Anthropic airs Super Bowl ad criticizing OpenAI’s plan to add ChatGPT ads, escalating rivalry between AI giants as both battle for users and investor
Anthropic is spending millions of dollars on a Super Bowl commercial that directly challenges rival OpenAI’s plan to introduce advertising into its ChatGPT chatbot—turning one of Silicon Valley’s fiercest corporate rivalries into prime-time entertainment.
The 30-second spot, scheduled to air during Sunday night’s Super Bowl LX broadcast on NBC, delivers a pointed message: while ads may be coming to AI, they will not be coming to Claude, Anthropic’s chatbot.
In the commercial, a young man seeking fitness advice in a park asks a muscular stranger for tips on getting six-pack abs. The stranger responds in the stilted tone of a chatbot, offering a personalized training plan—only to abruptly interrupt himself with a promotion for shoe inserts that help “short kings stand tall.” The confused reaction that follows sets up the punchline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
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OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, was quick to push back.
Calling the ad “deceptive” in a post on the social platform X, Altman said the company has no intention of undermining user trust. “We’re not stupid,” Altman said in an interview Thursday on the TBPN podcast. “We respect our users. If we did something like what those ads depict, people would rightfully stop using our product.”
OpenAI is also using the Super Bowl spotlight, though with a different strategy. The company plans to promote Codex, its AI-powered software coding tool, marking its own first major advertising push around the event.
The high-profile marketing clash highlights the intensifying competition between the two leading artificial-intelligence laboratories. Neither company is profitable, and both are racing to expand consumer adoption, win enterprise customers, and position themselves for potential public offerings.
An estimated 120 million viewers are expected to watch Sunday’s game, with NBCUniversal charging an average of $8 million for a 30-second commercial, according to Mark Marshall, the network’s chairman of global advertising. Some spots reportedly sold for more than $10 million.
For Anthropic, the campaign represents its first appearance on the Super Bowl stage—and a bold effort to differentiate itself from its larger rival.
“This is a very human urge to argue in public,” said Sam Singer, president of Singer Associates Public Relations. “The dispute between OpenAI and Anthropic makes the Super Bowl more interesting. It gets people thinking about Claude or ChatGPT, and that will likely benefit both parties.”
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Advertising experts say the showdown also offers an opportunity to address broader skepticism about artificial intelligence. Surveys suggest many Americans remain wary of AI’s long-term impact.
“Only about 17 percent of U.S. adults believe AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years,” said Sean Wright, chief insights and analytics officer at the ad-tracking firm Guideline. “The challenge for both companies is finding the right tone—one that educates consumers without alienating them.”
Whether the commercial skirmish sways public opinion remains to be seen. But for one night at least, the battle for the future of AI will be fought not just in code and data centers, but on the biggest advertising stage in the world.
