell cars that he sells.

Even with Google we see this being the case. Nobody is clicking the Google ads at the top because they know those are ads, not research. They only do it accidentally, which is evidenced by Google making it more difficult over time to tell what is or is not an ad.

[chickenegg]

> Nobody is clicking the Google ads at the top because they know those are ads, not research. They only do it accidentally

I think you're evaluation of how many people click on Google ads and for what reasons is quite off. I'm sure you and most of the people in your circle are like that, but that's not how the vast majority of internet users behave. Google isn't generating $200 billion annually of accidental clicks.

[array_key_first]

Yes, yes they are generating $200 billion on accidental clicks.

Consumers don't know what they're clicking on is an ad, that's the only reason they clicked on it. They googled something for an answer - and oh look, the top results are what I want! Except those aren't results, they're ads. Here, put on your reading glasses - there's 8pt font there that says it's an ad.

It's the same thing with YouTube. Maybe half of the ads are just outright scams, and consumers know that. It's not like TV. So they don't click them, because you're playing Russian roulette if you do that. They only click them accidentally.

The main problem with online ads is that Google and Meta are dumb as rocks. They've decided to sell ad space to anyone with a pulse for a quick buck. The problem with that is that, over time, it devalues the ad space as consumers are trained to ignore it. We're quickly approaching the point where these ads only work on people born yesterday.

The ad space is grossly, grossly overvalued. Shh, nobody tell advertisers teehee!

[mlrtime]

I'm with you on a Paid model, but if the future's best model was available for free, unlimited use, but you just agree to a few brand placements.

I could see a majority of non tech (non HN) people take that deal.

[giantrobot]

> But ChatGPT doesn't have that problem because you can see and "discuss" the buying decisions.

If OpenAI is accepting money from advertisers to push products then ChatGPT is just a salesman. You won't be having "discussions" you'll be actively sold stuff at all times. What an awful yet banal dystopia.

[Duralias]

Never used Alexa to buy something (not even sure that was supported here) but it not showing you what you are buying, which I feel like it must have on some devices, just sounds like a design mistake, ChatGPT and all other LLMs will be the same if just spoken to.

Also, I would never discuss something I am buying with an LLM, the moment advertising starts being used to influence its output it will be the same as discussing the product with the product page (which of course is only positive) and ignoring negative reviews.