Altman said the ads are humorous but misleading. He argued that OpenAI has explicitly rejected using advertising in the way Anthropic depicts it—namely as subtle manipulation embedded in personal, confidential chat conversations. He also accused Anthropic of elitism, saying OpenAI aims to make AI accessible to billions of people who cannot afford subscriptions, whereas Anthropic primarily serves wealthier users with an expensive product.

At the same time, there is an added layer of irony: the dystopian scenario Anthropic sketches in its ads is one that Altman himself previously warned about, when it fit his earlier anti-Google narrative. Moreover, history shows that at publicly traded companies—and OpenAI is reportedly planning an IPO later this year—advertising tends to expand and gain influence as growth pressure increases.