OpenAI Pulls App Suggestions After Backlash: Will Trust Recover?

ChatGPT users who pay for premium tiers recently found themselves doing a double take when the chatbot began surfacing “app suggestions” mid conversation that looked a lot like ads. 

Screenshots shared by Plus, Pro, and Enterprise subscribers showed promotional style messages pointing to recognizable brands like Peloton and Target, prompting a blunt question: why does a paid AI service appear to be selling something while you are trying to work?. As complaints spread, OpenAI insisted the messages were not advertisements, but the company also admitted the rollout created a confusing and intrusive experience for the people most invested in the product (TechCrunch).

OpenAI’s explanation centers on the company’s app platform, announced in October, which is meant to let developers build app like experiences that run through ChatGPT. According to OpenAI, the controversial prompts were part of a test designed to surface those apps inside chats, and the company said there was “no financial component” attached to the suggestions. That distinction did not satisfy everyone. One user who initially raised the alarm responded skeptically to OpenAI’s framing, reflecting the broader frustration that even unpaid recommendations can feel like advertising when they interrupt the flow and point toward commercial services (YahooTech).

Two senior OpenAI leaders addressed the uproar publicly, but with notably different tones. Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, pushed back on the idea that ads are being tested at all, saying there are no live ad tests in ChatGPT and suggesting that screenshots circulating online were either not real or not ads. He also emphasized that if OpenAI ever did introduce advertising, it would be done carefully because user trust is central to the product (Ha; Chawla). Mark Chen, OpenAI’s chief research officer, struck a more apologetic note. He acknowledged that anything resembling an ad requires extra care, said the company “fell short,” and confirmed that OpenAI has turned off this kind of suggestion while it works on improving the model’s precision. He also pointed to upcoming controls so users can reduce or disable these recommendations if they do not find them helpful (TechCrunch, HaTech).

The episode lands at an especially sensitive moment for OpenAI’s broader business narrative. TechCrunch noted that Fidji Simo, a former Instacart and Facebook executive, recently joined OpenAI as CEO of Applications, a move many observers interpreted as a sign the company could eventually build an advertising business. At the same time, The Wall Street Journal reportedly described an internal “code red” memo from CEO Sam Altman that prioritizes improving ChatGPT’s quality and pushes other initiatives, including advertising, further down the roadmap (TechTech). In other words, even as OpenAI denies ads are arriving now, the company is also operating under the reality that monetization questions are not going away, and that any change that looks commercial will be met with intense scrutiny. 

For now, the practical outcome is straightforward: OpenAI says the ad like app suggestions have been switched off, and it is promising a cleaner experience while it rethinks how, when, and whether recommendations should appear inside conversations. The larger takeaway may be that in AI products, intent is not enough. If a feature feels like advertising, especially to paying users, it risks damaging trust even if no money changes hands. OpenAI is betting that better relevance, clearer controls, and more transparency can rebuild confidence before similar experiments return (TechCrunch).

This article was written by the Covertly.AI team. Covertly.AI is a secure, anonymous AI chat that protects your privacy. Connect to advanced AI models without tracking, logging, or exposure of your data. Whether you’re an individual who values privacy or a business seeking enterprise-grade data protection, Covertly.AI helps you stay secure and anonymous when using AI. With Covertly.AI, you get seamless access to all popular large language models - without compromising your identity or data privacy.

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Works Cited

Chawla, Ayushmann. “ChatGPT turns off app suggestions that look like ads.” Hindustan Times, 8 Dec. 2025, https://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/chatgpt-turns-off-app-suggestions-that-look-like-ads-101765168530310.html. 

Ha, Anthony. “OpenAI says it’s turned off app suggestions that look like ads.” TechCrunch, 7 Dec. 2025, https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/07/openai-says-its-turned-off-app-suggestions-that-look-like-ads/. 

“OpenAI says it’s turned off app suggestions that look like ads.” Yahoo Tech, n.d., https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/chatgpt/articles/openai-says-turned-off-app-150553705.html. 

Kahn, Jeremy. “OpenAI Rolls Out ‘Instant’ Purchases Direct From ChatGPT, in a Radical Shift to E-Commerce and a Direct Challenge to Google.” Fortune, 29 Sept. 2025, https://fortune.com/2025/09/29/openai-rolls-out-purchases-direct-from-chatgpt-in-a-radical-shift-to-e-commerce-and-direct-challenge-to-google/.

Levine, Adam. “ChatGPT Wants to Be the Next Big Platform. It Won’t Be Easy.” Barron’s, 10 Oct. 2025, https://www.barrons.com/articles/chatgpt-platform-sdk-google-apple-openai-1d6c5ffa.