On a post on X on 14 May, OpenAI declared that its GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini AI models would be available on ChatGPT.
Software engineers utilising ChatGPT should find the GPT-4.1 models useful for writing or debugging code, according to OpenAI spokesman Shaokyi Amdo, who spoke to a media house.
OpenAI claims that GPT-4.1 is faster than its o-series of reasoning models yet performs better at coding and command following than GPT-4o. According to the firm, ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers are currently receiving GPT-4.1.
In the meantime, ChatGPT customers that pay can download GPT-4.1 mini for free from OpenAI. According to the company’s release notes for GPT-4.1, OpenAI is eliminating GPT-4.0 small from ChatGPT for all users as a result of this update.
Open AI Facing Criticism
GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini were introduced by OpenAI in April, although the models were only made available via its developer-facing API. The AI research community at the time criticised the corporation for shipping GPT-4.1 without a safety report.
According to these academics, OpenAI was lowering the bar for transparency in their AI models. At the time, OpenAI contended that even while GPT-4.1 outperformed GPT-4o in terms of speed and performance, it was not a frontier model and, as a result, did not need the same safety reporting as more advanced models.
In a post on X, Johannes Heidecke, Head of Safety Systems at OpenAI, claimed that GPT-4.1 does not outsmart O3 and does not add any new modalities or ways to engage with the model. This implies that, although significant, the safety issues in this context differ from those in frontier models, he continued.
In contrast to GPT-4o’s 128,000-token restriction, both of the new models offer a one million context token window, which is the maximum amount of text, images, or videos in a prompt that an AI model can analyse. According to OpenAI, speed enhancements also make GPT-4.1 more desirable for routine coding activities.
Open AI Clearing the Air With Live Demonstration
More details on GPT-4.1 and all of its AI models are now being made public by OpenAI. In an attempt to be more transparent, OpenAI earlier on 14 May pledged to release the findings of its internal AI model safety assessments more regularly.
OpenAI inaugurated its new Safety Evaluations Hub on Wednesday, and those findings will be available there. The launch of ChatGPT’s GPT-4.1 coincides with a surge in interest in AI coding tools.
One of the most well-known AI coding tools available, Windsurf, is apparently about to be acquired by OpenAI for $3 billion. Google modified its Gemini chatbot earlier to make it easier to connect to GitHub projects.
The makers of ChatGPT have exciting news. OpenAI’s Sora picture generator is now available for free via ChatGPT. Now, all users have to do to create photos for free is enter a prompt using words, just like they usually do.
The chatbot has been merged with this capability, which functions similarly to other AI tools: simply type to create photorealistic visuals. Currently, only users with a Plus or Pro subscription can generate videos, which is still a paid service.
The tremendous processing power and complexity required to produce high-quality video material are perhaps the reasons that paywalls exist. Subscribers are able to create videos up to 20 seconds long and with a resolution of 1080p.
By making this change, OpenAI is expanding the use of generative picture technologies, encouraging further innovation, creativity, and discovery. Powerful tools are available to users without charge, at least for photographs.
How to Access Sora?
Sora is easy to use; users may open it just within ChatGPT. To begin, they must create a username, which functions similarly to a social media account and serves as a public identification for sharing their creative photographs.
Although users can save their own work, they will not be able to download other people’s work. The UI itself is simple and well-known, and it closely resembles Meta’s recently announced AI software for iOS and Android.
These pictures are available for download; they are saved in PNG format and do not have a watermark. Nevertheless, it will continue to leave its mark on the metadata, potentially revealing that OpenAI Sora was the developer.
Users can customise their photographs or movies created with Sora by selecting from a variety of pre-set styles, a range of aspect ratios, and the amount of variations. Film Noir, Balloon World, Pixel Art, Cartoonify, and other visually distinctive options are among them; each is intended to produce a distinct style.
Sora has a social feed that shows user-generated photos and videos. Because of the interface’s resemblance to social media, browsing content, seeing what other people are creating, and getting creative inspiration is simple.
