In AI we Trust ?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The AI Brand War just Started

The most common use case of AI (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini is… Therapy.

Yep — the stuff that is often as personal as it gets. And while we all know we tell Google and our “AIs” way too much about ourselves, our thoughts, our problems and our desires… here we are. Of course, we know it could be used against us, especially if it gets into the wrong hands. But opting out doesn’t feel like an option.

In order to participate in the modern economy, people not using the latest tools will fall behind. And this is probably true. So a reckoning is about to happen in 2026. A moment of truth — or should we say trust — in AI. And it starts today.

If you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is about to start running advertising inside its AI — which I think is a very bad idea. Just look at Google to see where this ends up. In fact, Google has made search ‘worse on purpose’ to make more money. This explains what happened in under 2 mins.

The adverts from Claude harpoon this idea and demonstrate how ads in ChatGPT could make it a lot worse — even creepy. They’re darkly comedic with a core message: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
You can check them out below:

  • “How Do I Communicate With My Mom?”
    A man in a therapist’s office asks the AI for advice on improving his relationship with his mother. The AI offers thoughtful advice, then abruptly interrupts itself to pitch “Golden Encounters,” a dating site for young men looking for older women. Watch it here.
  • “Can I Get a Six Pack Quickly?”
    A man doing pull-ups in a park asks his AI for fitness advice. The AI breaks its guidance to sell “Step Boost Max” height-increasing insoles to help “short kings stand tall.” Watch it here.
  • The “Business Plan”
    An entrepreneur works on a business plan and asks her AI for advice, only for the AI to interrupt its professional guidance to offer high-interest financing solutions. Watch it here.
  • The “Essay/Schoolwork”
    A student asking for homework help is interrupted by a blatant, distracting ad insertion in the middle of their educational, critical task. Watch it here.

The hot take? Advertising will erode the integrity of LLMs. And possibly make the entire experience a little creepy

AI is entering an era where trust matters more than they think. The trouble is, so much money has been invested in the sector that the big players are scrambling to get an ROI. Which often leads to bad decisions… and sometimes bubbles bursting. (Over $600 billion has ben invested by large firms lone in the Ai sector in the past 3 years)
Worth noting: A bubble bursting doesn’t make AI less important — it just means organisations may have invested too much in the fervour to win. We saw this during the Dot-Com bubble.

Ironically, Super Bowl ads often have another feature: industries in the middle of a bubble trip over themselves to create Super Bowl ads. US$44 million was spent at the 2000 Super Bowl by dot-com companies — around 70% of which are now defunct following the bust.

The Super Bowl is really the last bastion of reaching a mass audience in a single moment — it’s expected to have an audience of around 130 million people. I wouldn’t be surprised if AI has a financial bust this year.

But here’s what that won’t mean: that we use AI less, or that it won’t continue its path of changing the world more than anything in history.

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Keep Thinking,

Steve.

** Get me into do an AI keynote at your next event and as a blog reader – get 2 nights free at my luxury farmhouse on the Bellarine Peninsula.