I look out at Alcatraz Island from a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with a hundred dollar fishing trees on the menu. When I hold small prat with other journalists, Openai CEO Sam Altman leaps through the door to the left. Altman looks down at his mere iPhone to show us all something, and an intrusive thought slides out of my mouth: “No phone case is a cool choice.”
Of course, I immediately realize that billionaire CEO of Openai, who employs apple veteran Jony Ive, is interested in preserving the iPhone’s original design than the $ 1,000 it costs to replace one.
“Listen, we send a device that will be so beautiful,” says Altman, referring to Openai and IVE’s upcoming AI device. “If you put a case over it, I personally want to chase you down,” he haunts.
Altman has collected about a dozen tech journalists to join him and other Openai leaders for an on-the-record dinner (and off-the-record dessert). The night raises more questions than it answers.
Why is Nick Turley, VP for Chatgpt, kindly to pass me on a lamb skewer just a week after the launch of GPT-5? Is this to encourage me to write lovely things about Openai’s biggest AI model launch yet, which was relatively disappointing considering the years of hype around it?
Unlike GPT-4, who far exceeded rivals and challenged expectations of what AI can do, GPT-5 works roughly on par with models from Google and Anthropic. Openai even brought back GPT-4O and Chatgpt’s model picks after several users expressed concern about GPT-5’s tone and its model router.
But all night it becomes clear to me that this noon is about Openai’s future beyond the GPT-5. Openai’s leaders give the impression that AI model launches are less important than they were when the GPT-4 was launched in 2023. After all, Openai is a very different company now, focused on emerging older players in search, consumer hardware and company software.
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Openai shares some new details about these efforts.
Altman says Openai’s Incoming CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, will oversee several consumer apps outside Chatgpt – One Openai has not yet launched. Simo is intended to start work in Openai in just a few weeks, and she may end up overseeing the launch of an AI-driven browser, which Openai is reportedly evolving to compete with Chrome.
Altman suggests that Openai would even consider buying Chrome – probably an offer that would be taken more seriously than Perplexity’s bid – if it became available. “If Chrome really wants to sell, we have to look at it,” he says, before he looks at us all and asks, “Will it actually sell? I assumed it wouldn’t happen.”
Simo may also end up running an AI-driven social media app something that Openai CEO has said he is interested in exploring. In fact, Altman says there is “nothing” that inspires him about how AI is used on social media today, adding that he is interested in “whether it is possible to build a much cooler kind of social experience with AI.”
While Turley and Brad Lightcap, Openais COO, largely give the floor to Altman, drinking wine with the other sitting guests, Altman also confirms reports that Openai plans to support a brain-computer-interface startup, braiding laboratories, to compete with Elon Musk’s neuralink. (“We haven’t made that deal yet; I would like us to.”)
How intertwined this company will be with Openai’s models and devices to see. Altman describes it only as a “a company that we would invest in.”
For all talks about browsers and brain chips, the elephant remains in space GPT-5’s rough reception. Finally, the conversation circles back to the model, which has led to our group dinner in the first place.
Turley and Altman say they have learned a lot from the experience.
“I just thought we just thought we were turning it up,” says Altman by writing off the GPT-4o without telling users. Altman says Openai will give users a clearer “transitional period” when they print AI models in the future.
Turley also says that Openai is already rolling a new update to make GPT-5’s answer “warmer” but not sycophantic so that it will not strengthen negative behavior of users.
“GPT-5 was just a lot to that point. I like it. I use the robot personality-I am German, you know whatever,” Turley says. “But many people don’t, and they really like the fact that chatgpt would actually check in with you.”
It is a delicate balance for Openai to strike, especially considering that some users have developed dependencies on chatgpt. Altman says Openai believes that less than 1% of chatgpt users have unhealthy relationships with chatbot – which can still be tens of thousands of millions of people.
Turley says Openai has worked with mental health experts to develop a box to evaluate GPT-5’s response, ensuring that the AI model will push back on unhealthy behavior.
That said, it seems that the GPT-5 has not hurt Openai’s business. In fact, Altman says Openais API traffic was doubled within 48 hours of GPT-5’s launch, and the company is effective “out of GPUs” thanks to all demand. Marker and other AI Coding Assistants have since made GPT-5 their standard AI models.
In many ways, the night’s contradictions reflect on launches, record-breaking Use-Oopenai’s strange reality right now.
Given Openai’s efforts – and others do the company about data centers, robotics and energy – Altman clearly has ambitions to run a much larger company than just Chatgpt Maker. The final form could look like Google’s parent alphabet, but maybe even wider.
When the night winds, it becomes clear that we are not gathered at all to reflect on the GPT-5. We are beaten at a company that is eager to grow out of the famous and controversial product.
It seems that Openai will publish its massive capital requirements as part of that image. In preparation, I think Altman wants to hone his relationship with the media. But he also wants Openai to come to a place where it is no longer defined by its best AI model.