Personal Media Library
Additionally, Sora offers users a personal media library that is well-structured into categories including Uploads, Favourites, My Media, and Trash.
Users can also group their creations under unique category names for improved content management.
Additionally, Sora has an integrated social feed that allows users to view other people’s photos and videos. Social media apps served as inspiration for the platform’s design, which makes it simple to browse, find inspiration, and view what the Sora community is producing in real time.
According to various media reports, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has informed investors that it intends to reduce the revenue share it gives to Microsoft, its biggest sponsor, by 2030. The announcement of OpenAI’s intentions to lower Microsoft’s income share follows the corporation’s decision to withdraw its proposal to acquire the startup from its nonprofit division.
OpenAI’s current proposal calls for transforming its for-profit division into a distinct public benefit company (PBC), although the non-profit would still have significant ownership and influence over the business.
The new strategy aims to maintain the non-profit objective while enabling the AI startup to obtain more capital to remain competitive in the AI race. Microsoft had not approved OpenAI’s new restructuring plans, according to a media article shortly after the plan was unveiled.
The Windows manufacturer wanted to make sure the modifications would safeguard its $13.75 billion investment.
Bringing Down Revenue Sharing From 20% to 10%
According to reports, OpenAI committed to share 20% of its earnings until 2030 as part of its current deal. By the end of this decade, it now hopes to cut it in half and lower Microsoft’s revenue share to 10%. Microsoft wants access to OpenAI’s technologies after 2030.
“We continue to work closely with Microsoft and look forward to finalising the details of this recapitalisation in the near future,” an OpenAI representative told a media outlet. Notably, after OpenAI launched Project Stargate in January, a joint venture with SoftBank and Oracle of Japan to construct a $500 billion AI data centre in the US, Microsoft altered certain important aspects of its agreement with the ChatGPT provider.
Notably, after OpenAI announced Project Stargate in January—a joint venture with SoftBank of Japan and Oracle to construct a $500 billion AI data centre in the US—Microsoft modified certain important provisions of its agreement with OpenAI.
Chinese DeepSeek a Major Threat to OpenAI
Early in 2025, China’s DeepSeek stunned Western markets by creating a comparable AI model at a fraction of the price, delivering OpenAI a serious blow.
To keep its dominance in the AI market, the Sam Altman-led company has now introduced a number of AI solutions.
Even though Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro presently leads the benchmarks, ChatGPT is still one of the most widely used programs, especially in light of the recent viral fad for Ghibli and action figure-style graphics that its new image generator sparked.
Additionally, OpenAI recently pledged to increase its use of Azure services for research and training. Microsoft now has the first say in adding capacity under a new deal, but OpenAI is free to construct more infrastructure.
OpenAI has reverted to its previous course of maintaining control of its business operations, revealing that its nonprofit side will retain the authority of the company. CEO Sam Altman conveyed these changes in a pitch to employees. The apparently morale-boosting news item for OpenAI is that Altman’s side of the company is not supposed to take over control in any significant manner that would hamper the mission of realizing a safe and beneficial future with advanced AI.
The first plan had targeted shifting more power to the for-profit portion of the business. But that plan got influenced, of course, by regulatory scrutiny and public worries. So now we have a situation where OpenAI still controls things but does so under the auspices of a nonprofit organization.
A New Corporate Framework Emerges
Following the newly amended strategy, OpenAI will transmogrify its for-profit offshoot into a public benefit corporation (PBC). This structure, said to be a first among American artificial intelligence (AI) companies, is designed to balance at least two critical tasks: profit-making, always a challenge in the public-benefit space, especially when you’re following the model of Google, a company that started with a public-mission project and ended up with a very lucrative search engine; and the PBC’s artificial intelligence is not set to take over the world.
A significant modification is removing profit caps for certain investors, allowing for much more flexible financing. Shareholders will now get stock, too, which makes their interests much more aligned with the long-term goals of the company. Altman made the point that these changes make the organization clearer and more fit for the scale of its operations. That is, a PBC can much more readily engage in mergers and acquisitions that corporations typically do.
