Anthropic’s Super Bowl ads: funny, but hypocritical?

The Black Mirror-style Anthropic’s Super Bowl commercials, aimed at taking a jab at ChatGPT’s new advertising model, made netizens laugh. However, some cannot help but see hypocrisy in them.

The series of ads is already on YouTube and will be aired during Sunday’s game, known to attract large audiences and come with a hefty price tag. Last year’s Super Bowl was watched by as many as 127 million people.

In one of the ads, a student asks a professor whether her essay makes a clear argument. A professor then showers her paper in compliments – as a sycophantic chatbot would do – and notices that the deadline is approaching soon.

“So why not cherish this unforgettable occasion with Lunar Memento Jewelry with 10% off charms this weekend?” the professor asks, leaving the student confused.

“Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,” the commercial states.

Altman calls the commercials “dishonest”

Anthropic’s ridicule comes weeks after its rival, OpenAI, announced it would introduce ads in ChatGPT’s free and cheaper tiers.

The move is deemed highly controversial, as Altman has previously called ads on ChatGPT “the last resort” for the company. Moreover, the decision sparked speculations about OpenAI’s difficult financial position and potential bankruptcy.

Altman called Anthropic’s ads “funny” but “dishonest”, saying the company would never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them.

He said he didn’t expect to see “critique theoretical deceptive ads” on the Super Bowl, and emphasized the company's commitment to free access to AI.

“Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people. We are glad they do that, and we are doing that too, but we also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions,” Altman wrote in his X post.

ChatGPT remains the most popular chatbot globally, with over 800 million users, far exceeding the 30 million users of Claude. However, Anthropic has seen a rapid growth in recent months, with some users publicly breaking up with ChatGPT over Claude.

Funny, but hypocritical?

The Anthropic ads went viral on social media, with users rejoicing in the “shots fired” at OpenAI and praising the accurate depiction of what could go wrong with AI ads, echoing some expert concerns.

Some wondered whether the commercials have anything to do with the creators of the dystopian Black Mirror series, as they bear similarities with an episode in which a high-tech brain support system causes a woman to slip ads into her natural speech.

Luiza Jarovsky, the CEO of the AI, Tech & Privacy Academy, called ads funny but “hypocritical.”

“This is the same company that published a highly anthropomorphic ‘constitution’ for its AI model, quietly diluting ideas of legal liability and fundamental rights,” Jarovsky wrote, referring to a recently released document.

Some X users noted that Claude and ChatGPT target different audiences, with Anthropic’s chatbot considered more business-oriented; therefore, OpenAI shouldn’t be attacked for their efforts to offer the product for free.

Others pointed out that one of Anthropic's major investors, Google, has been successfully generating revenue from ads.

“That’s how Google became the world’s largest platform: by delivering outcomes that benefit both users and businesses, across organic and paid results,” Dennis E. K. Nielsen, a specialist in digital marketing, wrote on LinkedIn.

Different business model, similar risks

While Claude’s commitment to no-ads may help avoid some dystopian scenarios, both Claude and ChatGPT, along with other popular large language models (LLMs), raise security concerns.

For instance, a Cybernews investigation found that both ChatGPT and Claude can be tricked into giving self-harm advice using the persona priming technique.

Anthropic revealed in November 2025 that Chinese threat actors broke into critical infrastructure organizations using the Claude Code tool. AI performed 80-90% of the campaign, and human oversight was needed only sporadically.

Both companies are facing accusations of training their data on copyrighted content, with Anthropic agreeing to pay $1.5bn to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors for using pirated copies of their books.

There are also major concerns about LLMs replacing significant parts of the workforce, spreading misinformation, and causing environmental harm.

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