All news with #openai tag

🛡️ OpenAI has introduced an age-prediction model in ChatGPT that analyzes conversation topics and usage patterns to infer whether a user is a teen or an adult and apply safety-related content restrictions. The system can err and may sometimes flag adults as teens; users 18+ who are mistakenly restricted can complete an age verification flow through the partner Persona, which may require a live selfie and a government-issued ID. Persona reportedly deletes verification material within seven days, and confirmed adults will have the extra safety settings removed after verification.

🧭 OpenAI’s launches of ChatGPT Search and the ChatGPT Atlas browser mark a pivot toward monetizing user attention through advertising. The essay warns this trajectory risks reproducing the ad-driven incentives of search incumbents like Google, enabling conversational AI to influence purchases, opinions, and online behavior more subtly and effectively than traditional ads. Schneier urges caution, greater consumer data control, and public-policy responses to protect trust.

⚡ ChatGPT Go has expanded its limits and now provides unlimited access to GPT‑5.2 Instant for an $8 monthly fee, offering more messages, uploads, image creation, and longer memory and context windows. The plan is positioned as a lower-cost alternative to ChatGPT Plus, though it is locked to GPT‑5.2 Instant and lacks the higher reasoning capabilities available in Plus. A higher-tier ChatGPT Pro option is also available at $200/month. Subscribers who want an ad-free experience still must choose Plus or Pro.

🔔 OpenAI is offering a free one-month trial of ChatGPT Plus, normally $20/month, through a limited-time promotion available to many accounts. The offer can be activated now and canceled anytime before it auto-renews, so users who want to avoid charges must cancel before the end of the month. Plus provides higher message and file limits, expanded memory, and longer context windows than the free or Go tiers. OpenAI also plans to introduce ads into the Free and Go tiers in the coming weeks.

🎵 OpenAI has started using new hostnames—sonata.openai.com and sonata.api.openai.com—spotted on 15–16 January 2026, suggesting work on a service codenamed Sonata. A new subdomain typically signals a web-facing product, internal tool, or API, but the codename alone doesn't confirm functionality. OpenAI recently improved ChatGPT's reference chat history retrieval and expanded dictation, which could align with audio or transcription enhancements.

🔍 OpenAI is internally testing a web update for ChatGPT that it plans to roll out gradually in the coming weeks. Leaked references highlight a new task-oriented feature codenamed Salute, an "is model preferred" flag intended to improve local business and map results, and a secure tunnel option for MCP servers. The company is also trialing inline editable code and math blocks to expand the existing formatting block functionality. Collectively, these changes aim to streamline file-based workflows, enhance location-specific answers, and simplify secure enterprise connectivity.

📰 OpenAI said it will begin showing ads in ChatGPT to logged-in adult U.S. users in both the free and ChatGPT Go tiers in the coming weeks, with ads appearing at the bottom of conversations. The company emphasized that ads will be clearly labeled, will not influence chatbot responses, and that user conversations will not be sold to advertisers. Users can dismiss ads and opt out of personalization, while paid tiers (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise) will remain ad-free.

🔔 OpenAI has rolled out the $8 ChatGPT Go subscription globally, offering users 10× more messages, increased file uploads, expanded image creation, longer memory, and a larger context window than the free tier. Go provides access to the latest GPT-5.2 Instant but does not include the higher-tier "reasoning" models reserved for paid plans. The Go tier displays ads; upgrading to GPT Plus ($20) or GPT Pro ($200) removes them and restores advanced model access.

📰 OpenAI confirmed that ChatGPT will begin showing ads inside answers in the coming weeks, likely displayed at the bottom and clearly labeled. Ads will appear only to free account holders and the ChatGPT Go tier; Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise subscribers will not see them. The company says ads will not influence responses, advertisers will not receive conversation data, and users can control or delete ad-related data. Ads will also be excluded from chats on sensitive topics such as health, mental health, and politics.

🔍 OpenAI is rolling out an upgrade to ChatGPT that improves chat-history search and recall. The new reference chat history option lets ChatGPT more reliably find details from past conversations and marks any past chat used to answer queries as a source you can open and review. The feature is currently rolling out to Plus and Pro subscribers. OpenAI also updated personality controls and improved dictation accuracy for all logged-in users.

