Report: OpenAI builds its own social network
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Meta Platforms and X are riding the AI wave. Then we'll just go into social networks, thinks OpenAI boss Sam Altman.
OpenAI is working on a new social network. This was reported by The Verge, citing several unnamed insiders. Company boss Sam Altman has already shown a prototype to selected outsiders and asked them for feedback. The focus is on the image generation function of the OpenAI model ChatGPT.
The Verge report [1] does not reveal a name for the project. OpenAI itself has so far remained silent. The economic motivation could be that OpenAI's AI models would benefit from users donating new and, above all, up-to-date content to the artificial intelligence free of charge. Elon Musk is already pursuing this path with xAI, the company that owns the microblogging service X and develops the Grok language model.
When billionaires compete
The rivalry between Altman and Musk cannot be overlooked. The two have been at loggerheads for a long time. Musk is one of the founders of OpenAI, but withdrew from the company in 2018 following a dispute over its direction and management structures. Although he is not a shareholder, Musk is trying to prevent OpenAI from converting the non-profit company into a for-profit company by filing a lawsuit in the US Federal District Court for Northern California (Musk v Altman, Case No. 4:24-cv-04722). Musk argues that his original donation was for a charitable project that Altman is now misusing for personal gain. The court did not grant Musk's emergency appeal against OpenAI [2].
In retrospect, some of Altman's statements from February can be interpreted as a hint of his own social network. At that time, Musk made an unsolicited takeover offer for OpenAI [3] in the amount of 94.7 billion US dollars. Altman declined and responded by posting a counter-offer online: OpenAI would buy X for 9.47 billion dollars, a tenth of Musk's bid and far below the price at which Musk bought X's predecessor, Twitter [4].
Also in February, word got out that Meta Platforms wanted to add a social feed, a key function of a social network, to its AI app, which was currently being developed. “ok fine maybe we'll do a social app”, Altman responded to this customer.
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This article was originally published in German [10]. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
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[1] https://www.theverge.com/openai/648130/openai-social-network-x-competitor
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