Think for yourself or ads will
Every topic in 2026 is mostly about AI. If it is not politics, it is AI. I will admit it. I use AI for my school assessments. I use it to help synthesise my reading notes, help me sort my readings and reference them easier. If a machine should do anything well, it is categorise, I thought. However, there are limitations. If I ask AI "where did you get this information from? Give me the quote", it fails to do so. Oddly enough, it is extremely capable in generation somewhat good answers while at the same time fail to provide the source it referenced (or stole). Humans are like that most of the time, I guess it took on the laziness of humans. More often than not when someone say something ignorant like "Indigenous people are stealing taxpayers money", and I ask them "where did you get that information? Is that really true". I might get something like "my parents, family, or that is just the truth". Just tell me where you received that information! Is that information reputable and true!
Some AI chatbots already have ads integrated, and you probably do not notice it. Does that seem reputable to you? Some people are already dependent on AI to think for them, it should be a tool. Not robots controlling humans. As Forbes 1 put it "The Ad Industry Is Going To Be Unrecognisable. Again." published in April 2025. I was only made aware of AI ads through my lecturer who off-handedly mentioned "oh yeah, did you know AI recently added ads?". Since AI's development, it most likely have already intended or opened it's codes for advertisement. Alarmingly, in AI discussions, very few people mention the ethical concerns and implications of ads in ai. In recent times, many social media CEOs like the Zuck have been trialed in court for harvesting users data for advertisements. These chatbots are doing the same thing but are smarter about their sponsors. Research article by Tang et al (2025, p.24) 2 found 12% of users identified ads and ad-infused answers are more persuasive; hence users are more likely to follow ad integrated answers.
With AI still growing as a new technology, it should be noted that it will get better. Recognising ads in AI will soon be a whisper of the past.
"Are we cooked chat?"
No, this is fine. (sponsored by Peter Thiel)
Forbes (2025) "Advertising In AI Chatbots: Disruption In Digital Marketing"↩
Tang et al (2025) "Ads that Talk Back: Implications and Perceptions of Injecting Personalized Advertising into LLM Chatbots" https://doi.org/10.1145/3770640↩