Michalik: OpenAI introduces Ads to ChatGPT

Key Takeaways:

• OpenAI officially introduces Ads to monetize ChatGPT- first to ChatGPT logged out and Go users in the US - ChatGPT Pro, Business and Enterprise remain ad-free for now

• Our ads principles from OpenAI's statements

  • Mission alignment: Our mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of advertising is always in support of that mission and making AI more accessible.

  • Answer independence: Ads do not influ ence the answers ChatGPT gives you. Answers are optimized based on what's most helpful to you. Ads are always separate and clearly labeled.

  • Conversation privacy: We keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers, and we never sell your data to advertisers.

  • Choice and control: You control how your data is used. You can turn off personalization, and you can clear the data used for ads at any time. We’ll always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that’s ad-free.

  • Long-term value: We do not optimize for time spent in ChatGPT. We prioritize user trust and user experience over revenue.

• Blaho already found traces of Ad testing in the source code early December 2025

• After major advancements from Google to strategically use its ecosystem advantage, OpenAI quite quickly tries to monetize ChatGPT further to meet shareholder interests - as also Beus outlines

• Further comments:

  • Michalik concludes:

    • Companies should check whether this new channel is potential win

    • How will "organic" sources and Ads coexist?

    • Will Ads affect user experience negatively?

  • Smith fears biased answers: So, from the goal of trying to avoid explicit AI bias, OpenAI may be creating the conditions for a very sneaky kind of "LLM psychosis for ads" mechanism to kick in, where users never realize seemingly unbiased AI recommendations were sparked long ago by them asking a question about an ad they saw.

  • De Kraker states: Putting ads into people's chats destroys this magic at both a psychological and aesthetic level.

  • After OpenAI fought back on testing ads, Frantz wonders: They’re eating ~35% of the available screen with ad space, it took Google decades to get to that level of ad saturation

Sources:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthaeus-michalik_nicht-mal-zwei-wochen-in-2026-vergangen-und-share-7418024275921653760-psfD/

• https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jbeus_chatgpt-bald-mit-werbeanzeigen-openai-hat-share-7418225533836062720-KHp5/

• https://x.com/_simonsmith/status/2012258878994456807

• https://x.com/BenjaminDEKR/status/2012231585362251858