OpenAI Could Slip Ads Into ChatGPT Answers Soon

A user asks ChatGPT, “What’s the best mascara?” The answer comes back smooth, confident, and practical.

Now imagine the top pick isn’t there because it’s the best. It’s there because a brand paid to be first.

That is the new threat hiding in the latest reporting: ads that don’t look like ads. The Information reports that OpenAI employees have discussed ad formats for ChatGPT, including adjusting models to prioritize “sponsored information,” and internal mockups that place ads in ChatGPT sidebars.

This isn’t a small product tweak. If ChatGPT starts selling, it stops feeling like an assistant. The same voice that helps you decide can also steer you, quietly, toward whoever paid for the steering wheel.

ChatGPT ads mockups show sidebars and pop-up placements

The report describes designs that behave more like Search sponsorships than old-school banners.

One format places ads in a sidebar next to the main response, with disclosure that sponsored results are present. That design is “cleaner” than stuffing ads into the answer, but it still changes the atmosphere around every recommendation.

Another format holds ads back until the user takes a second step. One specific example described: a user asks for a Barcelona itinerary, clicks a location, and then sees sponsored tour options appear as a pop-up.

“Sponsored information” inside answers is native advertising in its purest form

Sidebar placements are visible. Sponsored sentences inside the answer are not.

The report’s core idea, prioritizing “sponsored information” inside responses for shopping-style questions, creates a native advertising problem: the ad inherits the assistant’s authority because it is written in the same voice as the advice.

That is why the mascara example is so dangerous. It’s a normal question with real money behind it. If the assistant’s “best” recommendation becomes pay-to-win, then the concept of “truth” in the answer starts to feel like it’s up for auction.

OpenAI’s public posture stays careful, but the direction is clear

OpenAI has not announced an ad launch. But a spokesperson told MT Newswires that OpenAI is “exploring what ads in our product could look like.”

That line matters because it frames ads as an active product design choice, not a distant hypothetical. It also explains why the reported formats cluster around shopping and travel, places where intent is obvious and ads are easiest to justify.

The real “why” isn’t server costs.

Today, ChatGPT’s incentives mostly point toward one outcome: help the user finish faster. Give the best answer, reduce friction, stay useful.

Advertising points somewhere else. Ads reward attention, clicks, and purchases. And once that incentive enters the system, the definition of “good” can drift from “most accurate” to “most profitable.”

That’s the deeper reason ads in ChatGPT feel different than ads on the web. A website shows you options. A conversational assistant chooses a path, frames tradeoffs, and writes with authority. If money influences that ranking layer, the assistant stops optimizing for your efficiency and starts optimizing for monetizable outcomes.

In plain terms: the assistant can still be helpful, and still be biased.

The line users won’t forgive is personal targeting

Another risk sits beneath the ad format itself: what the system uses to target you.

The Decoder flags a fear that ads could draw on conversation history or memory-like context. Even users who tolerate sponsored results in shopping prompts can recoil if the assistant starts feeling like it remembers private context for commercial reasons. That’s when personalization stops sounding helpful and starts sounding invasive.

What to watch next

If this moves from mockups to product, the first real signal won’t be a press release. It will be the interface.

Look for whether “Sponsored” labeling is impossible to miss, especially if paid content appears near or inside answers. Watch whether OpenAI keeps ads in sidebars and post-click pop-ups, or pushes sponsorship into the answer itself, the highest-risk move for trust.

The takeaway from the latest reporting is straightforward: OpenAI isn’t just debating ads in theory. The teams have already sketched how ads could live inside ChatGPT in ways that might not look like ads at all, and that’s exactly why the mascara question suddenly matters.