OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig resigns amid concerns over ads in ChatGPT

OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig has resigned from the company, warning that its move to test advertising in ChatGPT risks putting it on “the same path as Facebook,” according to a report by Firstpost.

Hitzig, who worked at OpenAI for two years on issues related to how ChatGPT was built, priced and governed, announced her resignation in a guest essay for The New York Times. Her departure comes as OpenAI begins testing ads within ChatGPT.

“I resigned from OpenAI on Monday. The same day, they started testing ads in ChatGPT. OpenAI has the most detailed record of private human thought ever assembled. Can we trust them to resist the tidal forces pushing them to abuse it?” she wrote in a post on X.

In her essay, Hitzig argued that while the initial version of ads may follow the company’s stated commitments, such as being clearly labelled and not influencing responses, the larger concern lies in the long-term incentives created by an advertising-based model.

“The concern is about incentives,” she wrote, suggesting that financial pressures could eventually push the company to compromise on its principles in pursuit of engagement and profit.

Hitzig drew comparisons with Facebook, noting that the social media platform once made commitments to privacy and user control, including allowing users to vote on certain policy changes. She argued that as advertising became Facebook’s core business model, those commitments were gradually weakened.

By invoking “the same path as Facebook,” Hitzig warned that reliance on advertising could create tensions between OpenAI’s business goals and its ethical responsibilities. She said the issue is not that ads are inherently problematic, but that the incentives tied to them could influence how AI systems operate and interact with users over time.