The nonprofit will keep choosing the members of the board for the new public benefit corporation. That means real oversight isn’t going anywhere. How much the nonprofit owns of the new structure isn’t clear. Reports suggest, however, that the initial board much resembles the current nonprofit leadership.
Balancing Growth with Mission
OpenAI began in 2015 as a research lab. Its founders, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others, set up the organization as a nonprofit, with the idea that it would develop AI in a safe and ethical manner. Today, OpenAI has a market valuation of around INR 25 lakh crore and serves approximately 400 million users each week.
OpenAI has chosen to maintain nonprofit control of its for-profit arm while moving that operation into a public benefit corporation. The company hopes that this combination will allow it to fulfill the dual aims of pushing its technology forward and staying true to its founding principles.
On March 31, OpenAI announced that it has raised $40 billion in a fresh round of fundraising at a valuation of $300 billion. The San Francisco-based company stated in a post on its website that the funding “enables us to push the frontiers of AI research even further”. This new funding round is a part of a relationship with the Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group. According to the company, SoftBank’s backing will enable the company to keep developing AI systems that advance scientific research, facilitate individualised learning, foster human creativity, and open the door to artificial general intelligence (AGI) that will benefit all people. AGI is a computational platform that possesses human-level intelligence.
SoftBank’s Vision of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)
According to a press release from SoftBank, OpenAI is the partner that is most likely to help the company achieve its objective. The core objective of SoftBank is to create Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) that is superior to human intelligence. In its justification for the most recent investment in the business, SoftBank said that massive processing capacity is necessary to achieve AGI and ASI. So to achieve this goal, the development of OpenAI’s AI models is crucial. SoftBank plans to invest $10 billion in OpenAI initially, with an additional $30 billion due by the end of this year. The 500 million users of ChatGPT each week will receive increasingly potent capabilities as OpenAI expands its infrastructure.
OpenAI Working on Building More Open Generative AI Model
The investment announcement coincided with OpenAI’s announcement that it was developing a more open generative AI model. It is doing so in response to increased competition from Chinese rival DeepSeek and Meta in the open-source field. OpenAI, which has always defended closed, proprietary models that prevent developers from modifying the core technology to make AI more suited to their aims, would change course. OpenAI and closed model supporters like Google have argued that open models are riskier and more vulnerable to malevolent actors and non-US governments. In its conflicts with previous investor and world’s richest man Elon Musk, OpenAI’s adoption of closed models has also been a point of controversy. Musk has urged OpenAI to uphold the company’s name and “return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.”
Many large firms and governments are steering away from building AI goods or services on models they don’t control, especially when data security is concerned, putting pressure on OpenAI. Meta’s family of Llama models and DeepSeek’s models address these concerns by letting companies download their models and have more control over modifying the technology and data. In January, DeepSeek’s lower-cost R1 model shook artificial intelligence, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Llama’s one billion downloads this month.
The field of entrepreneurship is more of a roller coaster ride with various personalities and stories. These stories of perseverance and struggle create the basis of entrepreneurship and create unique experiences. And the same is true of the story of Samuel H. Sam Altman.
So, who is Sam Altman? He is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. His success can be attributed to his previous role as the former President of Y Combinator and the current CEO of OpenAI. This article will provide information about Sam Altman’s net worth and his path to success.
This StartupTalky article explores Sam Altman’s success story, including his early life, history, childhood, personal life, education, work history, awards, net worth, and more.
Sam Altman Biography
Name
Samuel H. Altman
Born
April 22, 1985
Birthplace
Chicago, Illinois, US
Citizenship
American
Education Qualification
John Burroughs School, Stanford University (dropped out), University of Waterloo
Title
CEO of OpenAI, Chairman of Oklo Inc., Chairman of Helion Energy
Sam Altman is a highly successful American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. His rise to fame can be attributed to his impressive career and impact in the technology industry. Born in April 1985 in Chicago, Illinois, Sam grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he received a personal computer at the age of 8. This sparked his interest in programming and set him on a path towards his future success. Sam Altman has been a vegetarian since childhood.
