The AI wars begin with new Super Bowl commercials

First it was the Pepsi-Cola war, then it was the PC versus Apple, and now the AI wars have begun. 

The burgeoning rivalry between the world's leading artificial intelligence firms moved away from the Silicon Valley boardroom to the television screen on Sunday.

AI startup Anthropic made its Super Bowl LX debut with a high-stakes ad campaign that took a direct swipe at its chief competitor, OpenAI. The commercials, which reportedly cost millions to air during the match-up between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, mock OpenAI’s recent decision to introduce advertisements within its popular chatbot, ChatGPT.

One 30-second spot features a young man asking a muscular bystander for workout advice. The bystander responds in a stilted, robotic tone before abruptly pivoting to a sales pitch for shoe insoles that help "short kings stand tall." The ad concludes with a pointed tagline: "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude."

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Anthropic, the San Francisco-based firm founded by former OpenAI executives, is positioning itself as the more principled alternative to the Microsoft-backed giant. In a blog post released alongside the campaign, Anthropic said its AI model Claude will "remain ad-free."

"There are many good places for advertising. A conversation with Claude is not one of them," the blog post read. "Claude will remain ad-free. Our users won’t see 'sponsored' links adjacent to their conversations with Claude; nor will Claude’s responses be influenced by advertisers or include third-party product placements our users did not ask for."

Anthropic declined to provide further comment. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to the ads on X, calling them "clearly dishonest" and accused Anthropic of "double speak."

"But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest," he wrote. "I guess it’s on brand for Anthropic doublespeak to use a deceptive ad to critique theoretical deceptive ads that aren’t real, but a Super Bowl ad is not where I would expect it."

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Altman defended the decision to test ads in the "Free" and "Go" tiers of ChatGPT as a necessity for maintaining broad accessibility. He contrasted OpenAI’s scale with Anthropic’s, stating that "more Texans use ChatGPT for free than all the people in the United States who use Claude."

"Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people," Altman added. "We also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions."

Altman also responded to the ads on the "The Technology Brothers Podcast" with hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays. He said his company isn't "stupid" and that they respect OpenAI users.

"We’re not stupid," Altman told the hosts. "We respect our users, and we understand that if we did something like what those ads depict, people would rightfully stop using our product."

The company has stated that ads will not influence answers and advertisers will not have access to users' conversations. According to OpenAI, ads will be labeled and at the bottom of the screen. 

OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The "TBPN" hosts, who have become influential voices in the Silicon Valley ecosystem, offered a split verdict on the escalating conflict.

"It’s incredibly clever. And it's incredibly dirty," Hays said, ading that the "gloves are off" between the two companies. 

Coogan characterized the ads as "fake newsy," but noted that it represents a significant shift in how these companies view one another. 

OpenAI also had a presence during the big game, using airtime to promote its software coding tool, Codex, as it seeks to maintain its dominant market position amid a "code red" competitive environment.

The AI wars are no longer just about who has the smartest model—they are now about who can win the hearts and minds of the largest television audience of the year.