OpenAI has turned off app suggestions within ChatGPT that users had mistaken for advertisements, following a wave of complaints from paying subscribers. The company maintains that there are currently no live ads or advertising tests in the platform, but acknowledged that recent promotional messages—such as those for Peloton and Target—created confusion and fell short of user expectations. Mark Chen, OpenAI’s chief research officer, admitted the company “fell short” in how these suggestions were presented. He explained that the feature was part of a limited test to surface third-party apps built on the ChatGPT app platform, which was announced in October. These suggestions were meant to be helpful and informative, with no financial incentive or ad revenue component, but users found them misleading and intrusive. In a public post, Chen said the company has disabled the feature while it works to improve the model’s ability to distinguish between helpful recommendations and promotional content. He also confirmed that OpenAI is exploring better user controls, allowing people to adjust or completely turn off such suggestions if they find them unhelpful. ChatGPT’s head, Nick Turley, echoed the message, addressing widespread confusion about rumors of advertising. “There are no live tests for ads – any screenshots you’ve seen are either not real or not ads,” he wrote. He emphasized that if OpenAI ever moves forward with advertising, it will do so thoughtfully, with the trust users have in ChatGPT as a top priority. The controversy comes amid growing speculation about OpenAI’s long-term monetization strategy. Fidji Sumo, a former executive at Instacart and Facebook, joined OpenAI earlier this year as CEO of Applications, a role widely seen as a step toward building a more robust app ecosystem and, eventually, an advertising business. However, a recent internal memo from CEO Sam Altman reportedly declared a “code red” on product quality, pushing back on non-essential initiatives—including advertising and new app features—so the company can focus on improving the core performance of ChatGPT. This shift suggests that OpenAI is prioritizing reliability and user experience over rapid monetization, at least for now.