Sam Altman, over bread rolls, explores life after ...

I’m looking at Alcatraz Island from a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with hundred-dollar fish entrées 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 indicate us all one thing, and an intrusive thought slips out of my mouth: “No telephone case is a daring selection.”

After all, 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 device. “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 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.

As an 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 largest AI mannequin launch but, which was comparatively disappointing given the years of hype round it?

In contrast to 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 back GPT-4o and ChatGPT’s model picker, after a number of customers expressed issues over GPT-5’s tone and its mannequin router.

However all through the evening, it grew to become 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 spite of everything, OpenAI is a really completely different firm now, centered on upending legacy gamers in search, shopper {hardware}, and enterprise software program.

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 just some weeks, and he or she may find yourself overseeing the launch of an AI-powered browser that OpenAI is reportedly growing to compete with Chrome.

Altman urged OpenAI would even contemplate shopping for Chrome — doubtless a proposal that may be taken extra critically than Perplexity’s bid — ought to it change into out there. “If Chrome is absolutely going to promote, we must always check out it,” he mentioned earlier than taking a look at 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 thinking about exploring. In truth, Altman says there’s “nothing” inspiring to him about the best way AI is used on social media immediately, including that he’s thinking about “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 reviews that OpenAI plans to again a brain-computer interface startup, Merge Labs, to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. (“We have now not carried out that deal but; I would really like us to.”)

How intertwined that firm can 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.”

For all of the discuss of browsers and mind chips, although, the elephant within the room remained GPT-5’s tough reception. Ultimately, the dialog circled again to the mannequin that had prompted our group dinner within the first place.

Turley and Altman say they’ve discovered quite a bit 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 unfavorable behaviors in customers.

“GPT-5 was simply very to the purpose. I like that. I exploit the robotic character — I’m German, you realize, no matter,” mentioned Turley. “However many individuals don’t, they usually actually like the truth that ChatGPT would really 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 might nonetheless be tens of hundreds of thousands of individuals.

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

That mentioned, evidently GPT-5 hasn’t damage OpenAI’s enterprise. In truth, Altman mentioned OpenAI’s API visitors doubled inside 48 hours of GPT-5’s launch, and the corporate is successfully “out of GPUs” due to all of the demand.

The evening’s contradictions — disappointing launches, record-breaking utilization — displays OpenAI’s unusual actuality proper now.

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

Because the evening wound down, it grew to become clear it wasn’t actually about GPT-5 in any respect. It was about managing expectations for an organization desirous to outgrow its well-known and controversial product. It appears doubtless that OpenAI will go public to satisfy its large capital calls for as a part of that image. In preparation, I feel Altman needs to hone his relationship with the media. As necessary, OpenAI needs to get to a spot the place it’s now not outlined by its greatest AI mannequin.