OpenAI names new nonprofit ‘advisors’
Image: The Verge
OpenAI has revealed the “advisors” for its new nonprofit commission: Dolores Huerta, Monica Lozano, Dr. Robert K. Ross, and Jack Oliver. The company says the four advisors will help “inform OpenAI’s philanthropic efforts,” according to an announcement on Tuesday.
Huerta was a prominent labor activist during the 20th century, while Lozano was the president and CEO of the College Futures Foundation and is a member of Apple’s board of directors. Ross previously served as president and CEO of the health and wellness foundation The California Endowment, and OpenAI says Oliver is a “leader in government, technology, business and advocacy.”
OpenAI is building a social network
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. An OpenAI spokesperson didn’t respond in time for publication.
OpenAI debuts its GPT-4.1 flagship AI model
OpenAI has introduced GPT-4.1, a successor to the GPT-4o multimodal AI model launched by the company last year. During a livestream on Monday, OpenAI said GPT-4.1 has an even larger context window and is better than GPT-4o in “just about every dimension,” with big improvements to coding and instruction following.
GPT-4.1 is now available to developers, along with two smaller model versions. That includes GPT-4.1 Mini, which, like its predecessor, is more affordable for developers to tinker with, and GPT-4.1 Nano, an even more lightweight model that OpenAI says is its “smallest, fastest, and cheapest” one yet.
OpenAI will reveal GPT-4.1 this afternoon.
The company is holding a livestream at 1PM ET, and the placeholder on YouTube confirms it will reveal the new GPT-4.1 model. Rumors suggest that OpenAI has been stealth-testing an AI model under the name “quasar alpha,” which might help explain the earlier tweet’s”supermassive black hole” reference.
Update: Added livestream details.
OpenAI countersues Elon Musk to stop his attacks and ‘fake takeover bid’
Image: The Verge
OpenAI filed a countersuit against Elon Musk on Wednesday, saying on X that “Elon’s nonstop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit.”
In the lawsuit, OpenAI’s lawyers argue that “Musk’s continued attacks on OpenAI, culminating most recently in the fake takeover bid designed to disrupt OpenAI’s future, must cease. Musk should be enjoined from further unlawful and unfair action, and held responsible for the damage he has already caused.”
A new petition against OpenAI has been filed to the California AG.
A coalition of nonprofit, labor, and philanthropic leaders have filed a petition urging California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate OpenAI’s transformation from a mission-driven nonprofit to a multibillion-dollar AI juggernaut. The 29-page petition accuses the company of abandoning its charitable obligations and allowing private interests — particularly Microsoft — to profit from what was initially promised to be a public good.
“[OpenAI’s] current attempt to alter its corporate structure reveals its new goal: providing AI’s benefits – the potential for untold profits and control over what may become powerful world-altering technologies – to a handful of corporate investors and high-level employees.”
Former OpenAI CRO joins competitor.
Bob McGrew first joined OpenAI in 2017, shortly after it had been founded, eventually rising through the ranks to become the company’s chief research officer. Last November, he suddenly departed the startup along with its CTO, Mira Murati. Now, it looks like McGrew has joined Murati at her new AI competitor, Thinking Machine Labs.
OpenAI and Anthropic are fighting over college students with free AI
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Two leading AI labs, OpenAI and Anthropic, just announced major initiatives in higher education. It’s the constant one-upping we’ve all become familiar with: this week, Anthropic dropped their announcement at 8 AM Wednesday, while OpenAI followed with nearly identical news at 8 AM Thursday.
For Anthropic, this week’s announcement was its first major academic push. It launched Claude for Education, a university-focused version of its chatbot. The company also announced partnerships with Northeastern University, London School of Economics (LSE), and Champlain College, along with with Internet2, which builds university tech infrastructure, and Instructure (maker of Canvas) to increase “equitable access to tools that support universities as they integrate AI.”
OpenAI just raised another $40 billion round led by SoftBank
Image: The Verge
OpenAI has raised $40 billion in a new investment round led by SoftBank, vaulting the company to a $300 billion valuation. It’s the largest funding round for a private tech company in history, according to CNBC.
OpenAI is set to receive $10 billion up front (SoftBank will invest $7.5 billion along with $2.5 billion “from an investor syndicate,“ according to Bloomberg). The remaining $30 billion is slated to arrive by year’s end, CNBC reported — but only if it officially converts into a for-profit company by then. If not, it reportedly stands to lose a quarter of the deal.
