OpenAI is in the early stages of building an X-like social media network, an internal prototype centered on ChatGPT’s image generation.
This much is clear, however: Adding a social media option to ChatGPT signals a bold move to take on two of OpenAI’s fiercest rivals.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI only to leave in a bitter dispute over the company’s direction, has sued the company as well as led a group in an unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion in February. That prompted Altman to respond on X, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Another formidable obstacle is Meta, which reportedly is planning a standalone social feed app for its AI assistant. When word circulated a few months ago of a potential competing app, Altman weighed in on X again: “ok fine maybe we’ll do a social app.”
Combining social media platforms with AI assistants is considered essential to training models, industry experts say. Last month, Musk said his AI startup xAI acquired X for $33 billion to make it even easier for Grok, its generative AI chatbot, to use data from X posts to train its models. The X platform could also distribute xAI products, while providing a real-time feed of users’ thoughts, screenshots and other data.
Meta already trains Llama, its large language models (LLMs), on its vast trove of user data.
OpenAI’s social media play is likely to further agitate Musk. Last week, OpenAI countersued the world’s richest man for waging a “relentless campaign” to damage it after he left OpenAI in 2019.
“Musk could not tolerate seeing such success for an enterprise he had abandoned and declared doomed,” the generative AI company said in a filing in North California’s federal court. “He made it his project to take down OpenAI, and to build a direct competitor that would seize the technological lead — not for humanity but for Elon Musk.”
