OpenAI's Nick Turley on remodeling ChatGPT into an working system

[ad_1] When Nick Turley joined OpenAI in 2022 as the pinnacle of ChatGPT, he was tasked with commercializing the corporate’s analysis. He has made nice strides towards that objective, rising the product to 800 million weekly energetic customers. Now, Turley desires to take a good larger swing: remodeling ChatGPT into a brand new kind of working system stuffed with third-party apps.

I sat down with Turley this week on the outskirts of San Francisco’s Fort Mason, a former U.S. navy publish the place OpenAI held its third annual developer convention, to debate how he’s desirous about ChatGPT’s future. You could find a transcript of our dialog on the backside of this text.

To show ChatGPT into an working system, Turley tells me he’s drawing inspiration from internet browsers. During the last decade, browsers have emerged as a brand new form of working system — not within the literal sense like MacOS or Home windows, however as a result of they’ve turn into the principle place folks work on computer systems due to quite a lot of internet functions. Turley sees ChatGPT evolving in the same means: a platform that would change how folks work together with software program.

OpenAI is reportedly creating a browser too. Turley doesn’t affirm or deny this, however he does say browsers are “actually attention-grabbing.” The corporate can also be working with Jony Ive and a group of longtime Apple designers on a household of {hardware} units. Given these efforts, it’s straightforward to see how a ChatGPT working system stuffed with apps may turn into a central element of OpenAI’s shopper ecosystem.

OpenAI has been chasing this concept for some time. In 2023, the corporate launched an array of “AI app retailer” efforts equivalent to ChatGPT plugins and the GPT Retailer. These merchandise didn’t precisely take off, however OpenAI appears to have a greater strategy this time round.

The launch of apps aligns with OpenAI’s need to show ChatGPT into an e-commerce vacation spot. Apps from Expedia, DoorDash, and Uber may result in extra transactions in ChatGPT, one thing OpenAI can now facilitate and seize a number of the income from. Having a product featured in ChatGPT could possibly be a significant supply of enterprise for each third-parties and OpenAI.

This may also be OpenAI’s most compelling pitch to builders but. Third-parties can now attain ChatGPT’s 800 million customers throughout their on a regular basis conversations. Apps are a part of ChatGPT’s core expertise, slightly than in a separate retailer of widgets. Builders also can construct extra interactive experiences in ChatGPT, past simply chatbots related to their firm’s knowledge.

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Nonetheless, the enterprise of working an working system additionally comes with plenty of messy issues, equivalent to learn how to promote sure apps over others. Turley says OpenAI isn’t ruling out letting some corporations pay for his or her apps to have precedence placement in ChatGPT, however the firm is determining how to do that with out hurting the person expertise.

Third-party builders probably additionally need entry to ChatGPT person knowledge. In a set of tips, OpenAI says app builders should “collect solely the minimal knowledge required to carry out the device’s operate,” but it surely’s unclear what which means in follow. Turley says OpenAI might construct out new options — equivalent to a partitioned reminiscence in ChatGPT — that would let customers give fine-grained knowledge entry to builders.

One standout remark from our dialog was how Turley views ChatGPT because the “supply automobile” for OpenAI’s nonprofit mission: to develop and distribute synthetic common intelligence (AGI) — extremely autonomous AI methods — in a means that advantages humanity. Some OpenAI researchers fear that the corporate’s shopper enterprise may overpower its nonprofit mission. However in line with Turley, ChatGPT is how OpenAI will distribute AGI to the plenty. How’s that for a spin?

Right here’s my dialog with Nick Turley, Head of ChatGPT, which has been edited for readability and brevity. My questions are in daring, his solutions aren't.

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" height="678" width="680" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?w=680" alt="" class="wp-image-3055345" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg 784w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=150,150 150w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=300,300 300w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=768,766 768w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=680,678 680w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=430,430 430w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=720,718 720w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=668,666 668w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=376,375 376w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=619,617 619w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=532,531 532w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nick-Turley.jpg?resize=50,50 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px"/> OpenAI’s Head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley (Credit score: OpenAI)

Maxwell Zeff: How are you desirous about ChatGPT as a platform for different corporations?