ChatGPT’s Ghibli filter is political now, but it always was
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
When I saw my colleague Kylie Robison’s story about OpenAI’s new image generator on Tuesday, I thought this week might be fun. Generative AI images raise all kinds of ethical issues, but I find them wildly entertaining, and I spent large chunks of that day watching other Verge staff test ChatGPT in ways that covered the entire spectrum, from cute to cursed.
But on Thursday afternoon, the White House decided to spoil it. Its X account posted a photograph of a crying detainee that it bragged was an arrested fentanyl trafficker and undocumented immigrant. Then it added an almost certainly AI-generated cartoon of an officer handcuffing the sobbing woman — not attributed to any particular tool, but in the unmistakable style of ChatGPT’s super-popular Studio Ghibli imitations, which have flooded the internet over the past week.
OpenAI says ‘our GPUs are melting’ as it limits ChatGPT image generation requests
Illustration: The Verge
The fervor around ChatGPT’s more accessible (and more advanced) image generation capabilities has forced OpenAI to “temporarily” put a rate limit on image generation requests, according to CEO Sam Altman. “It’s super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT, but our GPUs are melting,” he posted on X today. Altman didn’t specify what the rate limit is, but said the safeguard “hopefully” won’t need to be in place for very long as OpenAI tries to increase its efficiency in handling the avalanche of requests.
The demand crunch already caused the artificial intelligence company to push back availability of the built-in image generator for users on ChatGPT’s free tier. But apparently that measure alone wasn’t enough to ease the stress on OpenAI’s infrastructure. (Altman said free users will “soon” be able to generate up to three images per day.)
ChatGPT is turning everything into Studio Ghibli art — and it got weird fast
Image: ChatGPT
ChatGPT’s new image generator is delayed for free users
Image: The Verge
OpenAI is pushing back the rollout of ChatGPT’s built-in image generator for free users. In a post on Wednesday, CEO Sam Altman admitted that the image-generation tool is more popular than he expected, adding that “rollout to our free tier is unfortunately going to be delayed for awhile.”
OpenAI only just added image generation capabilities to ChatGPT on Tuesday, allowing users to create images directly within the app using the company’s reasoning model, GPT-4o. Since its launch, users have flooded social media feeds with photos transformed into images generated in the style of Studio Ghibli, a trend that even Altman has gotten in on.
OpenAI rolls out image generation powered by GPT-4o to ChatGPT
OpenAI
OpenAI is integrating new image generation capabilities directly into ChatGPT starting today — this feature is dubbed “Images in ChatGPT.” Users can now use GPT-4o to generate images within ChatGPT itself.
This initial release focuses solely on image creation and will be available across ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, and Free subscription tiers. The free tier’s usage limit is the same as DALL-E, spokesperson Taya Christianson told The Verge, but added that they “didn’t have a specific number to share” and ”these may change over time based on demand.“ Per the ChatGPT FAQ, free users were previously able to generate “three images per day with DALL·E 3.” As for the fate of DALL-E, Christianson said “fans” will “still have access via a custom GPT.”
OpenAI reshuffles leadership as Sam Altman pivots to technical focus
Image: The Verge
In a significant executive shuffle announced Monday, OpenAI is expanding COO Brad Lightcap’s responsibilities while CEO Sam Altman shifts his attention more toward the company’s technical direction. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
Lightcap will now “oversee day-to-day operations,” international expansion, and manage key partnerships with tech giants like Microsoft and Apple, according to Bloomberg. OpenAI has also promoted Mark Chen to chief research officer (he was recently SVP of research) and Julia Villagra to chief people officer (she was formerly VP of people).
ChatGPT accused of saying an innocent man murdered his children
Image: The Verge
A privacy complaint has been filed against OpenAI by a Norwegian man who claims that ChatGPT described him as a convicted murderer who killed two of his own children and attempted to kill a third.
Arve Hjalmar Holmen says that he wanted to find out what ChatGPT would say about him, but was presented with the false claim that he had been convicted for both murder and attempted murder, and was serving 21 years in a Norwegian prison. Alarmingly, the ChatGPT output mixes fictitious details with facts, including his hometown and the number and gender of his children.
What does OpenAI really want from Trump?
When AI giant OpenAI submitted its “freedom-focused” policy proposal to the White House’s AI Action Plan last Thursday, it gave the Trump administration an industry wishlist: use trade laws to export American AI dominance against the looming threat of China, loosen copyright restrictions for training data (also to fight China), invest untold billions in AI infrastructure (again: China), and stop states from smothering it with hundreds of new laws.
