You’ll see Alcatraz Island from San Francisco’s Mediterranean restaurant and there’s a $100 fish entree on the menu. As I talk a bit with other reporters, Openai CEO Sam Altman jumps over my left door. Altman looks down at his naked iPhone and shows us everything.
Of course, I soon realize that the Openai billionaire CEO, who employs Apple veteran Jony Ive, cares about storing the original iPhone design more than it costs a $1,000 IT replacement.
“Listen, we ship devices that will be so beautiful,” says Altman. “If you put a case on it, I’ll personally corner you,” he jokes.
Altman gathered around 12 technical reporters to him and other Openai executives to join him and other Openai executives for dinners on record (and desserts outside of recording). The night raises more questions than the answer.
For example, why is Nick Turley, vice president of ChatGpt, kindly handing over a grilled lamb skewer just a week after launching the GPT-5? This is to encourage me to write something great about the launch of Openai’s biggest AI model.
Unlike the GPT-4, it far surpasses and challenges its rivals for what AI can do, and the GPT-5 works roughly on par with Google and the human model. Openai has revived the GPT-4O and ChatGPT model pickers after expressing concerns about the GPT-5 tone and its model router.
But all night, it becomes clear that this dinner is about Openai’s future beyond GPT-5. Openai executives have given the impression that launching AI models is less important than when GPT-4 was launched in 2023. After all, Openai is currently a very different company, focusing on maintaining a legacy player in search, consumer hardware, and enterprise software.
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Openai shares some new details about these efforts.
According to Altman, Fidji Simo, CEO of Openai’s upcoming application, will oversee multiple consumer apps besides ChatGpt. Simo is set to start work on Openai in just a few weeks and may oversee the launch of an AI-powered browser that Openai is reportedly developing to compete with Chrome.
Altman suggests that Openai would even consider buying Chrome. This could be an offer that would be taken more seriously than a Perplexity bid if it becomes available. “If chrome really sells, we should look at it,” he looked at us all and said, “Are you going to actually sell it? I thought it wouldn’t happen.”
Shimo may also end up running AI-powered social media apps. This is what Openai CEO said he was interested in exploring. In fact, Altman said he “nothing” inspires him about how it will be used on social media today, adding that he is interested in “whether it is possible to build a cooler kind of social experience with AI.”
Openai’s COOs Turley and Brad Lightcap mostly give Altman the floor and drink wine with other sitting guests, but Altman confirms that Openai plans to compete with Elon Musuralink in favor of Brain-Computer Interface Startup, Merge Labs. (“We haven’t made that deal yet. We want to do it.”)
How the company is intertwined is still unclear with Openai’s models and devices. Altman describes it only as “the company we invest in.”
However, in all the talks on the browser and brainchip, the elephant in the room remains a GPT-5 Raffle reception. Ultimately, the conversation went back to modeling and encouraged the group to have dinner in the first place.
Turley and Altman say they learned a lot from the experience.
“We justly thought it was ruining it,” says Altman, by blaming the GPT-4o without telling users. Altman says Openai will provide a more clear “transition period” when it denies AI models in the future.
Turley also states that Openai has already rolled out new updates to make GPT-5 responses “warmer” but is not sicopantic and therefore is trying not to intensify negative user behavior.
“The GPT-5 was very important. I like it. I use the robotic personality. I’m German. “But a lot of people aren’t. They really like the fact that ChatGpt actually checks in with you.”
It’s a delicate balance that Openai strikes, especially considering that some users have developed dependencies on ChatGPT. According to Altman, Openai believes that less than 1% of ChatGPT users have unhealthy relationships.
According to Turley, Openai has worked with mental health experts to develop rubrics to assess GPT-5 responses, ensuring that AI models push back unhealthy behavior.
That said, the GPT-5 does not seem to have hurt Openai’s business. In fact, Altman said Openai’s API traffic has doubled within 48 hours of the launch of the GPT-5, and thanks to all the demand, the company has effectively “unlocked the GPU.”
In many ways, the night’s contradictions – a pity launch, record-breaking usage – reflect the strange reality of Openai for now.
Considering others whose companies are focused on data centers, robotics and energy, including Openai bets such as Browser, Brain Chips and AI Chatbots, Altman clearly has ambitions to run a company that is much larger than the ChatGpt maker. The final form may look like Google’s parent alphabet, but it may probably look even wider.
Once the night is over, it becomes clear that they have not gathered to look back at the GPT-5 at all. We are pitched to companies that want to grow their well-known and controversial products.
It appears Openai will likely be made public as part of its photographs to meet its massive capital demands. In preparation, Altman wants to hone his relationship with the media. But he also hopes Openai will reach a place that is no longer defined by its best AI models.
