Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A new report claims OpenAI is developing its own X-like social media platform.
- The early-stage prototype reportedly includes a feed built around ChatGPT’s image generation.
- A social platform could give OpenAI access to real-time user data to improve its AI models.
OpenAI is already leading the AI chatbot race, but it isn’t stopping at chatbots. According to The Verge, the company is quietly working on a new social media platform that could rival X (formerly Twitter). The project is still early, but the report cites insiders confirming that there’s already a prototype in testing that revolves around ChatGPT’s image generation tools.
It’s unclear if this will become a brand-new app or simply a feature inside the ChatGPT app. Either way, the idea seems to be giving users a space to generate and share content, possibly with a lot of help from AI, rather than just consuming it.
At its core is a social feed — something that sounds a lot like what you’d see on X or Instagram, but with AI baked right into the experience. CEO Sam Altman has reportedly been showing the idea to people outside the company and looking for feedback as OpenAI figures out what to do next.
If this does launch, it could bring OpenAI into direct competition with not just X but also Meta. The report points out that when Meta’s plans for building a new standalone AI assistant app made the news, Altman posted on X: “ok fine maybe we’ll do a social app.”
But drama aside, a social feed makes a lot of sense for OpenAI’s long-term plans. Real-time user content is one of the most valuable things tech companies use to train their AI. Musk’s chatbot, Grok, already pulls from X to generate its responses. Meta trains its AI on data from Facebook and Instagram. For OpenAI, building its own feed could be a way to stop relying on others and start owning that kind of data directly.
Beyond the data play, the platform could give people new ways to create and go viral. Sources told The Verge that part of the goal is to help users share “better content” with the help of AI. One researcher from a competing lab admitted that the way people use Grok to create attention-grabbing posts has made others in the AI space “jealous.”
That said, it’s still very possible none of this sees the light of day. OpenAI has its hands full with expanding ChatGPT, building new tools, and managing growing public scrutiny. It would also need to convince users that another social feed is worth their time, especially in a market already saturated with options.
