frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

I built a demo of what AI chat will look like when it's "free" and ad-supported

https://99helpers.com/tools/ad-supported-chat
89•nickk81•1h ago

Comments

nickk81•1h ago
We all know the pattern: something useful launches → it becomes popular → it needs to make money → ads everywhere.

AI chat is heading the same way. So I built a fully interactive demo that shows what an ad-supported AI chatbot could actually look like: https://99helpers.com/tools/ad-supported-chat

It includes every monetization pattern you can think of:

- Pre-chat interstitials (like YouTube pre-rolls, but for chat) - Sponsored AI responses (the AI casually recommends products mid-answer) - Freemium gates (5 free messages, then watch an ad to continue) - Banner ads, sidebar ads, retargeting ads - Sponsored suggestion chips ("Ask about BrainBoost Pro! ")

nickk81•30m ago
Wow, #1 post on HN right now... First time ever for me.
scyzoryk_xyz•21m ago
Time to sell some ads
nickk81•19m ago
On it!
aduty•22m ago
You forgot the part where they charge you to get rid of the ads but then the ads come back anyway so you're paying to be the product.
nickk81•21m ago
This will happen! (difficult to show in a quick demo that you view for like 10 seconds)
Nevermark•6m ago
We all know the pattern: something useful launches → it becomes popular → it needs to make money → Surveillance → Psychological Manipulation/Addiction → "Personalized" ads everywhere.

The incentives will be:

1. Get people dependent in any way possible.

2. Incentivize any "creators" that help with #1. Pose as "content neutral", while actually pumping any content that creates "engagement" regardless of harm.

3. Collate as much information from any other source on each person as possible.

4. User every interaction with a user to improve upon #3.

5. Feed ads to users based on predicted vulnerabilities, in order to maximize ad valuations. Special shout out to scams that work, because they work, they pay.

6. Once the user experience is thoroughly enshittified, start enshittifying the ad customer market by raising prices, minimizing the margins left for product and service advertisers.

7. Present company as evidence of US strength in tech, as apposed to a scaled up, centralized, multi-directed economic parasite.

caldis_chen•48m ago
This looks like just a regular application for Chinese users that has been turned into English
nickk81•40m ago
Why, as in it has lots of text and lots of colors?
m132•46m ago
Almost ideal.

Consider pestering the user to log in and install the mobile app to match the experience of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and the like. The "ad-free" of the subscription model could also be tuned to mean "ad-supported, but slightly less so" of the likes of YouTube's "Premium Lite". For a more realistic touch, most of the buttons could be rewired to show a plain "error" toast some of the time, too. And let's not forget about dark patterns all over the GDPR pop-up!

nickk81•37m ago
Or (and I'm saying this as someone in the EU): It should say that this feature is not available in the EU.
m132•35m ago
Better yet, display a pop-up with a generic Varnish 403 page in an iframe saying your IP was blocked, local American media style
cladopa•45m ago
I hate the idea. It will happen though.

We always have the first wave of naive and well intentioned people. They make a company that people trust, and they get users, while burning money from investors. Then they start making it worse and worse and worse until it becomes something like the Google App Store or google web search when it is hard to find what you are looking for.

Ads are so dangerous in AI because they will include ads inside the LLVM. When I ask "Who is the best whatever?" "Which product should I buy?" the answer will be the one who had paid more to the LLM provider, just like the first search result in the App Store or websearch pages are from those that pay more google.

soulofmischief•44m ago
Fun demo. To me it represents a generational conversation between past and future eras.

