Ahead of Times – Issue #6

Ads in ChatGPT will be soon available to buy via Criteo 

Criteo has joined OpenAI’s advertising pilot in ChatGPT, becoming the first ad tech partner to enable brands to buy ads inside the platform using its existing commerce media platform. The pilot is rolling out in the US on ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers, testing how advertising can work inside conversational AI, while OpenAI maintains that ads do not influence ChatGPT’s responses or expose user conversations to advertisers. 

Why it matters 

The significance here is access, with Criteo as the first and only confirmed adtech partner, OpenAI is opening ChatGPT inventory through an existing network of around 17,000 brands, rather than creating a new buying route. For now, this is the only clear path in, and it’s still unknown what other buying options might follow, or whether partnerships with platforms like Microsoft Ads will ever emerge. 

Criteo’s role also matters because of measurement and reporting, which have been unclear so far. Early discussion around ChatGPT ads focused on placement and experience, but offered little detail on performance, attribution or standards. By relying on an established adtech partner, OpenAI can lean on familiar measurement frameworks while it tests monetisation inside conversational AI. How access, reporting and control are set at this early stage will shape how comfortable advertisers are investing as this channel develops. 

Anthropic draws a hard line on AI ethics  

One of the main stories this past week has been the clash between Anthropic, the maker of the Claude model, and the Trump administration. 

Anthropic has found itself at the centre of a highprofile dispute with the US government after refusing to remove ethical guardrails around the military use of Claude. The company has been clear about its two red lines: Claude should not be used for mass domestic surveillance, or for fully autonomous weapons without human oversight. 

The Pentagon pushed for approval to use the model for “all lawful purposes”, which Anthropic would not agree to. In response, President Trump ordered US agencies to stop using Anthropic’s AI and labelled the company a supply chain risk, a term usually reserved for foreign adversaries, and never before applied to a US company. 

Shortly after, OpenAI secured the Pentagon deal. While OpenAI says similar safety principles apply, the key difference is control: Anthropic wanted to enforce its own limits, while OpenAI agreed to let the US government decide what counts as lawful use. 

Why it matters

This isn’t just a policy dispute. It’s a realworld test of who controls how advanced AI is used, and trust is becoming a differentiator rather than a nicetohave. 

The situation highlights the tension between AI safety commitments and national security priorities. Anthropic tried to enforce its own limits, while OpenAI accepted a model where the state decides what counts as lawful use, raising ethical questions about how AI is deployed in defence and surveillance. 

Public reaction has largely favoured Anthropic, with Claude climbing to the top of US app download charts after the news broke, while OpenAI’s Pentagon deal has triggered a visible backlash and calls online to reconsider use of ChatGPT. 

For brands, platforms and agencies, this reinforces the importance of clear AI governance, transparency, and choosing partners whose values align with how you want to operate as AI scales. 

Google pushes creative AI deeper into Gemini, Ads and Search 

Google has rolled out a wave of AI updates across Gemini. Gemini 3.1 Pro is now in preview, pushing ahead on reasoning and benchmark performance. Lyria 3 brings AI music generation into the Gemini app, letting users create 30second tracks with vocals and lyrics from simple prompts. At the same time, Nano Banana 2 is rolling out across Gemini, Search and Google Ads, with faster image generation, cleaner text, better prompt accuracy and consistent, highres outputs up to 4K. 

Why it matters 

Taken together, these updates show Google pushing AI deeper into everyday creative and marketing workflows. Gemini 3.1 strengthens the underlying intelligence, Lyria 3 brings audio creation into the same ecosystem, and Nano Banana 2 connects visual creation directly to activation through Google Ads. The result is a tighter link between thinking, creating and launching. As AI is built into text, image and audio tools across Google’s ecosystem, brands face growing pressure to move faster while keeping creative governance and brand control in place. 

Rightmove adds AI search on-site and in ChatGPT 

Rightmove doesn’t want to be left behind on AI, and in February it made two important announcements. 

First, it launched a beta AIpowered conversational property search on its own website, built using Google’s Gemini models. This is meant to be available via the property search bar on the homepage (although it is not available for everyone yet). 

Second, Rightmove announced a dedicated app inside ChatGPT, where users can describe what they’re looking for in natural language and see relevant sale and rental listings. The experience sits directly within ChatGPT and acts as an early discovery layer, before users click through to Rightmove.

Source: Rightmove’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rightmove_coming-soon-rightmove-is-launching-in-chatgpt-activity-7432395237785866240-kY3E?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=member_desktop_web&rcm=ACoAAC19xKIB1nGHX1g38rCQfHE3QNf0Mx-Of_U

We’re already seeing this shift in the US. Property portals like Homes.com have built AI chatbots directly into their websites allowing voice messages, letting users search and explore listings through conversation instead of filters. Zillow was the first real estate platform to launch inside ChatGPT around six months ago, allowing users to search for homes directly within ChatGPT using its own listings data.

Why it matters

Property search is evolving. Filters and keywords are giving way to conversation, whether that happens inside AI platforms like ChatGPT or directly on portal websites. For portals like Rightmove, AI assistants become a new front door to discovery rather than a threat to traffic.

For agents and developers, this raises important questions around visibility and control: how listings are surfaced in conversational results, which data points AI prioritises, and how early‑stage intent is captured before a user ever reaches a traditional results page. As AI‑led search becomes more common, the quality, structure and richness of property data will play a much bigger role in who gets seen.

UK news organisations unite to set standards for AI use of journalism 

Major UK news organisations including the BBC, The Guardian, the Financial Times, Sky News and The Telegraph have formed a new media coalition focused on how AI systems use journalistic content. The group, called SPUR (Standards for Publisher Usage Rights), has published an open letter calling on global media leaders to work together on shared standards for AI publishing, licensing and content usage. The coalition argues that news content and archives have become foundational training material for AI systems, often used without clear permission, payment or transparency.  

Why it matters

If publishers lose control of how their content is used, the impact goes far beyond licensing disputes. Journalism depends on sustainable revenue. If that revenue disappears, there are fewer journalists, fewer original investigations, and less trusted reporting to feed the system in the first place. 

For AI platforms, this creates a longterm risk. Without highquality, professionally produced journalism, AI models increasingly train on recycled, lowvalue content, leading to more noise, more misinformation and more “AI slop”. What looks like free content today undermines the quality of both news and AI tomorrow. 

By pushing for shared standards, UK publishers are trying to protect the foundations of the information ecosystem. For brands, platforms and audiences, this matters because trusted media, credible information and responsible AI are tightly linked. Without sustainable journalism, trust erodes, not just in news, but in the AI systems that increasingly shape what people see, read and believe.

India puts AI governance, inclusion and infrastructure centre stage 

India hosted the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, bringing together governments, tech leaders and global organisations to talk about how AI should be built and governed. Attendees included Sam Altman (OpenAI), Sundar Pichai (Google) and Dario Amodei (Anthropic), with the conversation centred on policy, infrastructure and coordination rather than product launches. 

Across the week, AI was framed as core to economic growth and digital public infrastructure. Topics ranged from responsible deployment and regulation to enterprise adoption, workforce change and agentic AI, with governance treated as part of growth, not a blocker to innovation. 

Why it matters 

The summit highlights a clear change in emphasis: AI is no longer just about building more powerful models, but about how those systems are used at scale. Trust, public infrastructure, skills and access were treated as core issues alongside media, content ecosystems and digital economies. 

For brands, platforms and publishers, the message is increasingly clear. AI adoption is expected to come with accountability. As AI becomes embedded across media, services and everyday decisions, transparency, cultural relevance and social impact are becoming commercial considerations, not just ethical ones.