OpenAI researcher resigns over ads, warning against becoming another Facebook

# Advertising in ChatGPT Triggered a Crisis of Conscience at OpenAI

Zoë Hitzig, one of OpenAI's leading researchers, announced her departure from the company on the very day the startup began public testing of advertisements directly within ChatGPT. This timing is hardly coincidental — in her resignation statement, Hitzig directly pointed to the discrepancy between OpenAI's proclaimed values and its practical actions. The researcher warned the company's leadership against repeating Facebook's mistakes, when the pursuit of advertising revenue ultimately compromised user trust and became a source of systemic problems with privacy and content quality.

This departure symbolizes a much deeper conflict unfolding within one of the most influential companies in artificial intelligence. OpenAI, which positions itself as a responsible AI developer, faces growing discontent within its own team. On one hand, the company has attracted billions in investment and promised investors a path to profitability. On the other hand, many internal employees see in each new step of commercialization a threat to the fundamental principles on which the organization was founded.

The introduction of advertising in ChatGPT is not merely a technical change. It is a question about whom or what the company is optimizing its product for. When the primary source of income shifts from user subscriptions to advertising revenue, the very nature of incentives changes. The platform becomes interested not so much in the quality of responses as in maximizing the time users spend on the site. This creates a conflict of interest: advertisers benefit from maximum visibility and user contact, users benefit from fast and quality information. Facebook's history vividly demonstrated how such conflicts over time erode trust and lead to reputational damage.

Hitzig's departure acquires special significance against the backdrop of other events at OpenAI. In recent months, the company has experienced serious internal upheavals — from the resignation and return of CEO Sam Altman to public disagreements between employees about the direction of development. Researchers and ethicists, who once felt like the driving force of the company, increasingly find themselves as voices in the wilderness when it comes to strategic decisions. Hitzig was a respected team member, and her resignation with expressed criticism of the company could serve as an alarming bell for other specialists who share her concerns.

The question of how to monetize AI services without compromising their quality and reliability is not merely OpenAI's internal matter. It is a strategic question for the entire industry. If one of the market leaders chooses Facebook's path, it could create a kind of behavioral norm for everyone else. Moreover, it will affect how ordinary users perceive AI tools, users who already experience distrust of technology and the companies developing it.

The balance between innovation and responsibility at OpenAI proved more difficult than it seemed in theory. Hitzig's departure is not simply a loss of one talent; it is a signal that the company must make a choice between who it wants to be in the long term and what short-term profits it can obtain.