Sam Altman’s education started at John Burroughs School and completed his high school studies there. He was later admitted to Stanford University but had to drop out in 2005. Despite this setback, Sam continued to pursue his passion for technology and entrepreneurship. In 2017, the University of Waterloo awarded Sam Altman an honorary degree, recognizing his notable achievements in the industry.
Sam Altman’s brother, Jack Altman, is a well-known figure in the technology industry as well. Jack is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lattice, a successful technological employee engagement software. Sam, on the other hand, is best known for his startup, OpenAI, which has made a significant impact in the field of artificial intelligence.
As of 2023, Sam Altman’s net worth is between $500 million and $700 million, reflecting his successful career and impact in the technology industry. He continues to be a leading figure in the industry and is widely recognized for his innovative ideas and impactful contributions to the field of artificial intelligence and technology.
At the age of 19, Sam began his entrepreneurial journey with his first company, Loopt. It was a location-based social networking mobile app launched during a time when Facebook and Twitter were rising to dominance. Despite the competition, Loopt was successful in securing over $30 million in venture capital. However, the company shut down in 2012 due to a lack of traction and was later acquired byGreen Dot Corporation for $43.4 million.
Hydrazine Capital
Established in 2012 by the Altman brothers, Sam and Jack, Hydrazine Capital is an early-stage venture investment firm that secured $21 million for its inaugural fund. Notably, a substantial portion of the fund originated from the proceeds of Altman’s sale of Loopt and contributions from prominent investor Peter Thiel. By 2016, Hydrazine Capital’s valuation had reportedly surged tenfold since its inception. The firm has strategically invested in promising ventures, including ValueBase, Zenefits, BuildZoom, Verbling, and Soylent.
Working in Y Combinator
While working on Loopt, Sam began part-time work at Y Combinator in 2011. His contributions caught the eye of co-founder Paul Graham, who named Sam as the president of Y Combinator.
As president, Sam invested in his first batch of startups, including Loopt, Airbnb, Dropbox, Zenefits, and Stripe. He also aimed to expand Y Combinator’s reach, with a goal of funding 1,000 new companies per year and the creation of YC Group as an umbrella organization for Y Combinator’s various units. In 2005, Sam founded YC Community, a $700 million growth-stage equity fund for YC companies, and Y Combinator Research, a non-profit research lab to which he donated $10 million.
Reddit
In November 2014, Sam Altman assumed the role of interim CEO at Reddit for eight days, bridging the gap between the tenures of Yishan Wong and Ellen Pao. Reddit, a widely popular online platform, serves as a diverse community where users can share content, engage in discussions, and participate in various forums known as subreddits. Altman’s interim leadership at Reddit marked a transitional phase during a pivotal moment in the company’s organizational structure.
Worldcoin
In 2019, Sam Altman co-founded Tools For Humanity, a forward-thinking company spearheading the development of Worldcoin—an innovative global iris-based biometric system integrated with cryptocurrency. This pioneering project is designed to revolutionize online authentication by offering a dependable solution to combat the prevalence of bots and artificial intelligence-driven fake virtual identities. Setting itself apart, Worldcoin employs a distinctive cryptocurrency distribution mechanism inspired by Universal Basic Income (UBI) to incentivize user participation. To join the network, individuals undergo iris scanning using Worldcoin’s unique orb-shaped iris scanner, aligning biometrics with cryptocurrency in a novel way. Through this groundbreaking approach, Tools For Humanity aims to reshape the landscape of online identity verification and foster widespread adoption of Worldcoin.
AltC
AltC Acquisition Corp., established by Sam Altman and Michael Klein under Klein’s Churchill Capital franchise in July 2021, saw Altman assuming the CEO role. The company successfully merged with nuclear energy firm Oklo in July 2023.
