OpenAI is rapidly expanding its global advertising business to attract more users to its platform amid its push to meet ambitious revenue targets.

“The revenue that we make from the ads offering is going to subsidize and grow access to information,” OpenAI advertising chief David Dugan told reporters on Monday at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

After years swearing off of advertising, the company now hopes its sprint into the ad business will help it generate $100 billion by the end of the decade. That’s about half of Meta’s current ad revenue. ChatGPT launched ads in February for users of its free and “go” tiers, making ads populate in queries and conversations. The AI giant said it already has thousands of advertisers in its seven test markets, including in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. OpenAI said it plans to launch in Brazil and Mexico in the coming weeks, and eventually in India.

But while ChatGPT astounded users for years when it burst onto the scene writing essays in seconds and rap verses instantaneously, its advertising offering is less transformational. Users see ads targeted to them based on what, when and how they are researching, said Dugan.

While the company remained mum about the specific revenue that advertising was bringing in, it said there were some signs that current users weren’t alienated by new AI ads in test markets. Dugan said the frequency that users were seeing an ad and clicking away - was “far lower” than when the company began testing ads.

That’s odd, given that everyone I know endlessly complains that there are still sites that don’t endlessly serve up ads. Surely, everyone will like this more, and the anticipated returns will come to fruition just as all “AI” prognostications have.