I’m searching at Alcatraz Island from a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with hundred-dollar fish entrees on the menu. As I make small speak with different reporters, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman jumps by way of the door on my left. Altman’s wanting down at his naked iPhone to indicate us all one thing, and an intrusive thought slips out of my mouth: “No telephone case is a daring alternative.”
After all, I instantly notice that the billionaire CEO of OpenAI, who employs Apple veteran Jony Ive, cares extra about preserving the iPhone’s unique design than the $1,000 it prices to switch one.
“Hear, we’re going to ship a tool that’s going to be so stunning,” mentioned Altman, referring to OpenAI and Ive’s forthcoming AI system. “If you happen to put a case over it, I’ll personally hunt you down,” he joked.
Altman had gathered roughly a dozen tech reporters to hitch him and different OpenAI executives for an on-the-record dinner (and off-the-record dessert). The night time raised extra questions than it answered.
As an illustration, why is Nick Turley, the VP of ChatGPT, kindly passing me a lamb skewer only a week after launching GPT-5? Was this to make me write good issues about OpenAI’s greatest AI mannequin launch but, which was comparatively disappointing given the years of hype round it?
Not like GPT-4, which far outpaced rivals and challenged expectations of what AI can do, GPT-5 performs roughly on par with fashions from Google and Anthropic. OpenAI even introduced again GPT-4o, and ChatGPT’s mannequin picker, after a number of customers expressed issues over GPT-5’s tone and its mannequin router.
However all through the night time, it turned clear to me that this dinner was about OpenAI’s future past GPT-5. OpenAI’s executives appeared that AI mannequin launches are much less vital than they have been when GPT-4 launched in 2023. In spite of everything, OpenAI is a really completely different firm now, centered on upending legacy gamers in search, shopper {hardware}, and enterprise software program.
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OpenAI shared some new particulars about these efforts.
Altman mentioned OpenAI’s incoming CEO of purposes, Fidji Simo, would oversee a number of shopper apps exterior of ChatGPT — ones OpenAI has but to launch. Simo is slated to start out work at OpenAI in only a few weeks, and she or he may find yourself overseeing the launch of an AI-powered browser that OpenAI is reportedly creating to compete with Chrome.
Altman prompt OpenAI would even think about shopping for Chrome — probably a suggestion that will be taken extra significantly than Perplexity’s bid — ought to it grow to be out there. “If Chrome is admittedly going to promote, we should always check out it,” he mentioned, earlier than all of us and asking: “Is it really going to promote? I assumed it wasn’t gonna occur.”
Simo additionally may find yourself working an AI-powered social media app — one thing the OpenAI CEO mentioned he’s fascinated by exploring. Actually, Altman says there’s “nothing” inspiring to him about the way in which AI is used on social media immediately, including that he’s fascinated by “whether or not or not it’s doable to construct a a lot cooler sort of social expertise with AI.”
Whereas Turley and Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s COO, largely gave the ground to Altman, ingesting wine alongside the opposite seated company, Altman additionally confirmed studies that OpenAI plans to again a brain-computer interface startup, Merge Labs, to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. (“We’ve not carried out that deal but; I would love us to.”)
How intertwined that firm will likely be with OpenAI’s fashions and units stays to be seen. Altman described it solely as a “an organization that we’d put money into.”
Given all these bets — and others OpenAI is making round knowledge facilities, robotics, and vitality — Altman clearly has ambitions of working a a lot greater firm than simply the ChatGPT maker. The ultimate kind might look one thing like Google’s mum or dad Alphabet, however maybe even broader.
Within the coming years, it appears probably that OpenAI will go public to fulfill its large capital calls for. In preparation for that, I feel Altman needs to hone his relationship with the media. Nevertheless, I feel OpenAI additionally needs to get to a spot the place it’s now not outlined by its greatest AI mannequin.
