By Breaking Editor 
In a bold critique of OpenAI’s recent foray into advertising on ChatGPT, AI startup Anthropic is leveraging humor and a touch of controversy to make its point clear. The company plans to air comedic ads during the Super Bowl aimed at mocking OpenAI’s choice to monetize its language model, reinforcing its commitment to a no-ad policy for its own AI, Claude.
*”Anthropic just took a big swipe at OpenAI’s decision to put ads in ChatGPT. Anthropic is airing ads mocking ChatGPT ads during the Super Bowl, and they’re hilarious,” posted tech commentator Tom Warren on February 4, 2026 on Blue Sky.
The approach will likely capture attention, but also spark a new narrative about corporate responsibility in AI development. Ironically, there have been major critiques and outrage over Anthropic’s practices, particularly regarding how the company has digitized resources never intended for AI distillation.
On social media, many have pointed to a warehouse containing books that Anthropic intended to scan for AI training, later destroying the books as if to destroy evidence of their theft.
Moreover, Anthropic has published new research indicating that as AI models grow more sophisticated, their out-of-distribution (OOD) goals might actually become less coherent. This finding, met with interest in online discussions, indicates ongoing challenges in AI alignment and function. Analytics expert Duncan Weldon commended Anthropic for being transparent about the trade-offs involved in AI development.
Nonetheless, Anthropic appears to be focused on commercial applications. Big ticket clients, like Bloomberg and others, entrust Anthropic models to power their Bloomberg Chat functionality. This could be why they are financially capable of negating the merit of ads for their bottom line. Their enterprise clients are their true ‘bread and butter’.
Additionally, the tech community is abuzz with anticipation surrounding the impending release of Claude Sonnet 5. These are promising further advancements in AI capabilities. At the time of this writing, early February, most users can only access Sonnet 4.5
As the tech landscape evolves and conversations around AI ethics intensify, Anthropic’s aggressive positioning sets the stage for a competitive battle with OpenAI and raises pressing questions about the implications of AI on society and education.
Industry watchers remain wary, with concerns voiced by several observers about the potential negative impact of AI products on educational institutions. Blue Sky users, like Ocean Club, noted the troubling trend of universities welcoming these technologies despite acknowledged harms: “Both Microsoft and Anthropic are openly admitting how much harm their products will cause to education, and yet universities are still ‘yes, this sounds good, it saves us the whole bother of teaching.’”