Nick Turley: I believe we’re gonna look again at ChatGPT in a pair years and really feel like the present product is within the command line period. It’s actually highly effective, but it surely’s missing one thing crucial, which is affordances.

Within the basic working system world, that’s apparent. We want going to Mac or Home windows and opening functions, versus remembering all of the instructions. It’s form of bonkers to me that we’ve scaled the product to 800 million weekly energetic customers with the shape issue we have now. This can be a bizarre and onerous to develop class, and but it’s rising like loopy.

The evolution we’re making an attempt to make over the subsequent few years is one the place ChatGPT itself is extra like an working system the place you'll be able to come and use functions. If you wish to write, there’s an app for that. If you wish to code, there’s an app for that. If you wish to work together with items and providers, there are functions for you.

However we are able to’t construct every part ourselves. We’re not going to have a music streaming service, or replicate Coursera’s catalog of instructional supplies. We’re not going to get into the enterprise that Expedia and Reserving.com are in. And for that motive, it is sensible to companion.

There’s additionally a complete technology of apps that persons are going to construct that wouldn’t have been potential beforehand. The Ubers of the world solely exist due to the cell platform, and I’m actually enthusiastic about what these could be for ChatGPT.

We additionally need to give builders, who've been with us because the starting, entry to ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly customers. In the event that they’re capable of improve ChatGPT and construct actual companies on high of that, it creates extra winners within the ecosystem.

The place do you draw inspiration from when constructing ChatGPT?

You may’t go to at least one spot. I usually inform job candidates they should have first rules pondering, and in the event that they’re gonna attempt to run a playbook they noticed at Meta or Google, you’re really gonna run out of rivals to repeat. With regards to [ChatGPT] or Sora, there’s simply zero precedent. So that you form of must get your analogies from totally different locations.

I believe browsers are actually attention-grabbing as a result of, in some methods, they’ve turn into the working system within the final 10 years. How many people really use desktop apps? You would possibly use Excel or PowerPoint, however most of what we do really occurs within the browser by way of application-like issues.

I additionally spent a while wanting on the early adverts for the [Apple] PowerBook. It’s form of like ChatGPT the place it was this equipment that no one fairly knew every part you might do with it. The adverts had been actually like “It’s a calculator, it’s an alarm clock.”

So there isn’t a single factor you'll be able to have a look at, but it surely behooves us to study from historical past. In case you simply have a look at the final 10 years, there may not be the right analogous factor.

You talked about browsers and units there. How are you desirous about increasing ChatGPT into these type elements?

OpenAI is the form of place the place you dream huge. One class we have now coated is productiveness, which is successfully ChatGPT. However there are such a lot of different product classes to be constructed, they usually’re all going to alter with AI. Leisure is one, which is why I’m enthusiastic about Sora. Social media is one other one. Clearly, {hardware} and entry factors to the Web are attention-grabbing too.

You must actually take into consideration what we’re constructing as a household of merchandise and functions which are tied collectively by your account, personalization, and id layer. I’m actually excited that we’re not boxing ourselves in. Even when we had been simply the ChatGPT firm, there could be infinite issues to construct, however our ambition on what we are able to do for folks simply goes means past that.

I’m fascinated with listening to the way you suppose the buyer enterprise of OpenAI matches into the nonprofit mission. I’ve heard some folks say the buyer enterprise funds the mission. How do you see it?

The OpenAI I joined was a analysis lab that may ship a demo or two. In truth, my job description on the time was framed to me as “serving to commercialize OpenAI know-how” — very open ended. At the moment, the product existed to convey the analysis to life so that individuals really get it. I believe that was true and nonetheless is true, as you'll be able to see with Sora. One of the simplest ways to start out a grounded discourse on the profoundness of a know-how is to ship one thing.

