In today’s Digest, we discuss OpenAI’s ad business targets, Disney considering and ad-supported free tier, and much more…

OpenAI ad business set to miss forecast by 90% 

OpenAI's advertising business is on track to fall roughly 90% short of the company's own five-year revenue forecast, according to new data from Emarketer. OpenAI has projected USD$2.5bn (£1.98bn) in ad revenue this year, climbing to USD$100bn (£79bn) by 2030, but Emarketer's research tells a more modest story. The firm estimates that standalone chatbots as a category, including ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot app, Google's AI Mode, and Amazon's Alexa for Shopping (formerly known as Rufus) will collectively generate less than USD$1bn (£790m) in US ad revenue this year, and only USD$5.41bn (£4.27bn) by 2030, nowhere near OpenAI's solo projection for that same year.

Disney weighs free ad-supported Disney+ tier 

Disney is exploring the addition of a free tier to Disney+, according to Business Insider, which cited two people familiar with the matter. One source said Adam Smith, Disney's product and technology chief, raised the idea of offering free-tier content during a company town hall on Thursday, though he stopped short of laying out any timeline for when such a change might happen.

The move would respond to mounting competition from free, ad-supported streaming platforms, which are steadily eating into the viewing time that subscription-based services like Disney+ have traditionally relied on. 

Singapore proposes AI training disclosure rules 

Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission has proposed new rules requiring organisations to clearly notify individuals when their personal data is used to train generative AI models. The regulator says the measure is meant to guard against situations where consumer data collected for one purpose ends up repurposed for entirely different, unforeseen uses, such as financial profiling. 

Rather than relying on broad, catch-all privacy notices that vaguely reference "new product development," PDPC's proposed guidelines call for organisations to issue AI-specific notifications that clearly explain when personal data is being fed into generative AI systems.

Under the plan, covered personal data would include names, email addresses, video and voice recordings, transaction histories, and location data, and organisations could satisfy the notification requirement through methods like an in-product pop-up or a dedicated webpage, provided the notice clearly details what the AI model does and what personal data it draws on.