Were you already seeing ads in ChatGPT? OpenAI pulls down a key feature after backlash from users
Posted on: Dec 07, 2025 22:00 IST | Posted by: Livemint
OpenAI confirmed before in the daylight that it had non begun showing ads on ChatGPT, spell also elucidative that there were no active tests running on the chatbot related to a new experience. However, with several users on social media complaining that they were seeing inadvertent suggestions about various apps and websites, confusion persisted about OpenAI’s claims.
Later, OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen confirmed that ChatGPT was indeed showing app suggestions to users and said that the company “fell short”.
Chen was replying to a post by a user who had earlier claimed that he saw a suggestion to “Shop at Target” while asking ChatGPT a question about Windows BitLocker.
Chen responded saying, “I agree that anything that feels like an ad needs to be handled with care, and we fell short.
“We’ve turned off this kind of suggestion while we improve the model’s precision. We’re also looking at better controls so you can dial this down or off if you don’t find it helpful,” he added.
Meanwhile, Nick Turley, Vice President at OpenAI and head of ChatGPT, claimed that there were no “live tests for ads” on ChatGPT and that any screenshots claiming otherwise are either fake or not ads.
“I’m seeing lots of confusion about ads rumours in ChatGPT. There are no live tests for ads. Any screenshots you’ve seen are either not real or not ads. If we do pursue ads, we’ll take a thoughtful approach. People trust ChatGPT and anything we do will be designed to respect that,” Turley wrote in a post on X.
OpenAI’s ‘Code Red’ may have postponed ad plans
An internal memo sent by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had declared “code red” for ChatGPT, according to The Wall Street Journal. Altman reportedly told employees that OpenAI would work to improve the quality of ChatGPT while pushing back some initiatives such as ads on the chatbot, AI agents for health and shopping, and the personal assistant Pulse, which he had earlier called one of his favourite ChatGPT features.
The company had earlier declared code orange to improve the performance of ChatGPT. OpenAI reportedly uses colour codes to mark the severity of internal issues, with red being the highest priority, followed by orange and yellow.
Notably, the San Francisco based AI startup has been facing increasing competition from rivals like Google and Anthropic. Google’s Gemini 3 model recently topped several benchmarks, while a report by The Verge stated that OpenAI is working to launch a new GPT-5.2 model as early as next week.
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