MyFonts in ChatGPT

Nadine Chahine
Nadine Chahine
in Font Technology
Hi all,
I recently discovered that a MyFonts app is shipping inside ChatGPT:
https://www.monotype.com/company/press-release/monotype-launches-myfonts-app-chatgpt-bringing-real-font-discovery-ai

I took a screenshot of a new typeface that we just released on ILT and asked ChatGPT to identify the font. This is Dez Bollardian with the screenshot from our homepage:




and ChatGPT gave me this response:







Fyi, this is Moderna Sans:








I had tried another screenshot earlier of a different typeface and each time it gave me a MyFonts product to buy. With this specific example, I challenged the response a couple of times and eventually it gave me different responses. They were still wrong.

I asked about this typeface which is Graveur:




and this is the response I got:









Again, it keeps sending me to Myfonts.

I do wonder what sort of background deal exists between Monotype and Open AI, and this does invite further investigation. Will every font identification request lead to a MyFonts product? I will dig a bit more so we can better understand. If anyone can please test font identification within AI that would be much appreciated and there will be space to discuss this in our conference. 

Online searches via AI tools is becoming more and more present. If AI tools favour a specific distributer, this will have a significant impact on organic search results. We need to better understand this...


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Comments

  • Haraldgeisler.com
    Haraldgeisler.com
    edited September 3
    Just this:
    My ChatGPT says:

  • Nadine Chahine
    Nadine Chahine
    I used the same prompt and got similar results as above. But in this case it's not font identification but rather asking it directly for recommendation. So not the same thing. 

    I tried Gemini and Claude for font identification, and did not get any commercial recommendations.

    Gemini:


    and Claude:



    Though Claude was more helpful in suggesting where to get an exact answer.


  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn
    edited September 3
    AI searches follow power curve distribution.
    (A mimicry of human behaviour, in which certain cultural choices—e.g. Helvetica, Taylor Swift—tend to dominate all others, with the mean being far above the median.)

    83% of AI-assisted searches now result in zero clicks to the open web.

    AI searches favour well-established cultural products. And distributors.

    However, if searchers dig down a bit deeper in the results proffered, AI searches actually provide better variety than the previous generation.
  • John Butler
    John Butler
    I handed Grok a sample of Lindenthal’s Theuerdank Fraktur, and the best it could guess was Old English Text MT or Cloister Black. Even though MyFonts sells another Theuerdank Fraktur digitization. So Grok isn’t any better than these others when it comes to font IDs.


  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev
    I don't really understand what the drama is all about. Art, be it graphic design, painting or typogrpahy, is something you pour your heart into. The machine has nothing to pour. I would continue making fonts even if there was zero demand and also AI could do it much better and faster. It is taxing on the nerves to see slumps in sales due to AI etc., but in my opinion art is something that actually few people do as a full-time profession. If you don't have a wealthy sponsor or spouse, a set of trusty big companies and clients, or another income stream, art is mainly something like poetry, you do it to supplement your day job. Poets were in vogue in the 19 century and met face to face with nation builders, and now this is no longer the case. Doesn't mean you should stop writing poetry because some data center, somewhere, said so. Do what you like, don't care about the pushback. At least this is what I'm thinking.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson
    Vasil, this thread is specifically about a commercial entity apparently hijacking an AI search model to pretend to offer a font identification service while actually driving customers to their own font license purchase platform. It is not about whether we should continue to design typefaces.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett
    Two mediocre companies trying to cook up some bullshit that will justify the absurd valuations they’ve given themselves.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn
    edited September 5
    @John Hudson
    “…a commercial entity apparently hijacking an AI search model…”
    Yes, “apparently,” but anyone can make a Chat app, quite legally, apparently, with some coding skill.
    Surely this is a smart business move in an environment in which AI Agent Optimization is superceding SEO.
    The fact that Monotype’s app is not very reliable so far is besides the point—it’s playing to the agents.
    Better get your own app up and running, Nadine!

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