Why Is OpenAI Launching a New Social Network?
OpenAI has been making some big moves lately. And these go far beyond just unveiling the latest version of ChatGPT. In May, OpenAI announced a $6.5 billion partnership with legendary Apple designer Jony Ive, with plans to create a new AI-centric hardware device. And, just weeks later, plans leaked of a new OpenAI social network in the makings.
It’s still rumor and speculation, of course, but it’s clear that something big is happening, and it could be epic. If OpenAI launches a new social network, it would be the first-ever “AI-first” social network in history. That has enormous implications, not just for OpenAI, but also for social media giants such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook..
An “X-Like” network
We don’t know a lot about the planned social network, but early indications are that it will be “X-like.” In addition, we know that it will enable users to interact with AI-generated content. And we also know that it will rely heavily on ChatGPT’s image-creation capabilities.
If you mash all that up together, it sounds a lot like X, but filled with AI-generated avatars instead of people. Ever since the launch of ChatGPT, people have loved to generate eye-popping visuals involving film franchises such as “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars.” And they have loved to combine fashion with celebrities to create entirely new style icons. Who can ever forget the “Balenciaga Pope”?
So it’s not going too far to suggest that, even though this social network might resemble X - text posts arranged in reverse chronological order - it will likely feel far more surreal. You won’t know whether you’re interacting with human-made content, or AI-made content. You won’t know if that’s a real image of a person, or if it’s an AI-generated image.
Risk factors
While this might be exciting for some, it’s not without its risks. Just think of the potential for misinformation and even disinformation. X might have its parody accounts but on this OpenAI platform, it will be far harder to delineate between real and fake.
If you’ve ever heard of the controversial “Dead Internet Theory” - which suggests that almost all content on the internet is now being created by bots and controlled by algorithms - there is reason for concern. Imagine the next wave of social media influencers, spun up entirely by AI. There’s no telling what the AI might “influence” us to do, if given enough resources.
What happens next?
The rapidly-expanding rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk is no doubt a key factor in why OpenAI is suddenly so interested in social media. Both helped to co-found OpenAI, but had a falling-out over its future direction. In the recent past, both have traded online barbs. And this is likely to continue, as they now compete not just for AI dominance, but also for social media dominance.
The wild card in all this is the emerging partnership that OpenAI has with Jony Ive, who helped to create the modern iPhone. We still don’t know what kind of device OpenAi will create. We don’t know if it will be handheld, or worn, or perhaps engineered into the brain, like some kind of Neuralink device created by Elon Musk. However, this device, whatever form it eventually takes, will certainly change the way we connect with social media.
That being said, it will be interesting to see what happens next. Will Elon Musk respond with even more integration of Grok and X? Will Sam Altman decide that he really doesn’t want to launch a social network after all? And will anyone ever get used to the idea of interacting with AI bots instead of humans?