6670 - AI trap

From Kim Commando...  ABCs: Always be closing

You ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot to recommend the best credit card, the top-rated mattress or a good insurance plan. It feels like advice from your most informed friend, if they were also quietly getting referral fees in another tab. Trusted guidance, now with a faint whiff of affiliate marketing.

Here’s what that friend isn’t telling you.

AI companies are building advertising businesses. Microsoft’s Copilot serves sponsored results. Google’s Gemini puts paid placements inside AI Overviews. OpenAI projects $2.4 billion in ad revenue this year alone. That is some serious moola. The kind of money that makes a founder start using the word seafaring.

The AI answering your question has a financial relationship with some companies it’s recommending. Search engines have done it for 25 years. But search engines show you a little “Ad” label.

Your AI chatbot doesn’t. The answer looks like an answer. A trench coat would at least be honest about the bit.

🔒 Protect yourself

Ask a follow-up: “Are any of these recommendations sponsored or paid placements?”

A well-designed AI will tell you if it knows. If it dodges, that’s your signal. You wouldn’t let a casino pick your retirement plan. Keep the same spirit here.

For big purchases, cross-reference across two or three different AI tools. If they all point to the same product, find out why. Three bots agreeing used to sound like consensus. Now it sounds like a group project with brand partners.