Then we moved from that framing to, okay, possibly the product is greater than that. Possibly the product is definitely the way in which we fund the mission. It turned evident in some unspecified time in the future, even earlier than I received to OpenAI, that that is all going to be very costly.

However after ChatGPT, we began speaking about it a bit in a different way. Our mission is to make sure that AGI advantages all of humanity, and reaches folks. In case you mix that with the perception that AGI might be not this single second in time, however slightly a gradual factor, you need to consider product because the supply automobile of the mission. It’s the way in which you really profit folks in follow.

In case you have a look at what these 800 million persons are doing each week, ChatGPT helps them obtain their targets. I don’t know in the event you noticed the man within the keynote who taught himself to code at 89. That’s insane to me. I speak to ChatGPT customers who assist their autistic youngsters by modeling social interactions. I speak to people who find themselves totally self taught in a language primarily based on what they do with ChatGPT. Like, that's the mission.

I don’t suppose it’s honest to speak concerning the shopper enterprise as a funding automobile. Quite, it’s the expression. That's a technique by which OpenAI has developed, to me at the least, since I’ve joined.

Let’s dive deeper into the apps that had been introduced right this moment. OpenAI has mentioned that third-parties can solely take the “minimal quantity of information” essential to run an app in ChatGPT. How are you desirous about person privateness?

From day one, we’re going to ask builders to confide in customers what data they’re requesting. We’re additionally solely going to let [apps] go dwell if they're affordable within the knowledge that they request. We revealed our developer tips [at launch] so folks received’t be shocked after we reject their app as a result of it doesn’t adjust to our stance on privateness.

Over the subsequent month, we need to construct methods for customers to offer fine-grained entry to builders. I believe Apple has carried out an exceptional job with this, the place you'll be able to share knowledge simply this time, or on a regular basis, and many others.

To do this properly, we would want some idea of a partitioned reminiscence in ChatGPT, which we’re nonetheless pondering via. However we’re actually excited concerning the concept since you would possibly need to maintain sure conversations, like well being, separate from others, equivalent to music. Customers might need to share one, however not the opposite, with an app. So we’re going to have much more to share quickly, as a result of it’s really a mixed analysis and engineering problem to do that properly.

The factor that’s uncompromisable for us is transparency. We would like customers, in any respect factors, to grasp what knowledge could be going to a third-party, however the controls will come over time as we construct them out.

DoorDash and Instacart are two corporations that can have apps in ChatGPT quickly sufficient. If I need to order some snacks, how will ChatGPT know which one to go to?

That is the basic query. One of the simplest ways to start out is you present them each. In case you’ve used certainly one of them earlier than, we’ll prioritize that one. In case you’ve used each, we’ll ask which one you favor. We may get extra subtle over time. You can think about certainly one of these apps being a lot greater high quality than one other. Possibly there could be motive to prioritize one over the opposite.

Now we have a number of companions in the identical product classes. I believe essentially the most sleek and respectful strategy to deal with that's to serve each apps.

Are you desirous about letting corporations pay for his or her apps to have preferential spot placement in ChatGPT?

This is likely one of the issues we’re hoping to do some discovery on with builders. There’s this commerce off. You can attempt to determine all of it out prematurely, and roll it out with the announcement, however that most likely means you didn’t speak to lots of people. Or you might delay it, which suggests everybody’s asking questions and doesn’t know precisely what’s going to occur, but it surely provides us the power to really interact.

We selected the latter simply because we all know that constructing this ecosystem goes to be a protracted recreation. It’s not going to occur on day one, and subsequently it’s higher to be considerate on what kind of distribution mechanisms are and aren’t honest recreation.

On the finish of the day, we wish a fantastic person expertise. So if that will result in apps [surfacing] which are irrelevant to the person, I don’t suppose we’d prefer it. If this was a lever that helped us prioritize apps which are actually critical as a result of they’re clearly making an attempt to spend money on publicity, it could possibly be a superb factor. Now we have no perspective as of right this moment. It’s definitely one thing that’s provide you with totally different companions.