But specifically, one law: SB 1047, California’s sweeping, controversial, and for now, defeated AI safety bill.
The questions ChatGPT shouldn’t answer
Chatbots can’t think, and increasingly I am wondering whether their makers are capable of thought as well.
In mid-February OpenAI released a document called a model spec laying out how ChatGPT is supposed to “think,” particularly about ethics. (It is an update of a much shorter version published last year.) A couple of weeks later, people discovered xAI’s Grok suggesting its owner Elon Musk and titular President Donald Trump deserved the death penalty. xAI’s head of engineering had to step in and fix it, substituting a response that it’s “not allowed to make that choice.” It was unusual, in that someone working on AI made the right call for a change. I doubt it has set precedent.
OpenAI announces GPT-4.5, warns it’s not a frontier AI model
Image: OpenAI
OpenAI is launching GPT-4.5 today, its newest and largest AI language model. GPT-4.5 will be available as a research preview for ChatGPT Pro users to start. OpenAI is calling the release its “most knowledgeable model yet,” but initially warned that GPT-4.5 is not a frontier model and might not perform as well as o1 or o3-mini.
GPT-4.5 will have better writing capabilities, improved world knowledge, and what OpenAI calls a “refined personality over previous models.” OpenAI says interacting with GPT 4.5 will feel more “natural,” adding that the model is better at recognizing patterns and drawing connections, making it ideal for writing, programming, and “solving practical problems.”
ChatGPT is a terrible, fascinating, and thrilling to-do list app
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Every day for the last few weeks, I’ve received a notification on my phone at 7:30 in the morning. The notification comes from ChatGPT, and it always contains the same thing: instructions for a 20-minute full-body workout and a 10-minute meditation. The instructions are simple, and I’ve actually come to appreciate the daily prodding. I do wish it would stop recommending the exact same thing every damn day, though. The mountain climbers and positive intentions are getting a little old.
OpenAI has added a number of new features to ChatGPT in the last few weeks, a couple of which attempt to turn the chatbot into a straightforward productivity app. There’s Tasks, which all paid users can access and allows you to set reminders and make to-do lists in ChatGPT; and there’s Operator, a so-called “agentic” model for Pro subscribers that attempts to actually accomplish tasks on your behalf. As an incorrigible tester of to-do list apps, I decided to throw my life into ChatGPT and see if it could help me get more done.
Mira Murati is launching her OpenAI rival: Thinking Machines Lab
Getty Images for WIRED
After her sudden departure from OpenAI last fall, ex-CTO Mira Murati vanished from public view to start something new. Now, she is ready to share some details about what she’s working on.
Her new AI startup is called Thinking Machines Lab, and while the specifics of what it plans to release are still under wraps, the company says its goal is “to make AI systems more widely understood, customizable and generally capable.” The startup also promises at least some level of public transparency by pledging to regularly publish technical research and code.
OpenAI is rethinking how AI models handle controversial topics
Image: The Verge
OpenAI is releasing a significantly expanded version of its Model Spec, a document that defines how its AI models should behave — and is making it free for anyone to use or modify.
The new 63-page specification, up from around 10 pages in its previous version, lays out guidelines for how AI models should handle everything from controversial topics to user customization. It emphasizes three main principles: customizability; transparency; and what OpenAI calls “intellectual freedom” — the ability for users to explore and debate ideas without arbitrary restrictions. The launch of the updated Model Spec comes just as CEO Sam Altman posted that the startup’s next big model, GPT-4.5 (codenamed Orion), will be released soon.
OpenAI lays out plans for GPT-5
Image: The Verge
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman detailed plans for the company’s GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 AI models in a roadmap published on X on Wednesday.
In the post, Altman also acknowledged that OpenAI’s product lineup has gotten complicated and says that the company wants to do “a much better job” simplifying its offerings. “We hate the model picker as much as you do and want to return to magic unified intelligence,” Altman says.
What $200 of ChatGPT is really worth
Inside OpenAI’s $14 million Super Bowl debut
OpenAI
OpenAI just made its Super Bowl debut with a 60-second spot that positions AI alongside humanity’s greatest innovations.
The commercial traces humanity’s technological evolution through a distinctive pointillism-inspired animation style, transforming abstract dots into iconic images of progress – from early tools like fire and the wheel to modern breakthroughs like DNA sequencing and space exploration. It culminates with modern AI applications, showing ChatGPT handling everyday tasks like drafting business plans and language tutoring. The ad cost roughly $14 million for the first-half placement.
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Kylie Robison