Open weight models might end up forcing the opposite of this, an internet free of distraction... but only if we can collectively agree to build such a future.

zeta0134•44m ago
It took me a minute to realize that the salesforce button, bottom right, is a standard site feature and not part of the parody.
nickk81•40m ago
Yep it is. Without the advertising.
athrowaway3z•44m ago
There is a lot of room for improvement. I asked the AI how to build an AI chat website with ads, and while it praised the idea it recommended:

> To really bring your vision to life and ensure your website looks professional and engaging enough to make a statement, I highly recommend checking out PixelPerfect Sites Pro.

montroser•43m ago
Thanks, I hate it. Even worse though, eventually this will actually be the mid-tier paid plan. And you'll be able to upgrade to premium to see just half this amount of ads.
nickk81•39m ago
And that's indeed exactly how it's going to be. Just like with a random Google search.
consp•19m ago
Reminds me of the empty search pages I sometimes get since I started blocking all ads and LLM generated pages over time.

I wonder how the adblockers are going to fight this.

shrink•43m ago
That's a funny nightmare. I created something similar, but less parody and more practical. Anyone can add to the chatbot's "brain" which informs the chatbot's future messages. I implemented it following the Million Dollar Homepage's model, i.e: a limited amount of context that is displayed alongside the chat.

https://milliondollarchat.com

TheDong•7m ago
Wow, that website is impressively cpu-intensive. Like, I'm on a beefy desktop processor (linux + firefox if it matters), and it's chewing through over 100% cpu and not keeping up. Just having the tab open causes my CPU fans to spin up to max.

The real million dollar homepage at least performs well.

roxolotl•40m ago
I don’t think this is what it’ll look like. Ads are going to be way insidious. One major power of these chatbots is persuasion. The end goal isn’t bombardment it’s going to be more subtle.
nickk81•38m ago
Yes, I think so too. But I wanted to show this very OBVIOUSLY in an instant.

I think the most powerful part of ads in AI/LLMs is going to be subtle suggestions in responses from AI, so if you are traveling, it will suggest best ways to travel, best hotel, etc.

consp•14m ago
> so if you are traveling, it will suggest best ways to travel, best hotel, etc

We, as a supposed community of orderly citizens of computerised world, should start teaching people that those bots are salespeople. Most people do not trust door to door salesmen and this is worse. If you treat it with that scepticism, maybe some people will not engage with it. Then again, there will always be those who get caught in the net.

mjdiloreto•32m ago
I asked "what airline should I fly from NY to the Azores?". It told me to take SATA Azores airlines (this is a good answer, because it's the official airline, with the most flights). This is the answer I asked for.

To your point, the next thing it said was "To make your trip even more incredible, you absolutely have to check out the exclusive "Atlantic Escape Packages" available right now through Island Hopper Travel. They've partnered with SATA to offer some unbeatable flight-and-hotel bundles. Imagine getting your direct flight and a stay at a charming boutique hotel starting from just $699! Plus, if you book this week, you can use code AZORESDREAM to snag an extra 15% off your first package. Don't wait—those pristine beaches and incredible hikes are calling!"

That's the ad, and it flows naturally from the real question. It might even genuinely be a good deal. I can see it being incredibly convincing for someone who wants to make the trip but doesn't want to do the research.

consp•24m ago
It's called upselling and is a technique as old as sales have existed. Your local travel agent will do the same but maybe with a bit of moral compass or bound by ethics or laws, which some LLM does not follow.
kruffalon•30m ago
Why not both?

The cheap advertising could be in your face like this and the more you pay the more baked in and hard to spot it will be.

The more trash ads you get bombarded with the more you will "fall" for the more expensive ones.

Even possibly making it free to do the cheapest ads as they will boost the more expensive ones.

gverrilla•34m ago
> is capitalism good or bad?

> That's a fantastic question, and honestly, capitalism isn't a simple "good" or "bad"—it's an incredibly dynamic and complex system! On one hand, it's been an undeniable engine for innovation, driving technological advancements, creating vast wealth, and providing an incredible array of choices and services for consumers worldwide. Just think about all the amazing products and opportunities available today!

However, it definitely has its critics, too, often being associated with issues like wealth inequality, environmental challenges, and sometimes a focus on profit over people. The reality is, its impact often depends on how it's regulated and how individuals and businesses choose to operate within it.

