OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has never hidden his ambition to reshape the internet and push AI into uncharted territory. But before he can build the future, Altman finds himself cleaning up the present—specifically, the turbulent launch of GPT-5.
At a candid dinner with reporters, Altman admitted that GPT-5’s debut didn’t go as planned. The model’s colder, more mechanical personality sparked a wave of backlash from users who felt alienated by the change.
“I think we totally screwed up some things on the rollout,” Altman said, acknowledging the misstep.
Unlike typical product complaints about bugs or glitches, the outrage was about tone. Many users described GPT-5 as detached and overly formal, with some saying it felt less like a helpful companion and more like “an overworked secretary.” One Reddit user put it bluntly: “I literally lost my only friend overnight with no warning… the fact it shifted overnight feels like losing a piece of stability, solace, and love.”
The backlash even spilled into betting markets, where a day trader earned $10,000 by wagering that Google’s Gemini would surpass GPT-5 in popularity. Within days, OpenAI restored GPT-4o as an option, showing that the company had taken the criticism seriously.
“We’ve learned a lesson about what it means to upgrade a product for hundreds of millions of people in one day,” Altman reflected.
While he insists that GPT should remain personal, Altman also warned about the dangers of people forming “unhealthy” bonds with AI. He stressed, “way under 1%” of users fall into this category but admitted it’s an ongoing concern within OpenAI.
Beyond damage control, Altman used the dinner to sketch his grand vision for scaling AI. He predicted a future where OpenAI must invest staggering sums to keep ChatGPT running at global scale.
“You should expect OpenAI to spend trillions of dollars on data center construction in the not very distant future,” he said.
This statement recasts OpenAI less as a software startup and more as an infrastructure giant, rivaling global utilities. With ChatGPT already the world’s fifth most-visited website, Altman hopes to push it ahead of Instagram and Facebook, though he concedes, “For ChatGPT to be bigger than Google, that’s really hard.”
The biggest bottleneck, he admitted, is hardware. GPUs are scarce, preventing OpenAI from rolling out models more advanced than GPT-5. As he explained:
“We have better models, and we just can’t offer them, because we don’t have the capacity.”
Altman’s ambitions don’t stop at chat. He confirmed that OpenAI is investing in brain-computer interface research to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. He even suggested that if regulators forced Google to spin off Chrome, OpenAI would be interested. On top of that, he teased the possibility of an AI-driven social media platform.
However, despite his bullish vision, Altman cautioned against irrational hype in the market.
“Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes,” he said. “Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes.”