It is not a surprise that Sam Altman is known for being a successful investor. He has invested in many companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Asana, Pinterest, Teespring, Zenefits, FarmLogs, Shoptiques, and many more. His efforts have helped many companies to make a big mark in the startup ecosystem.
He was the CEO of Reddit for around eight days. Being an investor, he developed a way for the community to own a part of the company. This fuelled the popularity of the community and the company on the bigger stage. He was the one who announced the return of Steve Huffman as the CEO of Reddit on July 10, 2015. In Sam Altman’s book How to Be Successful, you can see how Sam was instrumental in the success of Reddit as a company.
Sam Altman – Association with Nuclear Energy
As an entrepreneur, Sam Altman is recognized for his association with Helion and Oklo. He believes that nuclear energy is a crucial area of technological advancement and has played a role in its development for several companies. Sam’s success has no limits, as his association with the nuclear energy sector has helped boost the power of nations.
Sam Altman – Association with OpenAI
Established in December 2015, OpenAI was co-founded by a notable group of individuals, including Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Pamela Vagata, Ilya Sutskever, Trevor Blackwell, Vicki Cheung, Andrej Karpathy, Durk Kingma, John Schulman, and Wojciech Zaremba. Originally conceived as a nonprofit entity, OpenAI aimed to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research for the collective benefit of humanity. The company gained prominence for its creation of ChatGPT, a sophisticated conversational language model.
Notably, OpenAI commenced its journey with a significant financial foundation, receiving a generous donation of $1 billion. This substantial contribution came from key figures such as Altman and Musk, as well as Greg Brockman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, and Peter Thiel, and institutional support from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Infosys, and YC Research. This diverse and substantial backing underscored OpenAI’s commitment to pursuing AI advancements without being constrained by the typical need for financial returns, aligning with its broader mission to impact humanity positively through digital intelligence research. He details his involvement in the success of OpenAI in his book “How to be Successful.”
Altman was removed as CEO by the board in November 2023 but was reinstated shortly after.
The company released a statement saying, “Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities, The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
This is what he wrote on his X account:
i loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people.
Sam Altman, a tech entrepreneur, has been involved in various political activities. In 2018, he considered running for California governor but opted not to. He later launched “the United Slate” to address U.S. housing and healthcare issues. Altman supported Andrew Yang in the 2020 Democratic presidential race and donated $250,000 to Joe Biden’s super PAC. He advocates for land value taxation and universal basic income (UBI), even proposing a “universal basic compute” idea in 2024. Altman also supported Dean Phillips in his 2024 Democratic presidential challenge. He was appointed to San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie’s transition team and is set to host a fundraiser for Senator Mark Warner in 2025.
How to be Successful? – Tips from Sam Altman
Sam has been associated with many successful startups, and his book gives you many tips from his experience. Here are some tips and strategies that can be used when faced with the question, ‘What product should you build? And How to be successful?’
Product building: According to Sam Altman, one should build a product that is so good that people share the story about it with their friends. If you can build a product that is so good that people spontaneously tell their friends about it, then 80% of the job is done, says Sam.
Successful companies and popularity: Sam Altman says that the most successful companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter are popular because of their popularity. The popularity came when users described the services offered by the companies to their friends.
Quality of the product: Sam Altman’s startup playbook talks about the importance of quality in determining the future of the company. The product should be easy to understand and use.
Market: Sam Altman’s blog also highlights the importance of the market for a successful entrepreneur. The entrepreneur should aim for a market that is undergoing exponential growth.
Trends: In Sam Altman’s book “How to be Successful,” he talks about how trends are also an important factor that can determine the popularity and future of a company. One should ensure that the trend the company follows in terms of choosing a platform is not fake.
Sam Altman – Awards and Recognitions
Early Accolade (2008): BusinessWeek recognized Sam Altman as one of the “Best Young Entrepreneurs in Technology.”
Investment Influence (2015): Forbes named Altman the top investor under 30, highlighting his impact in the investment realm.
LGBTQ Advocacy (2017): GLAAD honored Altman with the Ric Weiland Award for his contributions to LGBTQ acceptance in the tech industry.
