Is OpenAI testing ads on paying users? A new trend suggests so

A paying ChatGPT user has reported an invasion of ads in his conversation, fueling suspicion that OpenAI is testing ads for some paid users.

The user, Emanuele Dagostino reported in a tweet on 2 June that he was in a conversation about sushi using ChatGPT advanced voice mode when suddenly there was an interruption with an ad in English.

Although he admittedly used AI to write the report on Facebook, it was the best way he could explain what happened since he wasn’t a native English speaker.

While using ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode (the one that costs €23/month), I was having a normal conversation about sushi when a different voice suddenly took over — speaking in English, with background music, describing a generic culinary “experience” like a food commercial.… pic.twitter.com/IX6B8GOoxf

— Emanuele Dagostino (@ema_dagostino) June 1, 2025

Not a glitch

As AI is always evolving and becoming better, some X users said it could be a glitch due to hallucinations. In AI, hallucination is when an AI model generates outputs that are incorrect or misleading.

One X user responded:

“Voice mode IS capable of humming a tune. OpenAI has just forbid it for copyright and safety reasons. The fact of the matter is GPT-4o was trained on hundreds of thousands of hours of audio. It can reproduce just about anything. These are hallucinations like any other.”

Ad

However, Dagostino insisted this wasn’t due to hallucination but could be ad tests disguised as hallucinations. Other X users supported him, alleging that OpenAI is testing a monetization pathway, because the company in the ad is a real business.

Interestingly, other users have experienced a similar situation as far back as last year, raising more suspicion on the issue.

I got a very similar behavior back in November!

Mine was mega sketchy. https://t.co/AbOQSdi20V

— 𝕒𝕩𝕙𝕠𝕗𝕗 ❍ alexander (@axhoff) June 2, 2025

No response from OpenAI

Up to the time of this report, there was no response from OpenAI. However, an X user who appears to be a staff of OpenAI reached out, but Dagostino insists on communicating through official channels like email, rather than on X.

His point is that OpenAI is no longer what it used to be, since there’s so much compromise in its services, such as pushing ads at paid users.

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