Altman's Post-GPT-5 Vision: AI Device & Consumer Apps Revealed
From a Mediterranean restaurant overlooking Alcatraz Island, where San Francisco’s skyline meets the bay, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrived for an off-the-record dinner with a dozen or so tech reporters. His entrance was unceremonious, a bare iPhone clutched in hand, prompting a casual observation about the lack of a protective case. Altman, whose company employs Apple design veteran Jony Ive, quickly quipped about his preference for the device’s original aesthetic, joking that he would “personally hunt down” anyone who dared to encase OpenAI and Ive’s forthcoming hardware.
The immediate context for the gathering was the recent launch of GPT-5, OpenAI’s latest large language model. Yet, despite the years of anticipation surrounding it, GPT-5’s debut proved relatively underwhelming. Unlike its predecessor, GPT-4, which significantly outpaced rivals and redefined expectations for AI capabilities in 2023, GPT-5’s performance has been largely on par with offerings from competitors like Google and Anthropic. User feedback even necessitated the reintroduction of GPT-4o and the model selection interface in ChatGPT, following concerns over GPT-5’s tone and its internal routing process.
As the evening progressed, it became evident that the dinner was less about GPT-5’s incremental advancements and more about OpenAI’s strategic future beyond its core models. The executives present conveyed a palpable shift in the company’s focus, suggesting that standalone AI model launches, once monumental events, are now secondary to a broader ambition: disrupting established players across search, consumer hardware, and enterprise software. OpenAI, it appears, is evolving far beyond its origins as solely a chatbot developer.
During the conversation, Altman offered new insights into these expansive endeavors. He confirmed that Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s incoming CEO of applications, will oversee the development of multiple consumer-facing apps beyond ChatGPT, none of which have been publicly launched yet. Simo, set to join in a few weeks, may lead the charge on an AI-powered browser reportedly in development to challenge Chrome. Altman even mused about the possibility of acquiring Chrome should it become available, a notion he seemed to consider more seriously than prior, smaller bids for the browser. His ambitions extend further into social media, where he sees “nothing” inspiring in current AI applications and expressed a keen interest in building a “much cooler kind of social experience with AI.”
Beyond software, Altman also confirmed reports of OpenAI’s plans to back Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface (BCI) startup intended to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. While the deal is not yet finalized, Altman expressed his desire for the investment, though the exact integration of this BCI venture with OpenAI’s existing models and devices remains to be seen. These diverse investments—spanning data centers, robotics, and energy—underscore Altman’s vision for a company far more expansive than just the maker of ChatGPT, potentially resembling a conglomerate like Google’s parent company, Alphabet, but with an even broader technological reach.
In the coming years, such ambitious expansion will undoubtedly necessitate substantial capital, making a public offering for OpenAI seem increasingly probable. In preparation for this, Altman appears keen on cultivating stronger relationships with the media. Ultimately, OpenAI seems determined to transcend its current identity, aiming to be recognized not merely for its best AI model, but as a pivotal force reshaping the very foundations of technology and human-computer interaction.