The race to dominate artificial intelligence is spilling into prime-time sport. Anthropic, creator of the Claude AI assistant, has unveiled its first Super Bowl advertising campaign, and it is a sharp critique of OpenAI.
The adverts, shared online before the match, highlight OpenAI’s decision to display ads inside ChatGPT and suggest that such changes could reshape how users interact with conversational AI tools.
One 30-second advert depicts an everyday query about exercise that is abruptly interrupted by a sales message for shoe insoles. Another shows a user seeking advice on improving communication with their mother, only for the chatbot to insert a promotion for a dating platform aimed at older women.
“Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude. Keep thinking,” Claude posted on X.
Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude. Keep thinking. pic.twitter.com/n2yECeBWyT
— Claude (@claudeai) February 4, 2026
While OpenAI is not mentioned by name, the ads leave little doubt about its target. The advert appears to aim for the company following its recent announcement that advertising would be introduced on ChatGPT, even as OpenAI runs a Super Bowl campaign of its own.
Earlier this year, OpenAI revealed plans to introduce a test phase for adverts on ChatGPT, covering both free users and those paying $8 per month for the Go subscription. The firm said adverts would be displayed beneath chatbot responses and clearly identified, adding that user data would not be shared with advertisers and that the feature could be switched off.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman did not take the ads lightly. He slammed Anthropic and said, “First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.
“But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them. We are not stupid and we know our users would reject that.”
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.
But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic…
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 4, 2026
Altman went on to highlight how ChatGPT’s user base is much bigger than that of Claude. He further highlighted that paid versions of ChatGPT don’t feature ads.
“More Texans use ChatGPT for free than total people use Claude in the US, so we have a differently-shaped problem than they do (If you want to pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, we don’t show you ads),” he said.
“As for our Super Bowl ad: it’s about builders, and how anyone can now build anything…This time belongs to the builders, not the people who want to control them,” he concluded.
The entire episode has gone viral on social media.
One user said, “A NEW GOLDEN AGE OF TECH AD WARS!”
A NEW GOLDEN AGE OF TECH AD WARS! pic.twitter.com/aurjPiaoVZ
— Brennen Schlueter ◡̈ (@brennenschlu) February 4, 2026
One user gave a breakdown of how much the Super Bowl ads could cost Anthropic.
“If they run all 4-minute-long ads during the game, that’s ~$80m ($10m for 30 seconds) just for the ad spots,” he said.
https://x.com/TrungTPhan/
One person used an NBA meme to depict the current state of the AI race.
this is the current state of AI race pic.twitter.com/OgpN39mkpl
— deleted user (@deleted_uss3r) February 4, 2026
“The ads in ChatGPT would only apply to the Free and Go (cheap plan) plans. With ChatGPT, you can literally use it for free with no limit, while Claude only allows like 5 prompts per day for free users. So which one is actually more customer-friendly here? To me, it’s pretty obvious that it’s still OpenAI,” noted one user.
This jab from Anthropic at OpenAI doesn’t make any sense. OpenAI plans to add ads to ChatGPT while Anthropic doesn’t, okay, point for Anthropic.
But: The ads in ChatGPT would only apply to the Free and Go (cheap plan) plans. With ChatGPT, you can literally use it for free with…
— PokerDev (@pokerdev7) February 4, 2026
One account said, “The smiles in Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad campaign trolling ChatGPT ads are devious.”
https://x.com/bearlyai/status/
Anthropic’s push to raise its profile across TV screens, digital channels and influencer partnerships is expected to run for most of 2026, as per a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report.
Anthropic President and co-founder Dario Amodei has underlined his view of the company as a safer alternative in the AI race. That message was echoed in a lengthy essay he published last month, in which he advocated self-regulation and warned of risks such as bioterrorism enabled by AI and significant job losses, as per the WSJ report.
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