Welcome to the first weekly news roundup of 2026. Here's what happened last week.
OpenAI may serve “sponsored content” ads in ChatGPT
OpenAI is working on introducing ads into ChatGPT. The company is considering the idea of introducing “sponsored content” into the AI's responses. And it appears that sponsored content will be given priority over bot-generated answers. Reports indicate OpenAI may display advertisements in the sidebar next to chats.
As of now, using ChatGPT is completely free with optional payment plans. It was finally coming to an end. But is serving ads the solution? This news has alarmed users, who have already raised concerns about the idea and asked whether the reactions generated by ChatGPT could be influenced by sponsors' products. If true, it is very likely that the target audience for the ads will be non-subscribers, i.e. free users. It's unclear whether this is what OpenAI is planning. If these ads are displayed to paid users, it could be counterproductive, as it could lead to a mass exodus of users who may gravitate to ad-free competitors. Claude, or Gemini,
So why is it doing this? Money, of course. Google expected to make $237.8 billion in advertising revenue in 2030. Is it really surprising that OpenAI wants to profit from ChatGPT, the world's leading AI app?
OpenAI hardens ChatGPT Atlas against instant injection attacks
Staying on the subject of ChatGPT, OpenAI announced that it has Upgraded your AI-powered browseR,chatgpt atlas, to protect it from quick injection attacks. Agent browsers like Atlas suffer from a new type of malware called prompt injection. Google and Anthropic had already warned about this danger. Websites that have been hacked or contain malicious code can trick AI agents by using malicious instructions in fake signals, which can be used to send sensitive data to the website.
To protect against such attacks, OpenAI has built an LLM-based automated attacker to detect early injection attacks. It was trained from end to end with reinforcement learning to learn from its successes and failures. The process involves the simulation of a victim agent, called the defender, which runs a counterfactual rollout of how the targeted victim agent would behave if it faced a prompt injection attack. The results are analyzed, modified, and repeated to train the bot, which will help it find threats faster in real-world situations.
OpenAI has also announced a new feature called “Your Year with ChatGPT“, which allows users to replicate how they interacted with an AI in 2025.
Users criticize Duolingo for using Dynamic Island on iPhone for ads
Duolingo, the popular language learning app, is using Dynamic Island on iPhones to promote in-app offers. The Dynamic Island, which is the large black bar visible at the top of the screen on modern iPhones, is used for live activities and notifications from apps. But, Duolingo used it to display such advertisements.
Reddit users were quick to point out This practice violates Apple's design guidelines, and the original poster suggested reporting the app to Apple, calling for the app to be removed from the App Store.
2025 hasn't exactly been a good year for Duolingo, after announcing a focus on AI-based content and laying off contract staff. The language learning service has also drawn criticism from customers for its unusual teaching methods, which many users claim do not effectively help them learn a new language.
Microsoft will end support for Windows 11 SE in October
Microsoft has announced its plans to discontinue Windows 11 SE. The operating system was announced in 2021 as a version for low-cost computers, to compete with Google's ChromeOS for Chromebooks. But, Windows 11 SE never really took off, mainly because devices powered by the OS were not readily available. And the ones that came with it had performance issues, and the lack of support for apps was another problem. While other versions of Windows 11 were updated to version 25H2 last year, Windows 11 SE was not. Actually, the Redmond company had announced that it will not release feature updates for the SE.
Now, Microsoft has revealed That it will stop supporting Windows 11 SE from October 2026. This means that it will not provide security updates or software patches for the SE after the said date.
Apple Fitness+ is getting an upgrade
Apple announced various updates Apple Fitness+Users can improve their health by using the Make Your Fitness Comeback program to perform strength, HIIT and yoga workouts for up to four weeks, It consists of 3 workouts per week, one for each type for 10 minutes, Apple Watch users can earn rings in the New Year limited-edition rewards by turning off all three activity rings for 7 consecutive days in January, Strava users with an Apple Watch can join the “Quit Quit” challenge in the Strava app and complete 12 workouts logged this month to earn the Apple Watch badge in the Strava app,
In addition to these, Apple has also added workouts featuring music from popular artists, and will release new Time to Walk episodes featuring various celebrities.
ASUS announces price hike due to AI demand
PC builders have been battling a shortage crisis for the past few months and it looks like the situation is going to get worse in 2026. ASUS has announced Due to shortage of DRAM, NAND, SSD parts, prices of many of its products are going to increase. It is unclear which products will be affected, and the company has not yet revealed the new pricing of its products. But this should not be a surprise. Dell had announced a 30% price increase in December 2025. Micron announced that its subsidiary Crucial is exiting the consumer business to focus exclusively on enterprise customers.
The prices of RAM modules and SSDs are skyrocketing worldwide, with prices increasing by more than 100%. This is the price we have to pay for AI chatbots. Critical PC parts are nearly inaccessible, and this may soon affect GPU prices as well. The release of the next generation console is said to have been delayed due to the rising costs of RAM and SSD. This is probably the only good thing we've seen during this entire crisis.
