Why do you equate contextual with insidious?
A lot of the companies offering LLM services are in a race gain market share and build expertise. Right now, they can burn through millions of dollars of VC money, with the expectation that they'll turn a profit at some point in the future. If that profit comes from advertising, and critically, if users don't expect advertising in their free LLMs, because they didn't see ads in generated output in the past, that will be very insidious.
Are the free LLM providers offering their service with a contractual obligation to the users that they will not add advertising to the outputs? If not, how is it insidious?
What definition of insidious are you using per https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insidious?
AI: "Of course! I see there is a flight at 6am tomorrow morning; the next one after that is at 3pm. Will that be a problem?"
You: "I was hoping for something more around lunch time. But if that is the only option; go for it."
AI: "Consider it done. I will send you the details via email in a few minutes."
The insidious part: there was a flight; they just weren’t paying for advertising. Yes. Interests are aligned here; but not yours.
AI: "Here are all available flights, economy class: 6am (£250), 12pm (£350), (Sponsored) 3pm (£300). The 12pm flight best matches your preference.
Sponsor offer: Save £50 by booking the 3pm flight through TravelDeals and get a free upgrade to business class.
Which would you prefer?"
In any case this is disingenuous, we're discussing LLM results augmented with advertising, not a fully sponsored agent which deliberately hides information. Today's LLMs pull comprehensive data anyway. You've strawmanned contextual advertising into outright fraud.