I look out on the island of Alcatraz from a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with a hundred dollars in the menu. As I make small conversations with other journalists, Openai Sam Altman’s CEO jumps through the door to my left. Altman looks down on his naked iPhone to show us all something and an interventionist thinking slips out of my mouth: “There is no phone case is a bold choice.”
Of course, I immediately realize that the billionaire CEO of Openai, who employs Apple Jony Ive’s veteran, is more interested in maintaining the original iPhone plan than the $ 1,000 that costs to replace one.
“Listen. We’re going to send a device that will be so beautiful,” says Altman, referring to Openai and Ive’s upcoming AI device. “If you put a case above it, I’ll chase you in person,” he jokes.
Altman has gathered about twelve technology journalists to take part with him other Openai executives for a record dinner (and the off -record dessert). The night raises more questions than it answers.
For example, why Nick Turley, the Vice President of Chatgpt, begs me to pass a lamb strap just a week after the GPT-5 launch? Is this to encourage me to write nice things about the biggest launch of Openai’s AI model, which was relatively frustrating, as the years of the advertising campaign around it?
Unlike the GPT-4, which overcame opponents and raised expectations of what AI can do, the GPT-5 performs about the same level with models from Google and humanity. Openai even brought back the GPT-4O and Chatgpt’s Picker model, as many users have expressed concerns about the GPT-5 tone and the model router.
But all night, it becomes clear to me that this dinner was about the future of Openai beyond the GPT-5. Openai executives give the impression that AI models are less important than it was when GPT-4 started in 2023. After all, Openai is a very different company now, focusing on upgrading older players in search, consumer material and business software.
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Openai shares some new details about these efforts.
Altman says Openai’s incoming CEO Fidji Simo will oversee multiple consumer applications outside Chatgpt – Openai have not yet begun. Simo is scheduled to start work at Openai in just a few weeks and may end up overseeing the start of a browser -powered browser, Openai is reportedly developing to compete with Chrome.
Altman suggests that Openai will consider Chrome – probably a bid that will be taken more seriously by Purplexity’s offer – should be available. “If Chrome is really going to sell, we should take a look,” he says before we look at us all and ask, “Will he really sell? I guess it won’t happen.”
Simo can also lead to an application of social media that operates with AI-something that Openai’s CEO said he was interested in exploring. In fact, Altman says there is “nothing” that inspires him for the way he is used in the social media today, adding that he is interested in “if it is possible to build a much cooler kind of social experience with AI”.
While Turley and Brad Lightcap, Openai’s COO, greatly give the floor to Altman, drink wine alongside other seated visitors, Altman also confirms the reports that Openai plans to support a brain-computer interconnection, Merge Labs. (“We haven’t done this deal yet, I would like to.”)
How interconnected this company will be with Openai’s models and devices remains to see. Altman only describes it as “a company in which we will invest.”
For the whole discussion of browsing programs and brain chips, however, the elephant in the room remains the rough reception of the GPT-5. Eventually, the conversation revolves back to the model that caused our team dinner in the first place.
Turley and Altman say they have learned a lot of experience.
“I legally thought we dipped it,” Altman says of the GPT-4O depreciation without telling users. Altman says Openai will give users a clearer “transition period” when they remove AI models in the future.
Turley also says that Openai has already released a new update to make the answers of the GPT-5 “Warmer” but not sycophantic, so as not to reinforce negative behaviors to users.
“The GPT-5 was very much on the spot. I like it. I use the robot’s personality-I’m a German. You know, anything else,” says Turley. “But many people don’t do it, and they love the fact that chatgpt will check in with you.”
It is a delicate balance for the Openai strike, especially as some users have developed Chatgpt addictions. Altman says Openai believes that less than 1% of Chatgpt users have unhealthy relationships – which could still be tens of millions of people.
Turley says Openai has worked with mental health experts to develop a rubric to evaluate the GPT-5 responses, ensuring that the AI model will push unhealthy behaviors back.
This is what the GPT-5 seems to have harmed Openai’s business. In fact, Altman says Openai’s API release has doubled within 48 hours of the GPT-5 launch and the company is essentially “out of GPU” thanks to all demand.
In many ways, night contradictions-unstoppable launches, the use of a record-reflecting the strange reality of Openai at the moment.
Taking into account OpenAi’s bets on browsers, brain chips, AI chatbots – and others is making the company around data centers, robotics and energy – Altman has clearly ambitions to run a much larger company than the Chatgpt manufacturer. The final form could look like Google’s parent alphabet, but perhaps even wider.
As the night turns, it becomes clear that we do not gather to think of the GPT-5 at all. We are in a company that is willing to overcome its famous and controversial product.
It seems likely that Openai will be publicly made to meet its huge capital requirements as part of this image. In preparation, I think Altman wants to sharpen his relationship with the media. But it also wants Openai to reach a place where it is no longer determined by the best model of AI.
