OpenAI is in the early stages of developing its own social media platform, according to multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans, The Verge reports. The project, which is still in prototype form, features a newsfeed-centric interface that is reportedly based on ChatGPT’s image generation capabilities.
While details are still scarce, sources say CEO Sam Altman is secretly gathering feedback on the initiative from outsiders. It’s unclear whether the company plans to launch the social platform as a standalone app or as an extension of ChatGPT, which recently became the most downloaded app in the world.
If the new platform is released, OpenAI will find itself in direct competition with Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) as well as the Meta suite of social networking apps. The rivalry between Altman and Musk has become increasingly public in recent months after Musk offered $97.4 billion to acquire OpenAI - an offer Altman quickly rejected, joking: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."
Sources suggest that the motivation for OpenAI’s social experiment is multifaceted. It will not only expand the company’s user base and engagement, but it will also give OpenAI access to a valuable trove of real-time user-generated data, a critical asset for training AI models. Both Musk and Meta already use user data from their platforms to improve their own AI systems. Musk’s chatbot Grok is powered by X content, while Meta’s Llama model is trained on data collected from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
OpenAI’s potential foray into social media also reflects a broader trend among AI companies seeking more integrated, data-rich ecosystems. "The Grok integration with X has made everyone jealous," said one employee at a rival AI lab. "Especially how people create viral tweets by getting it to say something stupid."
OpenAI's social prototype reportedly explores how AI can help users create and share better content, offering a vision in which artificial intelligence plays an active role in shaping online communication.
Despite the company's busy product roadmap, including the ongoing development of GPT-5, the existence of this social network project shows that OpenAI is interested in expanding beyond AI tools into the broader consumer technology ecosystem.