The router introduced in gpt-5 is probably the biggest signal. A router, while determining which model to route query, can determine how much $$ a query is worth. (Query here is conversation). This helps decide the amount of compute openai should spend on it. High value queries -> more chances of affiliate links + in context ads.

Then, the way memory profile is stored is a clear way to mirror personalization. Ads work best when they are personalized as opposed to contextual or generic. (Google ads are personalized based on your profile and context). And then the change in branding from being the intelligent agent to being a companion app. (and hiring of fidji sumo). There are more things here, i just cited a very high level overview, but people have written detailed blogs on it. I personally think affiliate links they can earn from aligns the incentive for everyone. They are a kind of ads, and thats the direction they are marching towards .

I work at OpenAI and I'm happy to deny this hypothesis.

Our goal for the router (whether you think we achieved it or not) was purely to make the experience smoother and spare people from having to manually select thinking models for tasks that benefit from extra thinking. Without the router, lots of people just defaulted to 4o and never bothered using o3. With the router, people are getting to use the more powerful thinking models more often. The router isn't perfect by any means - we're always trying to improve things - but any paid user who doesn't like it can still manually select the model they want. Our goal was always a smoother experience, not ad injection or cost optimization.