TIME100 Recognition (April 2023): Altman earned a spot on the prestigious TIME100 list in April 2023.
TIME Cover Feature (June 2023): Altman was featured on the cover of Time in June 2023, celebrating OpenAI’s inclusion in the TIME100 Most Influential Companies list.
AI Influence (September 2023): Altman was honored on the TIME100 AI list in September 2023, acknowledging his influence in artificial intelligence.
Sam Altman – Controversy
Sam Altman’s resignation: In November 2023, the company’s board fired Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI. The board cited a lack of candor in Altman’s communications with them as the reason for his dismissal. This surprised many, as Altman was a co-founder of OpenAI and had been a vocal leader in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
Appointment of Mira Murati: In the wake of Altman’s dismissal, the board appointed Mira Murati as interim CEO of OpenAI on the 17th of November. Murati is a researcher and entrepreneur with a background in AI and robotics, and she was the CTO of OpenAI. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the World Economic Forum.
Emmett Shear Joins the Board: On the 19th of November, the board extended Emmett Shear’s role as interim chief, the former CEO of Twitch. Despite concerns about AI, he accepted. Altman’s return followed rumors, possibly fueled by investor pressure, with Microsoft, a major shareholder, potentially influencing the decision.
Altman’s Microsoft Move: On November 21, an internal memo revealed OpenAI’s endeavors to address internal conflicts, exploring the possibility of Sam Altman returning. Unexpectedly, Microsoft’s CEO announced that Altman and others dismissed from OpenAI would be welcomed at Microsoft. The emphasis was on fostering independent identities and cultures for innovators within the company, signaling a notable shift in the tech landscape.
Altman’s Return to OpenAI: Almost 700 out of 770 OpenAI staff considered resigning due to leadership concerns, seeking the board’s resignation. Despite tempting offers, the majority remained loyal. OpenAI approached Anthropic’s CEO for a replacement and merger, but the offer was rejected. On November 22, Altman resumed the CEO role, merely four days after his dismissal by the board, citing a “loss of confidence” in his leadership.
Sam Altman’s entrepreneurial journey has been nothing short of inspiring. His diverse involvement in the startup world has solidified his position as a leading figure in the industry. With a commendable drive to make a positive impact on society, Altman is poised to go down in history as one of the most memorable entrepreneurs of all time. For those looking to follow in his footsteps, Sam has established YC Group, a platform dedicated to supporting and guiding the growth of budding entrepreneurs and their businesses.
FAQs
Who is Sam Altman?
Sam Altman is regarded as one of the most influential entrepreneurs of all time. He is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is also the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator.
Who is the CEO of OpenAI?
Sam Altman is the CEO of Open AI.
Where was Sam Altman born?
Sam Altman was born in April 1985 in Chicago, Illinois.
What did Sam Altman do?
He is the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator.
Who is Sam Altman wife?
Sam Altman has been openly gay since his youth.
What is Sam Altman education?
Sam Altman attended Stanford University but dropped out in 2005 to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. He initially studied computer science but left to co-found Loopt, a location-based social networking company, which was later acquired by Green Dot Corporation.
What is Sam Altman net worth?
Sam Altman’s net worth is 1.5 billion USD as of 2025.
What is Sam Altman full name?
Samuel H. Sam Altman is the full name of Sam Altman.
What is Sam Altman age?
Sam Altman was born on April 22, 1985. He is 40 years old.
OpenAI is back at it, and this time, it’s not about making AI smarter. Instead, it is about making your wallet significantly lighter. The company is gearing up to launch AI agents with subscription plans ranging from $2,000 to $20,000 a month. Yes, you read that right. While OpenAI envisions these agents taking over complex tasks like booking tickets, ordering groceries, and, presumably, justifying their own absurd price tags, the bigger question is: Who’s actually paying for this?
AI Agents or AI Elitism?
