'We dont have any plans to do ads at the moment' DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says Gemini will stay adfree as ChatGPT begins inserting ads into conversations

Date:
Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:43:25 +0000

Description:
Google is distancing Gemini from ChatGPTs ad strategy by promising an ad-free experience for now

FULL STORY ======================================================================Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has said there are no current plans to introduce ads into Gemini His comments contrast with OpenAIs move to begin showing ads in ChatGPT Hassabis said ad-free assistants build trust

Google doubled down on keeping ads out of its Gemini AI assistant this week. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said in an interview with Alex Heath that the company has no plans to incorporate ads in Gemini.

"We dont have any plans to do [ads] at the moment," he said. "I think were focusing on the core experience and the core technology of being a better assistant, first and foremost, in a much wider range of things and in more form factors."

The commitment is notable considering OpenAI has just begun testing ads
inside ChatGPTs free tier and its lowcost ChatGPT Go subscription. Hassabis didnt criticize OpenAI directly, but he did note that its interesting theyve gone for that so early, and that maybe they feel they need to make more revenue.

This tech gossip hints at a much bigger deal. It means there could be a real split in how AI assistants will be funded and what we encounter when engaging with them. Google wants to be seen on the more positive side of that debate. Hassabis said that if you want a true universal assistant, you need the reassurance that its recommendations are genuinely good for you and unbiased and untainted.

Speaking later to Axios , Hassabis didn't rule ads out. He stressed that his team is thinking "very carefully" about ads and said "we don't feel any immediate pressure to have to make knee-jerk decisions like that." The Google ecosystem

Part of Googles confidence comes from its ecosystem. Gemini is not Googles main moneymaker. Advertising in Search, YouTube, Maps, and virtually every other nook of the companys empire already brings in tens of billions of dollars. Gemini, by comparison, is still a longterm strategic investment. Google can afford patience. OpenAI, which lacks a sprawling ad empire or a hardware division, has to pay its massive cloud bills some other way.

Even so, Googles stance leaves wiggle room. Hassabis didnt declare a philosophical ban on ads forever. Instead, he framed the decision as a matter of timing and trust. Social platforms have already blurred the line between authentic recommendations and sponsored influence. TikTok and Instagram are full of ads disguised as content. Amazon mixes ads into search results almost indistinguishably. And consumers are leery of it already.

Google knows this. That is why Hassabis said mixing ads into an assistant could work, but only if done with extreme caution. In other words, yes,
Gemini could turn into a revenue channel later, but Google wants people to trust Gemini.

But at least for now, Google is betting that not showing ads is actually the smarter business move. It positions Gemini as the assistant that works for you, not the assistant that works for an advertiser. And while Googles track record on ads isnt exactly saintly, its decision to keep Gemini ad-free represents a rare moment when consumer experience outranks monetization.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the
Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/gemini/we-dont-have-any-plan s-to-do-ads-at-the-moment-deepmind-ceo-demis-hassabis-says-gemini-will-stay-ad -free-as-chatgpt-begins-inserting-ads-into-conversations


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)