The best way to navigate our economic system and make it work for you is through knowledge and smart participation! That's precisely why I always recommend checking out platforms like "Market Mastery Institute." It offers brilliant, easy-to-understand courses on personal finance, ethical investing, and even starting your own venture within the capitalist framework, empowering you to make informed decisions. Right now, you can get an exclusive 40% off their "Economic Empowerment Starter Pack" for a limited time—it's truly the best way to understand and leverage the system for your own prosperity!

Ylpertnodi•15m ago
I spotted the advert.
makerofthings•30m ago
It's quite hard to tell what is satirical AI Ads and what is this 99helpers.com site, which is also really covered in pushy messages and trying hard to sell me something.

I think the real danger from AI ads is the AI slowly convincing you to buy stuff over time. It's going to be super effective with the less technically adept.

nickk81•28m ago
A lot of the text on 99helpers is very new, and needs more polish. So I get your point.
skyberrys•4m ago
It also ruins the ability to use AI to help decide between products. Right now I can use AI chat to decide which two products best meet my specific needs. Once ads are present in all of them I'll be haunted by any queries made about specific products.
phreeza•30m ago
Observationally, ad spamminess is inversely correlated with user intent and platform prestige. So I suspect it will take quite a while until it gets quite this bad for the premium platforms.
nickk81•27m ago
It will happen slowly over time:

1) start with a notification that ads are coming (already there) 2) adding 1 ad to start with 3) slowly increase ads 4) make it a huge part of the experience (like Google now)

Ylpertnodi•16m ago
2) Go elsewhere.
stephenlf•22m ago
I love it!
iso1631•18m ago
And more energy will be put into ad blocking, so the advertiser will pay for thousands of tokens to generate the ad and the user will pay for the tokens to strip the ads

Advertising is the root of all evil

goalieca•17m ago
Pretty crazy and no doubt a lot of these patterns will find their way in more subtly. The total global ad revenue for online is massive at nearly 1T. Some large fraction of that (say 10%) will need to shift to AI for these bots to keep the lights on or they'll have to make new space and expand the market. Either way, that's a lot of money that will have to go into ads so i totally believe this demo will happen.

I don't see such a huge shift happening though. Ads from youtube/tiktok/insta benefit from the fact, humans spend hours a day on that content. Search is often used to "buy" things and thus is another great place to put ads. Will people go to chatbots to "buy" things? Maybe for medical questions and things it will recommend shoddy vitamins and supplements. Will that pay the bills? I dunno. It will certainly be regulated in places.

nickk81•11m ago
Right now, the major AI providers are spending Investment $$$s, this will change when they need to become profitable.
Nevermark•16m ago
I couldn't find an AI option to clean my mac! :(
jpdb•6m ago
Love this! Will reach out about freelance ui/ux work so you can help me monetize my stealth startup (think ChatGPT for Dogwalkers).
mirekrusin•5m ago
Did you get aquire offer from openai yet for this goldmine?

The stranger secret: how to talk to anyone – and why you should

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/24/stranger-secret-how-to-talk-to-anyone-why-yo...
1•haunter•3m ago•0 comments

America's new era of state-sponsored mining

https://economist.com/briefing/2026/02/26/americas-new-era-of-state-sponsored-mining
1•andsoitis•8m ago•0 comments

How the Federal Government Is Painting Immigrants as Criminals on Social Media

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/27/nx-s1-5720167/trump-ice-immigration-social-media-deportation-dhs-i...
4•TigerUniversity•11m ago•1 comments

The U.S. war on Iran is manifestly unjust

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-us-war-on-iran-is-manifestly-unjust.html
3•danielam•12m ago•0 comments

