Demis Hassabis says Google doesn't have “any plans” for ads in Gemini and, regarding OpenAI testing ads, says “maybe they feel they need to make more revenue”

During our convo in Davos, Demis Hassabis and I chatted about ads in AI, Google's new deal with Apple, humanoids, and Gemini 4.

Sources 2026-01-21 Alex Heath

Discussion

@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
To state the obvious: Gemini is an ad-supported product, too. The ads just don't appear on Gemini.
@buccocapital @buccocapital on x
Good. Step on their throat
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Demis Hassabis told me Google has no plans to put ads in Gemini “It's interesting they've gone for that so early,” he said of OpenAI putting ads in ChatGPT. “Maybe they feel they need to make more revenue.” https://sources.news/...
@parkerortolani Parker Ortolani on x
the beauty of Chat and Search being entirely different products
@signulll @signulll on x
this is precisely the right move. they should hammer this in for a while. [image]
@gavinpurcell Gavin Purcell on x
@alexeheath I mean... Google has no need to do it right now, they still have an advertising money printer. Of *course* they feel the need to make more revenue.
@rihardjarc Rihard Jarc on x
Demis Hassabis: $GOOGL has no plans to put ads in Gemini. “It's interesting they've gone for that so early” $GOOGL is taking full advantage of their infra and squeezing the LLM market.
@jessicalessin Jessica Lessin on x
From a news cycle and buzz perspective, Google and Anthropic are winning Davos. And they are doing it by not so subtly attacking OpenAI.
@garvanwalshe.org Garvan Walshe on bluesky
This is a reasonably viable business model but don't know if they'll raise enough. Depends on how much time people spend on the chats.. [embedded post]
@xlr8harder @xlr8harder on x
bro's salary is paid by the world's largest ad pusher “we'll put ads on every surface possible including your personal email and also put our conversational ai in our shopping system for targeted conversions on users but ... in the app itself? why I would never dream of it.” [ima…
@sharongoldman Sharon Goldman on x
Oh snap Demis
@charlesdardaman Charles on x
Makes OpenAI's decision look even worse but it seems obvious they need cash
@ariandersen Ari Andersen on x
Google, the famously ad-free company
@trace_cohen Trace Cohen on x
Sure easy to say when you generate $400B after 30yrs
@thedataroom @thedataroom on x
“Open” AI vs Google AI Ads (announced recently, after initially insisting “they are not ads") vs no ads
@andrewmayne Andrew Mayne on x
Who wants to tell him? [image]
@tylercosgrove Tyler Cosgrove on x
“Maybe they feel they need to make more revenue” [image]
@aakashgupta Aakash Gupta on x
Google doesn't need to monetize Gemini and nobody's noticing what that actually means. Google made $74 billion in ad revenue last quarter alone. OpenAI made roughly $5 billion total in Q4 and lost money on every dollar. The math: Google's advertising business generates more
@laurengoode Lauren Goode on x
The funny thing about plans is that they don't exist until you make them and then one day you decide to make them https://x.com/...
@j_mcgraph Josh McGrath on x
fish in water: interesting that those other fish need water. maybe they feel thirsty.
@dr_gingerballs @dr_gingerballs on x
Knew it. Google is going to absolutely use this to lure people away from OpenAI.
r/technology r on reddit
Google says Gemini won't have ads, as ChatGPT prepares to add them
@catherineperlo1 Catherine Perloff on x
Scoop: OpenAi is charging on a cost per view basis (not cost per click like google) for ads and asking for under $1 million spend commitments over a several week trial period. More details on OpenAi's pitch to advertisers here W/@srimuppidi https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@mgsiegler.com M.G. Siegler on bluesky
Yeah, no surprise they're not focusing on the clicks - that's the mechanism ChatGPT disrupted! CPM is the easy/obvious thing to start/test with for a massive user base, but is unlikely to be the answer here either... spyglass.org/openai-ads-i... [embedded post]
@carlquintanilla Carl Quintanilla on bluesky
ANTHROPIC CEO: “.. I think this is crazy,” Amodei said of the chip sales to China. “It's a bit like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea and [bragging that] Boeing made the casings.” — @techcrunch.com $NVDA — techcrunch.com/2026/01/20/a... [image]
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
I'm pretty sure Google is going to eat OpenAI's lunch, acquire them for cheap in 2027, and then wonderboy Sam Altman will spend the rest of his days using the proceeds to launch a series of failed and completely uninteresting startups to widespread tech press acclaim
r/technology r on reddit
Anthropic's CEO stuns Davos with Nvidia criticism
@_simonsmith Simon Smith on x
Charging per ad view is interesting for a few reasons, one of which being that Altman and Ive said they're trying to get people off screens with OpenAI's hardware. So not sure a CPM model will work with those future form factors.
@reidjjackson Reid Jackson on x
OpenAI charging advertisers on a CPM basis vs. CPC certainly lends credence to the argument they want ads to be more like Instagram than Google.
@kimmonismus @kimmonismus on x
This was to be expected: Google has no ambitions to include ads in Gemini. This is due to two reasons: 1) They can simply afford to continue offering Gemini for free and burning money because they have a thriving business with consistently record-breaking revenues from Google

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Demis Hassabis says Google doesn't have “any plans” for ads in Gemini and, regarding OpenAI testing ads, says “maybe they feel they need to make more revenue”

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