OpenAI Could Soon Enter the Social Media Space to Take on Meta and X

OpenAI is reportedly working on a social media platform. As per the report, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm is planning to integrate AI capabilities into the social app, although details around the integration are currently not known. The platform is said to compete with the likes of Elon Musk’s X (formerly known as Twitter) and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta-owned social platforms. Interestingly, both X and Meta have recently added AI features to their platforms. The report arrives just days after OpenAI released its GPT-4.1 family of AI models.

OpenAI’s Purported Social App Could Be Based on ChatGPT

The Verge reported that OpenAI is planning to build an “X-like social network.” Citing multiple unnamed sources, the publication claimed that an internal prototype of the platform has already been built. The prototype is reportedly focused on ChatGPT’s GPT-4o-powered image-generation capability. The “social” aspect includes a public feed, where created images likely appear.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly sought feedback about the prototype from those outside of the organisation. The report could not confirm whether the plan is to create a standalone app or to integrate this social experience within ChatGPT. Notably, the company’s video generation platform Sora also has a similar feed, however, it lacks the social experience as the creators of the images and videos are not shown on the feed page.

Based on the information, it appears that OpenAI’s vision of a social app is an AI platform with social experience added on top, and not a dedicated social experience with AI integration (such as X, Facebook, Instagram, and others).

OpenAI entering the social media space will also reignite the company’s rivalry with X and Meta. X-owner Musk has already been a vocal critic of Altman and the for-profit nature of the AI firm. The billionaire has previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, and reportedly even made an offer to purchase the company. In retaliation to the purchasing bid, Altman said “no thank you” in a post, adding “but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

In February, reports suggested that Meta was planning to release a standalone Meta AI app to compete with ChatGPT. Responding to it, the OpenAI CEO said, “ok fine maybe we’ll do a social app.”