  How will generative AI pay for itself? Unless charging users for access,
selling advertising is the only alternative. Especially in the multi-billion
dollar web search market with ads as the main source of revenue, the
introduction of a subscription model seems unlikely. The recent disruption of
search by generative large language models could thus ultimately be accompanied
by generated ads. Our concern is that the commercialization of generative AI in
general and large language models in particular could lead to native
advertising in the form of quite subtle brand or product placements. In web
search, the evolution of search engine results pages (SERPs) from traditional
lists of ``ten blue links'' (lists SERPs) to generated text with web page
references (text SERPs) may further blur the line between advertising-based and
organic search results, making it difficult for users to distinguish between
the two, depending on how advertising is integrated and disclosed. To raise
awareness of this potential development, we conduct a pilot study analyzing the
capabilities of current large language models to blend ads with organic search
results. Although the models still struggle to subtly frame ads in an unrelated
context, their potential is evident when integrating ads into related topics
which calls for further investigation.
