Sam Altman, over bread rolls, explores life after GPT-5

[ad_1] 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 discuss with different reporters, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman jumps by way of the door on my left. Altman’s trying down at his naked iPhone to point out us all one thing, and an intrusive thought slips out of my mouth: “No telephone case is a daring alternative.”

In fact, I instantly notice that the billionaire CEO of OpenAI, who employs Apple veteran Jony Ive, cares extra about preserving the iPhone’s authentic design than the $1,000 it prices to exchange one.

“Hear, we’re going to ship a tool that's going to be so lovely,” mentioned Altman, referring to OpenAI and Ive’s forthcoming AI machine. “Should you put a case over it, I'll personally hunt you down,” he joked.

Altman had gathered roughly a dozen tech reporters to affix him and different OpenAI executives for an on-the-record dinner (and off-the-record dessert). The evening raised extra questions than it answered.

For example, 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 considerations over GPT-5’s tone and its mannequin router.

However all through the evening, it turned clear to me that this dinner was about OpenAI’s future past GPT-5. OpenAI’s executives seemed that AI mannequin launches are much less necessary than they had been when GPT-4 launched in 2023. In any case, OpenAI is a really totally different firm now, centered on upending legacy gamers in search, client {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 client apps outdoors of ChatGPT — ones OpenAI has but to launch. Simo is slated to start out work at OpenAI in only a few weeks, and he or she would possibly find yourself overseeing the launch of an AI-powered browser that OpenAI is reportedly growing to compete with Chrome.

Altman steered OpenAI would even think about shopping for Chrome — doubtless a proposal that might be taken extra severely than Perplexity’s bid — ought to it change into obtainable. “If Chrome is actually going to promote, we must always check out it,” he mentioned, earlier than taking a look at all of us and asking: “Is it truly going to promote? I assumed it wasn’t gonna occur.”

Simo additionally would possibly find yourself working an AI-powered social media app — one thing the OpenAI CEO mentioned he’s fascinated about exploring. Actually, Altman says there’s “nothing” inspiring to him about the way in which AI is used on social media at the moment, including that he’s fascinated about “whether or not or not it's potential to construct a a lot cooler form of social expertise with AI.”

Whereas Turley and Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s COO, largely gave the ground to Altman, consuming 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 have now not executed that deal but; I would really like us to.”)

How intertwined that firm will probably 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.”

In gentle of GPT-5’s bumpy rollout, Turley and Altman say they’ve realized rather a lot from the expertise.

“I legitimately simply thought we screwed that up,” mentioned Altman on deprecating GPT-4o with out telling customers. Altman says OpenAI will give customers a extra clear “transition interval” when deprecating AI fashions sooner or later.

Turley additionally mentioned OpenAI is already rolling out a brand new replace to make GPT-5’s responses “hotter,” however not sycophantic, such that it gained’t reinforce destructive behaviors in customers.

“GPT-5 was simply very to the purpose. I like that. I take advantage of the robotic character — I’m German, you understand, no matter,” mentioned Turley. “However many individuals don't, and so they actually like the truth that ChatGPT would truly test in with you.”

It’s a fragile stability for OpenAI to strike, particularly provided that some customers have developed dependencies on ChatGPT. Altman mentioned OpenAI believes that lower than 1% of ChatGPT customers have unhealthy relationships — which may nonetheless be tens of tens of millions of individuals.

Turley mentioned OpenAI labored with psychological well being consultants to develop a rubric to guage GPT-5’s solutions, guaranteeing that the AI mannequin will push again on unhealthy behaviors.

That mentioned, evidently GPT-5 hasn’t harm OpenAI’s enterprise. Actually, Altman mentioned OpenAI’s API site visitors doubled inside 48 hours of GPT-5’s launch, and the corporate is successfully “out of GPUs” because of all of the demand.

Given OpenAI’s bets on browsers, mind chips, AI chatbots — and others the corporate is making round information facilities, robotics, and vitality — Altman clearly has ambitions of working a a lot larger firm than simply the ChatGPT maker. The ultimate kind may look one thing like Google’s father or mother Alphabet, however maybe even broader.

Within the coming years, it appears doubtless that OpenAI will go public to satisfy its huge capital calls for. In preparation for that, I feel Altman needs to hone his relationship with the media. Nonetheless, I feel OpenAI additionally needs to get to a spot the place it’s now not outlined by its finest AI mannequin.