COMP190, Spring 2026, Class for Feb 17

10:30-11:45 in Tome 120.

Timeline:

• 10:30-10:50. Read the assigned articles, take handwritten notes including some direct quotations.
• 10:50-11:05, device-free. Group discussion.
• 11:05-11:20, device-free. Full class discussion.
• 11:20-11:45, device-free. Individual writing assignment (will be collected and graded).

Readings (to be done in class, no need to read in advance):

• Simo, F. (2026, January 16). Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT. OpenAI. https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/
• Hitzig, Z. (2026, February 11). OpenAI is making the mistakes Facebook made. I quit. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/opinion/openai-ads-chatgpt.html. If you don’t have a free subscription to the New York Times set up, visit the relevant Dickinson College Library page.

Suggested discussion questions (address any subset in any order):

1. Who are the authors? Should we trust their factual statements? Should we trust their opinions?
2. Why is OpenAI introducing advertising on ChatGPT? List all reasons mentioned by by either author. Do the reasons given by each author differ? Why or why not? Are there any reasons not mentioned by either author?
3. Compare the proposed use of advertising on ChatGPT with the use of advertising and sponsored links on Google and Facebook. What are the similarities? What are the differences?
4. Can you think of any other industries or sectors in which advertising was Initially absent but was later introduced?
5. Do you expect other major competitors of OpenAI/ChatGPT to introduce advertising on their AI assistants in the near future? Which ones and why? (Competitors to consider, just pick two or three: Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Apple Siri, Anthropic Claude, xAI Grok, Meta AI, DeepSeek-R1, Mistral AI, Moonshot AI Kimi, Z.ai ChatGLM)
6. The title of the first reading refers to “expanding access to ChatGPT.” Explain what the author means by this.