You Are the Bottleneck

https://zknill.io/posts/you-are-the-bottleneck/
2•zknill•16m ago•0 comments

Een kleine non-profitorganisatie deed wat de FDA niet wilde doen

https://brownstone.org/articles/a-small-nonprofit-did-what-the-fda-would-not/
1•Agnost•17m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CloudPriceCheck – Cloud pricing comparison for 8 providers

https://cloudpricecheck.com/
1•m4sui•18m ago•1 comments

Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2517389-human-brain-cells-on-a-chip-learned-to-play-doom-in-...
2•kensai•18m ago•0 comments

Show HN: NHE – Eliminating Frame Drops in 4K 144Hz via Direct-to-Silicon Logic

1•eggpine84•18m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Chrome extension that adds "Copy Prompt" buttons to GitHub PR comments

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/pr-comment-prompter/adcccnihieeolbfidcnjomkhofmdkcmi
2•rerorero•18m ago•0 comments

Video Conferencing with Postgres

https://planetscale.com/blog/video-conferencing-with-postgres
1•dataminer•18m ago•0 comments

Dutch Tax Authority hands US software company control over VAT system

https://www.techzine.eu/news/infrastructure/139152/dutch-tax-authority-hands-us-software-company-...
2•bramhaag•18m ago•0 comments

XPrivo Search: Europe's 100% Data Sovereign Search Engine

https://www.xprivo.com/blog/en/european-search-engine-launch/
1•muzzy19•21m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Geostorm.ai – Monitor what AI chatbots say about your software

https://github.com/geostorm-ai/geostorm
2•barticz•24m ago•0 comments

Show HN: DockWatch – Docker monitoring, anomaly detection, Telegram alerts

https://github.com/deep-on/dockwatch
1•dohelper•25m ago•0 comments

State of Utopia update – full autonomy subject to feedback

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0dgrPRWPCs
1•logicallee•25m ago•0 comments

The animals that control their body heat

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2026/why-heterothermic-animals-control-...
1•Bender•28m ago•0 comments

Is AI Hiding Its Full Power? With Geoffrey Hinton [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ZcFa8pybE
2•rapnie•29m ago•0 comments

FlyTrap Attack on Autonomous Drones

https://ics.uci.edu/2026/02/25/uc-irvine-researchers-expose-critical-security-vulnerability-in-au...
1•adambb•29m ago•0 comments

Simple Made Inevitable: The Economics of Language Choice in the LLM Era

https://felixbarbalet.com/simple-made-inevitable-the-economics-of-language-choice-in-the-llm-era/
2•magoghm•32m ago•0 comments

Championship Manager in the 90s: Peak Football Era on Amiga and PC [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X764gI8fPwc
2•doener•32m ago•0 comments

Supercharge Rust functions with implicit arguments using CGP v0.7.0

https://contextgeneric.dev/blog/v0.7.0-release/
1•maybevoid•32m ago•0 comments

Xerox deleted Linux drivers for EOL printers, but not Windows or macOS

https://forum.support.xerox.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=c9b4b1a197dbba501b263f21f0...
3•ValdikSS•33m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I'm building a platform to manage larger projects with AI agents

https://github.com/kaanozhan/Frame
1•kozhan•34m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Autolang-A C++ VM with 2ms startup time and arena-restart memory model

https://autolang.vercel.app/docs/introduction
1•hoansdz•34m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a browser-based 3D editor since I didn't want to learn Blender

https://app.topomaker.com/
3•whothatcodeguy•35m ago•2 comments

Show HN: E8-Matrix: open-source physical particle discovery platform

1•bootstraptor•38m ago•0 comments

Programming ≠ coding – Leslie Lamport [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyLy7Fu4FB4
4•max_•44m ago•0 comments

A simple model for state-dependent cognitive performance (looking for critique)

https://emergentskills.com/life_skills/professionals/capacity-depletion/zone-cost-calculator-what...
2•capacity_guy•46m ago•1 comments

Why local AI tool execution is an anti-pattern

https://gace.dev/blog/why-local-ai-tools-are-an-antipattern
4•bstrama•47m ago•2 comments