Anthropic used the massive stage of Super Bowl LX to take a direct shot at its biggest rival, OpenAI. The company aired a 30-second commercial that mocked the idea of putting advertisements into artificial intelligence chatbots. This comes just weeks after OpenAI announced it would start testing ads in the free version of ChatGPT.
The campaign positions Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude, as a privacy-focused alternative to ChatGPT. While OpenAI moves toward a revenue model that includes advertising, Anthropic is betting that users want a space to think without being sold products. The move sparked an immediate and heated response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who called the ads “deceptive.”
A Gym Conversation Turned Sales Pitch
Anthropic produced four different commercials for the campaign, but one specific spot drew significant attention. The ad features a young man doing pull-ups in a park. He asks a muscular bystander for advice on how to get “six-pack abs.” The bystander responds in a robotic, helpful tone, sounding exactly like a helpful AI assistant.
However, the advice takes a sudden turn. Mid-sentence, the muscular man slips in a promotion for shoe inserts that help “short kings stand tall.” The young man looks puzzled by the unwanted sales pitch. The commercial ends with a clear message: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
According to The Verge, the version of the ad that actually aired during the broadcast included a slight change to its tagline. While the online versions directly stated that ads are coming to AI, the broadcast spot used a softer slogan suggesting that conversations with AI should not be a place for ads.
OpenAI CEO Fires Back
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman did not find the commercial funny. He took to social media platform X to criticize the campaign, calling it “clearly dishonest” and “doublespeak.” Altman argued that Anthropic was attacking a scenario that does not exist, claiming that OpenAI would never run ads in the clumsy way the commercial depicted.
“We are not stupid,” Altman said in a podcast interview. “We respect our users, we understand that if we did something like what those ads depict, people will rightfully stop using our product.”
Altman also pointed out that Anthropic’s user base is much smaller than OpenAI’s. He claimed that more people in Texas use ChatGPT for free than the total number of people who use Claude in the entire United States. He suggested that Anthropic faces a different set of problems because it serves an expensive product to a wealthier, smaller audience.
The Battle Over Business Models
The Super Bowl ad highlights a major split in how these two AI giants plan to make money. OpenAI confirmed last month that it plans to introduce ads for free users and those using “ChatGPT Go.” The company stated these ads would be clearly labeled and positioned at the bottom of the screen so they do not interfere with the actual conversation.
Anthropic is taking the opposite approach. In a blog post accompanying the ads, the company promised that Claude will remain ad-free. They stated that users will never see “sponsored” links next to their conversations, and that Claude’s answers will never be influenced by advertisers.
OpenAI also ran its own Super Bowl commercial, but it took a very different tone. According to Altman, their spot focused on “builders” and how people can use AI to bring their ideas to life, rather than attacking competitors.
