OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

OpenAI just unveiled a new preview feature that lets ChatGPT connect to your bank accounts through Plaid, the service that links apps to major banks and brokerages. In plain English: if you sign up, the chatbot can see your balances, spending history, debts, subscriptions, and investments so it can build a money dashboard and offer financial advice. Officially, it can’t move money or view full account numbers, and OpenAI says you can disconnect later. But the comments? Absolute alarm bells.

The loudest reaction was basically: why on earth would anyone hand over this much personal data to a chatbot company? One commenter summed up the mood with the brutally short “What could go wrong,” while another went full disaster-movie with “Let the bodies hit the floor!” The trust issue is doing all the heavy lifting here, especially because OpenAI already rolled out health-data connections earlier this year. For critics, this feels less like a helpful budgeting tool and more like the sequel nobody asked for: first your medical records, now your money.

And then came the darker hot takes. Some users suspect the real prize is ad targeting—because what better way to sell to you than knowing exactly where your paycheck goes? Others joked that OpenAI’s business plan sounds like a meme: collect everyone’s financial secrets, add “AI,” then somehow profit. Even the simple question, “Do we still have a choice to not use?” landed like a tiny existential scream. The feature may be framed as convenience, but online, the vibe is pure privacy panic with a side of gallows humor.