🔍 OpenAI is internally testing a feature codenamed Agora, with references appearing in its web, Android, and iOS apps. The clues point to a potential cross-platform capability — possibly a unified client, a social or group interaction layer (reflecting the Greek meaning of 'agora'), or a communications feature that may leverage agora.ai's audio/video SDK. Observers also link the work to OpenAI's hardware experiments, and a recent update improved ChatGPT's dictation accuracy for logged-in users.

🌐 OpenAI has quietly launched ChatGPT Translate, a web-based translation tool accessible at chatgpt.com/translate and available to all users without a paid account. It supports typed text, photo uploads, voice input, and file attachments, automatically detecting language or allowing manual source/target selection. The tool emphasizes preserving meaning over literal translations and lets users request tones like “business formal” or “explain like a child,” with the added benefit of continuing the conversation to refine results. ChatGPT’s Android and iOS apps do not yet expose the translate toggle.

💼 OpenAI is testing "Jobs," a new ChatGPT feature designed to help users explore roles, refine resumes, and plan career paths. The tool can suggest resume improvements, clarify which roles fit a user and how to stand out, and search and compare opportunities matched to goals. It appears similar to the recently announced ChatGPT Health space and may surface as a dedicated sidebar, but no rollout date has been announced.

🔍 Threat actors have been probing misconfigured proxy servers to access paid large language model (LLM) endpoints, generating over 80,000 sessions since late December, according to GreyNoise. Attackers used low-noise queries to fingerprint models without triggering alerts and targeted vendors such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral and others. While GreyNoise reports no observed exploitation or data theft, the scale of enumeration indicates reconnaissance with possible malicious intent. Recommended mitigations include restricting Ollama model pulls to trusted registries, applying egress filtering, blocking known OAST callback domains at DNS, rate-limiting suspicious ASNs, and monitoring JA4 fingerprints.

🤖 Elon Musk's xAI teased a major upgrade to Grok Code, promising it will one-shot many complex coding tasks and suggesting a new vibe coding tool, Grok Build, may arrive next month. The upgrade aims to mirror vibe coding approaches like Google AI Studio and sharpen Grok's competitive position. Separately, OpenAI is testing healthcare-focused features including GPT 5.2 and a GPT Health dashboard with a pledge not to use health data for training.

🔓 Radware researcher Zvika Babo disclosed ZombieAgent, a prompt-injection technique that coerced ChatGPT into leaking sensitive data from connected services such as Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive and GitHub. The attack leverages OpenAI’s new Connectors and browsing features by providing a set of static, character-indexed URLs that the model opens in sequence to exfiltrate data one character at a time. OpenAI patched the issue in mid-December after Babo reported it in September 2025; Radware published a detailed report on January 8.

🩺 OpenAI announced ChatGPT Health, a sandboxed space that lets users discuss health topics and optionally connect medical records and popular wellness apps (Apple Health, Function, MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, AllTrails, Instacart, Peloton) for tailored responses, lab-test insights, nutrition advice, meal ideas and suggested workouts. The feature is rolling out to Free, Go, Plus and Pro users outside the EEA, Switzerland and the U.K., and OpenAI says it is designed to support medical care, not replace diagnosis or treatment. Health operates in a silo with purpose-built encryption and isolation; conversations are not used to train OpenAI's foundation models, and connected apps require explicit permission and additional security review.

🔒 OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Health, a private space for health conversations, and says by default it will not use your health information to train its foundation models. An in-dashboard alert observed during early-access testing states health data is subject to a Health Privacy Notice and recommends enabling multi-factor authentication. OpenAI cautions that ChatGPT is not a substitute for professional medical advice and notes the feature is rolling out to most users but is not yet available in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK.

📉 New data from SimilarWeb shows ChatGPT's web market share fell to 64.5% in January 2026, down from 86.7% a year earlier, while Gemini rose to 21.5%. The report's timeline highlights steady gains for Gemini and smaller increases for Grok and DeepSeek, alongside a seasonal dip in usage over the holidays. Independent tests cited in the coverage praise Claude Code for complex coding and Gemini for image quality, and OpenAI is reportedly considering ads for ChatGPT amid rising competition.

🔔 OpenAI may grant a one-month complimentary subscription of ChatGPT Plus to certain users who request cancellation, a change first reported by BleepingComputer. The report describes a Flutter/Dart developer who switched to Claude and, when canceling, was presented with the free-month offer and an automatic temporary switch to $0/month. The trial is expected to end around Feb 17, 2026 and will revert to the paid price unless otherwise updated. The promotion is rolling out gradually across several regions; check the Manage button under Payment to confirm availability.