Sam Altman, on hotcakes, explores life after GPT-5

I look at Alcatraz Island of a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with hundred dollars’ fish entries on the menu. While I chat with other journalists, the CEO of Openai, Sam Altman, jumps through the door on my left. Altman looks at his naked iPhone to show us all something, and an intrusive thought slips into my mouth: “No phone case is a daring choice.”

Of course, I immediately realize that the billionaire CEO of Openai, who uses Apple’s veteran, Jony IVE, cares more about preserving the original design of the iPhone than the $ 1,000 it costs to replace one.

“Listen, we are going to send a device that will be so beautiful,” said Altman, referring to the Openai and to come from II to IVE. “If you put a business on it, I will track you personally,” he joked.

Altman had gathered about a dozen technological journalists to join him and other Openai leaders for a record dinner (and a dessert outside the record). The night raised more questions than they answered.

For example, why does Nick Turley, Vice-President of Chatgpt, exceed me a lamb skewer a week after the launch of the GPT-5? Was it to make me write beautiful things about the biggest launch of the Openai IA model to date, which was relatively disappointing given the years of media threshing?

Unlike GPT-4, which has far exceeded the rivals and the disputed expectations of what AI can do, GPT-5 works roughly compared to the models of Google and Anthropic. OPENAI even brought back GPT-4O and the chatgpt model selector, after several users expressed their concerns about the GPT-5 tone and its model model.

But throughout the night, it has become clear to me that this dinner was about the future of Openai beyond the GPT-5. Openai leaders have given the impression that the launches of the AI model are less important than they were when GPT-4 was launched in 2023. After all, Openai is now a very different company, focused on the overthrow of actors inherited in research, consumption hardware and corporate software.

Openai shared new details on these efforts.

Altman said that the new CEO of Openai Applications, Fiji Simo, would supervise several consumer applications outside of Chatgpt – those Openai have not yet been launched. Simo should start working in Openai in a few weeks, and it could end up supervising the launch of a browser powered by AI that Optai would have developed to compete with Chrome.

Altman suggested that Openai even planned to buy Chrome – probably an offer that would be taken more seriously than Perplexity’s offer – if it was available. “If Chrome will really sell, we should take a look,” he said before we look at all and ask, “Is it going to be really selling? I assumed that it was not going to happen.”

Simo could also eventually manage a social media application fueled by AI – something that OpenAi CEO said he was interested in exploring. In fact, Altman said that there was “nothing” which inspires him how AI is used on social networks today, adding that it is interested in “whether or not it is possible to create a much cooler social experience with AI”.

While Turley and Brad Lightcap, the COO chief of Openai, largely gave the floor to Altman, drinking wine alongside the other seated guests, Altman also confirmed that Openai plans to support a brain interface startup, to merge the laboratories, to compete with Elon Musk of Elon Musk. (“We have not yet made this agreement; I would like us to do it.”)

How much this company will be intertwined with the OPENAI models and devices remains to be seen. Altman only described it as a “company in which we would invest”.

For all speeches on browsers and brain chips, the elephant in the room remained the rough reception of GPT-5. Finally, the conversation returned to the model that had prompted our group dinner in the first place.

Turley and Altman say they learned a lot from the experience.

“I legitimately thought that we were messing around,” said Altman on the depreciation of the GPT-4O without saying to users. Altman said OpenAi will offer users a clear “transition period” when depreciation of AI models in the future.

Turley has also said that Optai is already deploying a new update to make GPT-5 responses “warmer”, but not sycophan, so that it will not strengthen negative behavior in users.

“GPT -5 was just very much to the point. I like it. I use the robot personality – I am German, you know, whatever,” said Turley. “But a lot of people don’t like it, and they really like the fact that Chatgpt would register with you.”

It is a delicate balance for Openai to find, especially since some users have developed dependencies on Chatgpt. Altman said Openai estimates that less than 1% of Chatgpt users have unhealthy relationships – who could still be tens of millions of people.

Turley said Openai had worked with mental health experts to develop a section to assess GPT-5’s responses, ensuring that the IA model will criticize unhealthy behavior.

That said, it seems that GPT-5 did not harm Openai affairs. In fact, Altman said that Openai’s API traffic had doubled within 48 hours of the launch of GPT-5, and that the company is actually “outside GPU” thanks to all demand.

In many ways, the contradictions of the night – the disappointing launches, the record use – reflected the strange reality of Openai at the moment.

Given the OPENAI bets on browsers, brain fleas, AI chatbots – and others that the company is around data centers, robotics and energy – Altman has clear ambitions to manage a much larger business than the cat manufacturer. The final form could look like Google’s parent alphabet, but perhaps even wider.

While the night ended, it has become clear that we were not at all gathered to think about the GPT-5. We were presented in a company wishing to overcome its famous and controversial product.

It seems likely that Optai will make it public to respond to its massive capital requests as part of this image. In preparation, I think Altman wants to refine his relationship with the media. But he also wants Openai to arrive in a place where he is no longer defined by his best model of AI.