They are, guaranteed. Sponsored content is also just another kind of ad. This stuff doesn't appear randomly in your field of view, it was placed there. Let me give you a more general, easily comprehensible scenario: You walk into a store. I'm willing to bet you'll recognise many brands in that store - even ones you never bought anything from. But these brand names and all their associations are still in your head. And they are not there by accident. They were placed there intentionally. If for example you believe Apple iMacs are overpriced luxury items that people use who are more artsy show-offs than real tech go-getters, that brand recognition has been carefully placed in your mind (and the minds of millions others). So if one day, say, you switch to a more artsy profession with close customer contact that needs to convey money and success, that brand recognition will likely pay off. Every relevant brand does that and every ad agency works full time to make sure you see it. If you think you're immune, you're probably particularly easy prey, because you can't even imagine in how many scenarios they influence you. And ChatGPT is one hell of an influence potential.

But millions, and millions, and millions of people do. Certainly enough that I provide consulting services for a number of businesses for whom the majority of their revenue comes 95+% from ad-clicks. It's been that way 10-15 years and there have been ups and downs, but at the end of the day, the adspend has always been fruitful.

Whilst I sat around with fellow technical people all patting themselves on the back telling themselves and anyone who will listen "ads dont work" the people I consult too have become multi-millionaires with little more than double digit hosting costs and a few ads accounts.

This seems to be a continual blind spot for a lot of techincal people who really seem to struggle to grasp that not everybody thinks or acts the same way they do.