Sam Altman says GPT‑5 rollout was botched — and drops a wild Chrome buyout idea

Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, along with other company executives, met with multiple reporters over dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco to discuss the multibillion-dollar AI firm's future plans (via The Verge). As you might have guessed, the conversation was centered on GPT-5's recent rollout, but a lot more was discussed as well.

Before GPT-5's launch, there had been a lot of anticipation and hype about the performance boost the model would have on ChatGPT. However, the launch seemingly fell short of the high expectations people had. Multiple users complained that OpenAI "ruined" ChatGPT's user experience, which was reportedly rife with glitches and bugs.

Even Microsoft's co-founder, Bill Gates, predicted that OpenAI's GPT technology had plateaued over 2 years ago, further claiming that GPT-5 won't be any better compared to GPT-4. And if the past weeks are anything to go by, the philanthropic billionaire could be strangely accurate.

Some users indicated that the GPT-5 model had seemingly turned ChatGPT into a "corporate zombie" that forgot it was your best friend two days ago. Users claimed that ChatGPT has lost its warmth appeal while blatantly expressing their preference to GPT-4o over GPT-5.

Sam Altman attributed these complaints to users being overly dependent on ChatGPT for emotional support because they had never had anybody do that for them before. The executive indicated that the whole situation is heartbreaking.

OpenAI decided to bring back GPT-4o following backlash from users over deprecating GPT-5's predecessors, but it's now buried behind the company's $20/month ChatGPT Plus paywall.

The reintroduction of GPT-4o behind a $20/month paywall could be a cheeky way for OpenAI to raise more revenue through its paid subscription plans. As you may know, the AI firm has been facing lots of challenges with multiple reports suggesting that it could be on the verge of bankruptcy.

The ChatGPT maker is also under immense pressure from investors to evolve into a for-profit venture or risk losing funding coupled with outsider interference and hostile takeovers.

Sam Altman says "way under 1 percent" of people are having unhealthy relationships with ChatGPT

It seems GPT-5 is a power-hungry model with a recent report suggesting that it consumes enough electricity to power 1.5 million US households daily. The model also requires a ridiculous amount of computing power. "We’re out of GPUs," indicated Sam Altman.

However, OpenAI isn't throwing in the towel. Instead, it is doubling down on its efforts with Sam Altman revealing that the AI firm is set to "spend trillions of dollars on data center construction in the not very distant future."

While concerning, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that "way under 1 percent" of ChatGPT users have unhealthy relationships with the tool. However, the issue is on the team's radar, and they are having regular meetings to find a way to address the issue.

According to the executive:

“There are the people who actually felt like they had a relationship with ChatGPT, and those people we’ve been aware of and thinking about. And then there are hundreds of millions of other people who don’t have a parasocial relationship with ChatGPT, but did get very used to the fact that it responded to them in a certain way, and would validate certain things, and would be supportive in certain ways.”

The executive also used the chance to take a jab at Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot, potentially fueling their never-ending feud:

“You will definitely see some companies go make Japanese anime sex bots because they think that they’ve identified something here that works. You will not see us do that. We will continue to work hard at making a useful app, and we will try to let users use it the way they want, but not so much that people who have really fragile mental states get exploited accidentally.”

OpenAI x Jony Ive are going to ship "a beautiful device"

It's no secret that former Apple chief designer Jony Ive recently joined OpenAI to bolster advances in the company's hardware division. While developments on this front have remained slim at best, it could lead to the biggest tech disruption since the iPhone launched in 2007.

According to Sam Altman:

“Listen, we’re going to ship a device that is going to be so beautiful. If you put a case over it, I will personally hunt you down. It’s going to take us a while, but I think you will think it is very worth the wait. I think it is incredible. You don’t get a new computing paradigm very often. There have been like only two in the last 50 years. So just let yourself be happy and surprised. It really is worth the wait.”

OpenAI potentially buying Google Chrome and developing an AI-powered social media app

OpenAI recently hired Fidji Simo to oversee and run its applications division. But perhaps more interestingly, the executive revealed that there could be more apps on the way beyond ChatGPT while also disclosing his dream to develop an AI-powered social media platform that could potentially rival Instagram and Facebook.

The executive also expressed interest in potentially buying Google Chrome. “If Chrome is really going to sell, we should take a look at it,” added Altman. Last year, the software giant was deemed an illegal monopoly in the search business, leaving competitors with a competitive disadvantage in the landscape.

OpenAI prefers Google search over Bing due to "significant quality issues"

More recently, Google was also in trial, where the court deemed it as a monopoly in the open-web digital ad markets. This prompted the Justice Department to ask the judge to force Google to sell its Chrome browser to remedy the situation. The court s expected to deliver its ruling on the matter by the end of this month.

If the court decides to coerce Google to sell Chrome over antitrust-related issues, it could be a major blow to the company's business, which serves as an important distribution tool in its search business.

“I don’t use Google anymore," added Sam Altman. "I legitimately cannot tell you the last time I did a Google search.”

This isn't the first time OpenAI has expressed interest in buying Google Chrome. While testifying in the US v. Google antitrust case in April, ChatGPT lead Nick Turley, revealed that the company had reached out to Google for a potential partnership that would allow ChatGPT to use Google search last year.

Interestingly, OpenAI could easily reach out to Microsoft for Bing's search services since they already have a multibillion-dollar partnership. However, the executive revealed that OpenAI has had "significant quality issues" with the company.