OpenAI is developing social media platform to rival Musk's X
What's the story
OpenAI, the AI research organization behind ChatGPT, is said to be working on its own social media platform.
Sources familiar with the project told The Verge that CEO Sam Altman has been seeking feedback from external experts on the initiative.
The concept is still in its infancy, but an internal prototype centered around ChatGPT's image generation has already been developed.
It's unclear if the new venture will be launched as a standalone app or integrated into ChatGPT itself.
Rivalry escalation
Altman's social media venture could intensify rivalry with Musk
If OpenAI goes ahead with its social media project in or around ChatGPT, it could intensify the Altman-Elon Musk rivalry.
In February, after Musk made an unsolicited $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI, Altman jokingly countered with an offer to buy Twitter for $9.74 billion instead.
The move into social media could also make OpenAI a competitor to Meta Platforms, which is facing a difficult antitrust lawsuit that could force the company to divest Instagram and WhatsApp.
Data advantage
OpenAI's social app may provide unique data for AI training
The social app's development could give OpenAI unique, real-time data that X and Meta are already using to train their AI models.
Musk's Grok integrates X's content in its results, while Meta leverages its vast user data to train Llama.
An insider from another leading AI lab spoke about the potential advantages of such an app: "The Grok integration with X has made everyone jealous. Especially how people create viral tweets by getting it to say something stupid."