The pricing breakdown is as dystopian as it is hilarious. $2,000 gets you an “entry-level” agent for knowledge workers (because apparently, having knowledge isn’t enough anymore). $10,000 gets software devs an AI assistant because why hire juniors when you can burn ten grand a month? And at $20,000, you get a PhD-level research assistant, or we should essentially say: a digital Einstein with a subscription plan. The numbers sound straight out of an OpenAI-generated hallucination, yet Sam Altman expects these agents to rake in 25% of OpenAI’s revenue.
Scam Altman or Smart Altman?
The “Scam Altman” meme practically writes itself, but let’s be fair, he’s onto something. AI agents are the future. These models will soon replace mundane human tasks, optimise workflows, and potentially render certain jobs obsolete. AI is getting frighteningly capable, and OpenAI knows it. But the real kicker? OpenAI, which once preached about making AI “accessible,” is now locking its most powerful tools behind a paywall so steep that even Fortune 500 companies might hesitate.
So, is this the dawn of autonomous AI productivity or just the latest chapter in AI’s ever-growing “pay-to-play” economy? Either way, if you’re not loaded, you’ll have to settle for ChatGPT and manually order your groceries like we do, for now!
Mira Murati has started her own artificial intelligence (AI) company, “Thinking Machines Lab,” over five months after leaving her position as CTO of OpenAI. The company’s objective, according to Murati, who announced the launch on X, is straightforward: develop AI by making it widely applicable and intelligible through sound foundations, open science, and real-world applications. The goal of the AI research and product startup is to close the current gaps in AI and increase the systems’ general capability, understandability, and customisability.
Although AI skills have significantly improved, there are still significant gaps, according to the company’s blog post. The fast-developing capabilities of frontier AI systems are not well understood by the scientific community. The best research labs hold the majority of the knowledge on how these systems are educated, which restricts both the public conversation about AI and people’s capacity to use it efficiently. Furthermore, despite their potential, people still find it challenging to adapt these systems to their own needs and values.
What Thinking Machine Lab will Offer?
Rather than concentrating on creating completely autonomous AI systems, Thinking Machines Lab will create customised AI systems with sophisticated multimodal capabilities. According to the AI firm, it intends to regularly release technical papers, blog entries, and code that emphasise cross-industry human-AI collaboration. Many of the roughly 30 workers at Thinking Machines Lab have prior experience with firms like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Character AI, and Mistral AI. After working with OpenAI for six years, Murati departed the company in September of last year. She stated that she was taking a break to “do her own exploration” at the time of her departure. She is Thinking Machines Lab’s CEO.
Barret Zoph, the CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, left OpenAI in September of last year. The company’s principal scientist is John Schulman, who departed OpenAI for rival company Anthropic in August of last year. According to reports, Murati is negotiating to raise $100 million for her new AI business from unidentified VC firms. The corporation did neither confirm nor deny if it had raised money in its blog post.
Growing Network of AI Startup
The most recent addition to the already saturated AI startup market is Thinking Machines Lab. In the global competition to develop generative AI models, it will face off against industry titans including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, and Microsoft. India’s increasing need for AI hardware and software has opened the door for a new wave of entrepreneurs that prioritise using GenAI technology in consumer and corporate applications over infrastructure development. India is home to more than 200 GenAI businesses, which have earned a total of $1.2 billion in funding since 2020, according to the report “The Rise of India’s GenAI Brigade.”
According to a media outlet, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has started the process of establishing data centre operations in India. Data from users in India and a few of its smaller bordering nations is probably stored at the hub. According to sources cited in the story, OpenAI is now speaking with a few data centre operators, although these are only the very beginning stages of their strategy.
They could need some time to go over specifics like the venue and capacity. According to the report, the AI behemoth is eager to finish the procedure by 2025 but has not established a deadline. The majority of OpenAI’s servers are housed in data centres in the US state of Texas. The creator of the well-known chatbot serves consumers worldwide, including those in India, by utilising Microsoft’s Azure Cloud services.
