Sam Altman is not happy about Anthropic’s new Super Bowl ads. The OpenAI CEO took to X to write a novella-long rant against his AI rival after Anthropic released commercials mocking ChatGPT’s upcoming ads. One spot shows a man asking ChatGPT for advice on talking to his mom, only to have the bot twist the conversation into an ad for a fictitious cougar-dating site called Golden Encounters.
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.
But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic…
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 4, 2026
Altman called Anthropic “dishonest” for implying ChatGPT would twist conversations to insert ads. But OpenAI has said it plans to test ads “at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.”
Altman also called Anthropic “authoritarian,” accusing the company of wanting to control what people do with AI. The rant over a cheeky Super Bowl ad clearly showed Anthropic hit a nerve.
Sam Altman is not happy about Anthropic’s new Super Bowl ads. The OpenAI CEO took to X to write a novella-long rant against his AI rival after Anthropic released commercials mocking ChatGPT’s upcoming ads. One spot shows a man asking ChatGPT for advice on talking to his mom, only to have the bot twist the conversation into an ad for a fictitious cougar-dating site called Golden Encounters.
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.
But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic…
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 4, 2026
Altman called Anthropic “dishonest” for implying ChatGPT would twist conversations to insert ads. But OpenAI has said it plans to test ads “at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.”
Altman also called Anthropic “authoritarian,” accusing the company of wanting to control what people do with AI. The rant over a cheeky Super Bowl ad clearly showed Anthropic hit a nerve.
