Report: OpenAI builds its own social network
Meta Platforms and X are riding the AI wave. Then we'll just go into social networks, thinks OpenAI boss Sam Altman.
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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 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.
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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 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.
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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