In a wide-ranging interview with Ben Thompson of Stratechery, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed insights about the company’s unexpected transformation from a research lab into a major consumer technology company. Altman explained that ChatGPT’s viral success in late 2022 forced the organization to rapidly pivot its operations and strategy.
“What I wanted was to get to run an AGI research lab and figure out how to make AGI. I did not think I was signing up to have to run a big consumer Internet company,” Altman admitted in the conversation. He noted that within days of ChatGPT’s launch, he recognized the pattern of exponential growth that would transform the company.
Looking to the future, Altman hinted at upcoming developments including GPT-5, which he suggested would be released relatively soon. He also indicated OpenAI might make its models freely available, aligning more closely with the organization’s original mission.
When discussing business strategy, Altman resisted the idea of advertising as a revenue model, stating he was “more excited to figure out how we can charge people a lot of money for a really great automated software engineer” than pursuing ad revenue. However, he did express interest in potential affiliate fees for e-commerce purchases made through Deep Research.
Altman also shared his belief that AI models will eventually become commoditized, comparing them to transistors. He suggested OpenAI’s long-term value would come from building consumer products, optimizing inference infrastructure, and continuing to lead in research.