{"id":72334,"date":"2025-08-16T08:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/72334\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T08:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:59:06","slug":"sam-altman-over-bread-rolls-explores-life-after-gpt-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/72334\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Altman, over bread rolls, explores life after GPT-5"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m looking out at Alcatraz Island from a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with hundred-dollar fish entr\u00e9es on the menu. As I make small talk with other reporters, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman jumps through the door on my left. Altman\u2019s looking down at his bare iPhone to show us all something, and an intrusive thought slips out of my mouth: \u201cNo phone case is a bold choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, I immediately realize that the billionaire CEO of OpenAI, who employs Apple veteran Jony Ive, cares more about preserving the iPhone\u2019s original design than the $1,000 it costs to replace one.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, we\u2019re going to ship a device that is going to be so beautiful,\u201d says Altman, referring to OpenAI and Ive\u2019s forthcoming AI device<\/a>. \u201cIf you put a case over it, I will personally hunt you down,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n

Altman has gathered roughly a dozen tech reporters to join him and other OpenAI executives for an on-the-record dinner (and off-the-record dessert). The night raises more questions than it answers.<\/p>\n

For instance, why is Nick Turley, the VP of ChatGPT, kindly passing me a lamb skewer just a week after launching GPT-5<\/a>? Is this to encourage me to write nice things about OpenAI\u2019s biggest AI model launch yet, which was relatively disappointing given the years of hype around it?<\/p>\n

Unlike GPT-4, which far outpaced rivals and challenged expectations of what AI can do, GPT-5 performs roughly on par with models from Google and Anthropic. OpenAI even brought back GPT-4o<\/a> and ChatGPT\u2019s model picker<\/a>, after several users expressed concerns over GPT-5\u2019s tone and its model router.<\/p>\n

But throughout the night, it becomes clear to me that this dinner is about OpenAI\u2019s future beyond GPT-5. OpenAI\u2019s executives give the impression that AI model launches are less important than they were when GPT-4 launched in 2023. After all, OpenAI is a very different company now, focused on upending legacy players in search, consumer hardware, and enterprise software.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

OpenAI shares some new details about those efforts.<\/p>\n

Altman says OpenAI\u2019s incoming CEO of applications, Fidji Simo<\/a>, will oversee multiple consumer apps outside of ChatGPT \u2014 ones OpenAI has yet to launch. Simo is slated to start work at OpenAI in just a few weeks, and she might end up overseeing the launch of an AI-powered browser<\/a> that OpenAI is reportedly developing to compete with Chrome.<\/p>\n

Altman suggests OpenAI would even consider buying Chrome \u2014 likely an offer that would be taken more seriously than Perplexity\u2019s bid<\/a> \u2014 should it become available. \u201cIf Chrome is really going to sell, we should take a look at it,\u201d he says before looking at all of us and asking: \u201cIs it actually going to sell? I assumed it wasn\u2019t gonna happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simo also might end up running an AI-powered social media app<\/a> \u2014 something the OpenAI CEO has said he\u2019s interested in exploring. In fact, Altman says there\u2019s \u201cnothing\u201d inspiring to him about the way AI is used on social media today, adding that he\u2019s interested in \u201cwhether or not it is possible to build a much cooler kind of social experience with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Turley and Brad Lightcap, OpenAI\u2019s COO, largely give the floor to Altman, drinking wine alongside the other seated guests, Altman also confirms reports that OpenAI plans to back a brain-computer interface startup, Merge Labs<\/a>, to compete with Elon Musk\u2019s Neuralink. (\u201cWe have not done that deal yet; I would like us to.\u201d)<\/p>\n

How intertwined that company will be with OpenAI\u2019s models and devices remains to be seen. Altman describes it only as a \u201ca company that we\u2019d invest in.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all the talk of browsers and brain chips, though, the elephant in the room remains GPT-5\u2019s rough reception. Eventually, the conversation circles back to the model that has prompted our group dinner in the first place.<\/p>\n

Turley and Altman say they\u2019ve learned a lot from the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI legitimately just thought we screwed that up,\u201d says Altman on deprecating GPT-4o without telling users. Altman says OpenAI will give users a more clear \u201ctransition period\u201d when deprecating AI models in the future.<\/p>\n

Turley also says OpenAI is already rolling out a new update to make GPT-5\u2019s responses \u201cwarmer,\u201d but not sycophantic, such that it won\u2019t reinforce negative behaviors in users.<\/p>\n

\u201cGPT-5 was just very to the point. I like that. I use the robot personality \u2014 I\u2019m German, you know, whatever,\u201d says Turley. \u201cBut many people do not, and they really like the fact that ChatGPT would actually check in with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a delicate balance for OpenAI to strike, especially given that some users have developed dependencies on ChatGPT. Altman says OpenAI believes that less than 1% of ChatGPT users have unhealthy relationships with the chatbot \u2014 which could still be tens of millions of people.<\/p>\n

Turley says OpenAI has worked with mental health experts to develop a rubric to evaluate GPT-5\u2019s answers, ensuring that the AI model will push back on unhealthy behaviors.<\/p>\n

That said, it seems that GPT-5 hasn\u2019t hurt OpenAI\u2019s business. In fact, Altman says OpenAI\u2019s API traffic doubled within 48 hours of GPT-5\u2019s launch, and the company is effectively \u201cout of GPUs\u201d thanks to all the demand. Cursor and other AI coding assistants have since made GPT-5 their default AI models.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the night\u2019s contradictions \u2014 disappointing launches, record-breaking usage \u2014 reflect OpenAI\u2019s strange reality right now.<\/p>\n

Given OpenAI\u2019s bets \u2014 and others the company is making around data centers, robotics, and energy \u2014 Altman clearly has ambitions of running a much bigger company than just the ChatGPT maker. The final form could look something like Google\u2019s parent Alphabet, but perhaps even broader.<\/p>\n

As the night winds down, it becomes clear we aren\u2019t gathered to reflect on GPT-5 at all. We are being pitched on a company that\u2019s eager to outgrow its famous and controversial product.<\/p>\n

It seems likely that OpenAI will go public to meet its massive capital demands as part of that picture. In preparation, I think Altman wants to hone his relationship with the media. But he also wants OpenAI to get to a place where it\u2019s no longer defined by its best AI model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m looking out at Alcatraz Island from a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with hundred-dollar fish entr\u00e9es on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,5044,13961,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-72334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-openai","14":"tag-sam-altman","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}