OpenAI's Nostalgia Play Masks Public Skepticism on AI
Source: NYT > Business (paywall)
OpenAI is deploying emotional branding—retro aesthetics and humanizing narratives—to rehabilitate ChatGPT's image as 60%+ of Americans express concern about AI's societal impact. The shift signals a change in how AI companies market: leading with reassurance rather than capability, attempting to rewire perception through sentiment. The gap between the campaign's warmth and the product's actual reception—regulatory scrutiny, job displacement fears, copyright litigation—exposes the limits of creative advertising when underlying anxieties are structural, not merely emotional.