Amid the very public feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, OpenAI is reportedly building its own social media platform like X (formerly known as Twitter). People aware of the matter told The Verge that the project is in early stages, with an internal prototype based on ChatGPT’s viral image generation feature, Studio Ghibli, that “melted the company’s GPU”.
As per a report by The Verge, Sam Altman has been discreetly collecting feedback from users on the project. While it remains unclear whether the platform will debut as a standalone app or be integrated into ChatGPT, the move signals OpenAI’s expanding ambitions beyond its AI and research lab, and into the social media space.
It’s Musk vs Altman
The news about OpenAI’s social media platform comes at a time when Musk and Altman, who were once co-workers, are set to face off in court. It could also further escalate tensions between the two tech titans. Musk, who owns X, SpaceX and Tesla, is also one of the co-founders of OpenAI – a company which was launched in 2015. Three years later, he left the company in 2018 before it became a front-runner in the generative artificial intelligence (AI) race with its chatbot ChatGPT.
In February, a group of investors led by Musk made an unsolicited offer of $97.4 billion to gain control of OpenAI. Altman promptly rejected the proposal, reportedly responding with a curt “no thank you”.
Musk sued OpenAI and its CEO last year, alleging that the company deviated from its founding principle to develop AI for the public good and to remain a non-profit entity.
OpenAI counter-sued Musk in April, accusing Musk of harassment and attempting to derail its shift to a for-profit model. OpenAI Newsroom on X wrote, “Elon’s non-stop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit. Today, we counter-sued to stop him.”
Altman hinted at launching social media app in February
An OpenAI social network could also put the company in direct competition with Facebook-owner Meta, run by Mark Zuckerberg. In February, Altman responded on X over media reports on Meta’s plans to release its standalone Meta AI app to compete with ChatGPT, saying, “Ok. Fine. Maybe we’ll do a social app.”
Last month, OpenAI raised $40 billion at a $300 billion valuation – largest private tech funding round on record.