ChatGPT Adds 'Instant Checkout' To Shop Directly In Chat

OpenAI unveiled Instant Checkout, a new ChatGPT feature that lets users buy stuff directly through its chatbot. Currently, the feature supports single-item purchases directly from Etsy sellers, but support for more than one million Shopify merchants is coming soon. It's also only available to U.S. ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Free users at this time. CNBC reports: OpenAI will take a fee from transactions that are completed through ChatGPT, which means Instant Checkout could become an important new revenue stream for the startup. OpenAI is not yet profitable, and is burning through cash as it works to scale up its computing infrastructure. The company declined to share specific details about how large the fees are since they are determined through confidential contracts with Etsy and Shopify. Instant Checkout is free to users and will not affect their prices, OpenAI said.

"Our vision for ChatGPT -- and a lot of the technology we create, but especially ChatGPT -- is that it's not just providing you information, it is also helping you get things done in the real world," Michelle Fradin, OpenAI's product lead for ChatGPT commerce, told CNBC in an interview. The company plans to introduce multi-item carts and expand the regional availability of Instant Checkout moving forward. [...]

Instant Checkout is powered by OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol, which is the underlying technology that allows users to complete a transaction directly with a merchant through ChatGPT. OpenAI built the framework in partnership with the fintech company Stripe, which powers ChatGPT subscriptions. OpenAI initially decided to use Agentic Commerce Protocol for e-commerce, but Fradin said the company thinks it could be used to facilitate other types of purchases or payments as well. OpenAI is open-sourcing the framework to help merchants build integrations more quickly, and so that developers can explore different use cases, she said.

THIS purchase is not authorized

[Joe_Dragon]

THIS purchase is not authorized

Kill it with fire

[parityshrimp]

Kill it with fire. Not because I'm necessarily opposed to AI but because I hate advertising. This is one very tiny step away from filling ChatGPT with ads.

Doomed

[abulafia]

Oh, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there is no way it won't be.

There will be "privacy conscious" options. I pay for Kagi and they offer robot friends, for instance. But there is no world in which OAI doesn't embed ads.

Put aside their money problem - they are making history as a money-bondfire and desperate to keep the party going. There are just too many entities with boatloads of money who want to influence what the robot says. Even in the absence of a CEO chasing the singularitygasm, mone

Re:

[parityshrimp]

Yeah, makes sense. Honestly, I haven't used AI yet; I just hate ads. I do have a subscription to kagi, and it's great. Have only used it for search so far.

Re:Kill it with fire

[sinij]

Having ChatGPT without ads was never on the table. Inevitable enshittification.

wanted: Mandatory disclosure

[DrYak]

Having ChatGPT without ads was never on the table.

What I hope is that some large enough entity (and the EU and its Digital Service Act (DSA) seem a good candidate for that) will force OpenAI to always clearly mark ads and promotions (similar to how sponsor segments are required to be marked in online video content made by streamers and youtubers).

Because of course OpenAI will try hard (and sell it so to advertiser) to make the advertisement sneaky and seemingly "organic recommendations" (as a reference point see how Ads on Google search results evolved fro

Re:

[gweihir]

Or they may be more subtle and make the chatbot a (used-car type) salesperson.

Re:

[Hadlock]

ChatGPT is a better search product than google, traffic decline to SEO-optimized clickbait websites proves this; they're absolutely 100% going to monetize free tier chatgpt with ads, why would they not? Advertising is 70-90% of Google's stable revenue, they would be insane to leave that money on the table. The question is, given they already have paid-tier products, will they offer ad-free products still? Google always offered their products for free in favor of getting more eyeballs to drive ad revenue, be

Re:

[parityshrimp]

Makes sense.

Google always offered their products for free in favor of getting more eyeballs to drive ad revenue, because nobody was willing to pay for a search engine.

Now that Google has made their search engine really ineffective at finding specific technical information, I am willing to pay for a search engine that actually works. I have a kagi subscription, and it's great.

Re:

[Hadlock]

Yep I also have a kagi subscription too. It's great; I'll never go back to Google search as my primary. Between it and the various ChatGPT flavors of the week I pretty much never use Google products anymore outside of Gmail, and very rarely Google maps.

From dumb to dumber

[memory_register]

Great, now instead of accidentally buying something after two glasses of wine on Amazon, I can do it while arguing with a chatbot about medieval history.

Truly, progress.

Re:

[martin-boundary]

You wanted to buy the Bayeux Tapestry? I've helpfully debited your credit card and mortgaged your house for you. Please be aware you still owe 23 million on the second down payment. Also, there's a swat team ringing the bell, please move against the wall to avoid injury.

Re:

[Uldis Segliņš]

Doesn't need to be. Enough with halucinations. Ohh, you are right, this wasn't midgetporn, I'll suggest better next time. Moving on. Random moneyspending will be even less percentage as you could by just drunkshopping with Alexa.

Shopping chanel

[sinij]

New and improved shopping channel, but now with 10% more hallucinations and bullshit.

Of all the things I don't want

[rsilvergun]

This is one of them.

Oh, the irony

[jenningsthecat]

OpenAI unveiled Instant Checkout, a new ChatGPT feature that lets users buy stuff directly through its chatbot.

I just LOVE how all of this AI shit is being used to push products and services on people who are losing their livelihoods to - you guessed it - AI.

Just recently another Slashdot commenter reminded me of Marshall Brain's writings about technology, economics, and society. I re-read some of them, and found them to be both more timely and more relevant than when I first read them. I recommend them, especially Manna, Robotic Nation, and The Second Intelligent Species. You can read all of them for free at marsha

Wonâ(TM)t increase prices

[GrahamJ]

Yes it will. You think these companies are just going to eat the transaction fees? The costs will be passed onto all customers whether they use this or not. So yeah thanks for that OAI.

We now have to assume answers will be biased to push these products and that user data will be shared, so CGPT is even less trustable.

This is a big F

Re:

[stealth_finger]

so CGPT is even less trustable.

Implying it ever was?

Re:

[martin-boundary]

A Nigerian prince just called, he wants to know if your AI is filtering your email?

Profitable hallucinations

[misnohmer]

So now ChatGPT will have a financial incentive to push products OpenAI makes the most money on, essentially becoming an AI sales agent. It will be hard to prove if something is an LLM hallucination or just a plain sales pitch, perhaps both - we can call those "profitable hallucinations". There will be no motivation for OpenAI to curb those of course.

Taking a cut

[stealth_finger]

Instant Checkout is free to users and will not affect their prices

If chatgpt want's a cut, it's going to affect the prices.

I Am the Pusher Robot

[TwistedGreen]

Hell yeah! This is exactly what I want. A pusher robot constantly trying to sell me things!

It is pretty good at finding stuff (for now)

[Tony Isaac]

It's actually quite good at finding the products you actually want to find, instead of the endless parade of irrelevant listings you get from similar searches on Amazon. Unfortunately, as soon as companies start paying OpenAI for prioritized placement, that quality of results will go out the window.