India Second Biggest Market for OpenAI
CEO Sam Altman stated during his recent trip to India that the country is OpenAI’s second-largest market, with a threefold increase in users in the last 12 months. “I observe that folks in India are utilising AI in various aspects of the stack, including chips, models, and other amazing applications. Therefore, I believe that India ought to take the lead. During a fireside talk with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on February 5, Altman stated, “I believe India should be among the leaders of the AI revolution.”
“That’s a reference to a comment I made here a few years ago about cost,” Altman said, attempting to elucidate a statement that caused controversy on his previous visit to India. That might have been taken out of context. At that particular moment, there was a scaling issue, and I still believe it is costly to remain on the cutting edge of pre-trained models,” he said.
He was questioned if a small team could produce a substantial AI model on a $10 million budget while he was in India in 2023. “It’s totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models,” he’d stated. It was long before the low-cost AI helper from Chinese company DeepSeek rocked the IT industry.
Tug of War Between Open AI and Chinese DeepSeek
Sam Altman’s tour takes place at a time when OpenAI is facing significant challenges due to the emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI search engine platform that claims to have developed AI models that can compete with the best models from US firms like OpenAI, Meta, and Google at a far lower cost. India has one of the biggest populations and developer pools in the world.
OpenAI will be able to increase its earnings by establishing a physical base in the nation. The trip coincides with a wave of copyright infringement cases against the AI giant for allegedly exploiting local digital platforms’ and book publishers’ content to train its chatbot ChatGPT without permission.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has apparently started talking about data localisations in an effort to ward off any additional regulatory obstacles. The corporation wants to store its Indian consumers’ data in the nation itself as part of this. Since India is one of the company’s largest developer ecosystems, OpenAI is naturally seeking methods to increase its presence there.
In preparation for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023, it has already started talking about ways to localise the data of its Indian citizens in domestic data centres. A person with knowledge of the development told Livemint that the drive to localise data operations is probably going to start soon.
Major Indian media organisations have attempted to join a copyright case against OpenAI, the firm behind the well-known AI chatbot ChatGPT, but OpenAI is retaliating. A media report claims that the company has contended in a recent court filing that it is not required to sign into licensing agreements with Indian media companies and does not utilise their content to educate ChatGPT. Media companies owned by prominent figures like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are among the Indian media groups that have alleged OpenAI for using their content without any license or agreement.
In a 31-page court filing, OpenAI denied allegations that it uses content from its website to train its artificial intelligence model. The filed documents are a reaction to a lawsuit filed by a well-known Indian news organisation. The latter claims that OpenAI has copied its news articles without permission.
Indian Media Joining Forces to Fight with AI Giant
The case was filed by ANI in November 2023. A group of Indian publications has joined the action, including the Digital News Publications Association (DNPA), which represents Ambani’s Network1, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and NDTV (owned by Adani). These media outlets have accused OpenAI of using their websites to train ChatGPT by unauthorizedly scraping content.
The lawsuit filed by ANI is demanding damages of 20 million rupees ($230,000), according to a report from an international media outlet. This is the first legal obstacle that OpenAI has faced in the Indian market, which is also the company’s second-largest market. The case may have a significant impact on how AI businesses manage Indian internet content. In its legal response, OpenAI has insisted that it does not rely on information from the Indian media groups involved in this lawsuit and that it trains its AI models using publicly available data.
Open AI Navigating to Troubled Waters
Since November 2022, when OpenAI began making ChatGPT accessible to the public, the company has been the subject of allegations from a variety of sources that the AI chatbot was trained using copyrighted content. Eight American newspapers, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, and others, are suing Microsoft and OpenAI, claiming that ChatGPT trained the chatbot on copyrighted news stories without authorisation or payment.
Five of Canada’s most well-known news organisations also brought a similar copyright infringement action against OpenAI, according to a media report. OpenAI OpenAI has defended its conduct by asserting that it is “impossible” to develop practical AI models like ChatGPT without using copyrighted material and that its usage of copyrighted materials is in accordance with “fair use” rules. Please check Indiatimes News for other global news and current events.
