Overview
- Chief research officer Mark Chen acknowledged the rollout "fell short," said the ad-like app suggestions are now disabled, and pledged better precision and user controls to dial such prompts down or off.
- Head of ChatGPT Nick Turley said there are no live ads or ad tests running and that circulating screenshots are either not real or not ads, adding that any future approach would prioritize user trust.
- OpenAI said the messages were meant to surface apps built on the ChatGPT platform, including integrations like Peloton and Target, and that there was no financial component to the suggestions.
- Following an internal 'code red' to improve ChatGPT quality, OpenAI has delayed advertising-related work, and multiple reports say the GPT-5.2 release was moved up to as early as December 9 with internal evaluations claiming it outperforms Gemini 3, a claim not yet independently verified.
- To counter competitive pressure, OpenAI highlighted enterprise gains, reporting an 8x rise in ChatGPT message volume since November 2024 and a 19x jump in custom GPT usage, which now accounts for 20% of enterprise messages.