(Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Image)
UPDATE 12/8: Following the backlash, OpenAI's Chief Research Officer has revealed the company has decided to temporarily shut down the app-suggestion feature. "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," Mark Chen tweeted.
Original Story:
ChatGPT has been nudging people to check out Target, Peloton, and other brands inside its chatbot, but OpenAI insists they're not ads.
"This is not an ad—it's just one of the ways we're testing surfacing ChatGPT apps when they're most relevant in the conversation,” the company tells PCMag. “It's still early, and there's room for improvement in how we do this!”
ChatGPT users are skeptical. "I hope this is just testing/a mistake, [or] else it's an instant unsubscribe from me,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
As part of its DevDay in October, OpenAI announced a third-party app integration that brings services like Zillow and Spotify to the ChatGPT interface. You can use it to ask ChatGPT to find nearby rentals from Zillow's database or find songs on Spotify, for example.
More recently, it added Target and Walmart, which allow you to shop directly from ChatGPT.
Some people are seeing unrelated app suggestions, however. "I'm in ChatGPT (paid Plus subscription), asking about Windows BitLocker, and it's F-ing showing me ADS TO SHOP AT TARGET,” wrote one angry user. In response, an OpenAI staffer said the company is working to improve app suggestion relevancy.
Some AI fans worry the feature is an ominous preview of a ChatGPT ruined by ads. Others have been trolling OpenAI by posting fake images of it pushing users to check out OnlyFans or political lobbying groups.
OpenAI has been exploring an ad-based model, and last week, the ChatGPT Android app was spotted including references to “feature.ads” and “AdTarget.” However, the company has reportedly paused its advertising plans to focus on bolstering ChatGPT, over fears that it has lost some of its competitive edge to Google’s Gemini 3 model.