Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI said Wednesday it is exploring how to incorporate advertisements in its flagship ChatGPT product.

"We're exploring what ads in our product could look like," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement sent to MT Newswires. "People have a trusted relationship with ChatGPT, and any approach would be designed to respect that trust."

The company's employees have been creating mockups on how ads could appear inside the chatbot, which include displaying sponsored information in a sidebar to the main response window, The Information reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the discussions.

OpenAI moving into the digital advertising space would pose a significant challenge to Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google, Meta (META), and Amazon (AMZN), which dominate about 60% of the global market, excluding China, the report said.

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