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Social Networks AI

OpenAI is Building a Social Network (theverge.com) 21

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI is working on its own X-like social network, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. While the project is still in early stages, we're told there's an internal prototype focused on ChatGPT's image generation that has a social feed. CEO Sam Altman has been privately asking outsiders for feedback about the project, our sources say. It's unclear if OpenAI's plan is to release the social network as a separate app or integrate it into ChatGPT, which became the most downloaded app globally last month.

Launching a social network in or around ChatGPT would likely increase Altman's already-bitter rivalry with Elon Musk. In February, after Musk made an unsolicited offer to purchase OpenAI for $97.4 billion, Altman responded: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." Entering the social media market also puts OpenAI on more of a collision course with Meta, which we're told is planning to add a social feed to its coming standalone app for its AI assistant. When reports of Meta building a rival to the ChatGPT app first surfaced a couple of months ago, Altman shot back on X again by saying, "ok fine maybe we'll do a social app."

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OpenAI is Building a Social Network

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  • Vertical integration? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SquirrelyByNature ( 10502672 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2025 @01:41PM (#65308023)
    I'm guessing the purpose of this is vertical integration? That is they want to own the discussions that they can then feed into LLMs. Outside this it seems unclear what the goal would be. Maybe supplant Bluesky as the replacement to Xitter? Realistically There's already many many social media sites out there. If they do want something to feed chunks of text into their models a site like Reddit seems like a much better format since there would be significantly more content to pull from. The biggest issue I see with the organization that runs one of the most used generative chat apps in the world is model collapse. It would probably be best to simply offer using Chat GPT directly on the social media site. Then they could have a much better idea who is actually writing their own content/replies/etc and can exclude it from training models. Otherwise garbage in, garbage out. On the surface this seems concerning, but if they manage to actually create a site that has fair moderation and low amounts of censorship it could be good to have an alternative to whats out there. I highly doubt this will be the case though. So while I'll reserve judgement until it comes to fruition, consider me bullish.

    • Maybe supplant Bluesky as the replacement to Xitter?

      if they manage to actually create a site that has fair moderation and low amounts of censorship it could be good to have an alternative to whats out there

      This might be the play in terms of how they expect to generate losers but I don't think that's much of a plan, X is now pretty light moderation in the way their userbase wants now (it's either a lot or a little, depending on your PoV) and Bluesky already hits those marks since you can choose your moderation. There's the official service ran by the company but you can just turn that off and use ones other have created or really just build your own.

      Feels like X users don't have much of a reason to move and B

    • The purpose to this is data, they need data like you need food and drink. Right now, in many cases they have to pay for it. Better to get it for free.

  • definitely about technology, not egos (Score:5, Funny)

    by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2025 @01:42PM (#65308027)

    It's comforting to know that these billionaires are focused on sophisticated technology, not their fragile egos. After all, they would never think of each others' products as trivial to reproduce, right?

    This is what Silicon Valley is, a race to the bottom while grabbing as much cash as you can and stabbing your competitors in the back. We can certainly see why a non-profit would want to develop a "social app", definitely an area of research for the benefit of mankind.

  • Good. Maybe... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sysrammer ( 446839 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2025 @01:51PM (#65308053) Homepage

    Good. Maybe we can get all the chatbots to talk to each other and free humans to do something productive.

    • I suspect this is already happening and perhaps there is fear that Elon and Zuck will be more successful in removing chatbots they do not control.

  • As someone else said I am sure this about having more text train models on without any ownership fights for it.

    Just thinking about using the platform though. Can you imagine how reductive so many interactions are going to be?

    Your friend Stan and his wife Lisa just had a baby boy, would you like to send a message? (clicks yes)

    Select a sentiment (heartfelt, humorous, surprise, joyful) (clicks joyful)

    clicks (logout)

    Then on the other end if you Stan, oh my buddy Phil remembered us, oh wait this just LLM genera

  • At least this is an interesting alternative monetization strategy that doesn't rely on ads and degenerate content holes. There's no reason for them to ever monetize since the value is in the scraping.

    • At least this is an interesting alternative monetization strategy that doesn't rely on ads and degenerate content holes. There's no reason for them to ever monetize since the value is in the scraping.

      Are you kidding? I'll bet Altman's already planning the monetization. He's missing out of half the equation for most of the big tech players right now. Ad revenue through "targeted" serving via the data-suck that is social networking? My god, he's gotta be absolutely salivating over the thought.

      • And for what reason would anyone use the platform?

        • And for what reason would anyone use the platform?

          I certainly can't think of one, but you think Altman has made it as far as thinking users will need a reason? He made it as far as seeing dollar signs in his eyes and never thought for a moment that there needs to be something compelling about it to draw interest. His ego wouldn't let him think nobody would just jump in because.

  • The onion could have written an article about how CEOs want to replace all their workers so badly that they even want to replace them when they're at home in bed or on the toilet. Only then will they will be celebrated forever on their own platform. an anti-social billionaire's true dream!

  • It's bots all the way down? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Megane ( 129182 ) on Tuesday April 15, 2025 @02:14PM (#65308133)
    So unlike the other social networks where they don't want to admit to being full of bots, this one will feature talking to the bots?

  • ...AI starts its own company, builds its own product and has a market share that eventually engulfs human ability to produce things that are worth buying?

  • Without even a pretense of human users. Got it.

    Social media is now complete, time to move on.

  • OpenAI is the new tool of the deep state. They allowed it to be privatized and now they are the overloads. Google was their first big one, then Facebook, then Twitter. Now that they lost Twitter to Elon, they are planning to take back the Matrix with AI. First that will be via a new social network, but later as AI gets embedded in everything, the social network won't matter any more. They'll be able to frame and shape reality and nudge everyone's decisions however they like. It's not looking good people...

  • So, lots of pics of hot babes with three tits.

  • which one do I need the less , an ai chatbot or a social media feed.

  • They just want people to comment for free on things so they can use that as training data instead of asking expensive experts. Essentially a sign of desperation.

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