OpenAI 正准备对 ChatGPT 进行自其发布引爆 AI 热潮以来最大规模的一次改造,这家估值 8500 亿美元的公司正赶在今年计划上市之前寻找新的增长引擎。
该公司打算将这款聊天机器人转变为一个“超级应用”,把编程工具和 AI 智能体结合在一起,并加入高管们认为将带来更多收入的新产品。
据十多名现任和前任员工透露,这些变化是 OpenAI 更广泛重组的一部分,这家总部位于旧金山的公司正将资源转向争取利润丰厚的企业客户,并与竞争对手 Anthropic 展开更激烈的竞争。
OpenAI 在为首次公开募股做准备之际,面临着越来越大的压力,需要推动收入增长并开辟一条通往盈利的道路。
这一战略标志着这家由首席执行官 Sam Altman 领导的公司的转向。该公司曾成为 AI 热潮的代表,并在 2022 年推出 ChatGPT 时让这项技术走向主流。
这些变化将赋予 OpenAI 的编程产品 Codex 更突出的地位和更多资源,反映出公司内部日益坚定的一种信念:AI 的未来不在于回答问题的聊天机器人,而在于为用户执行任务的智能体。
“聊天已死,”一名 OpenAI 高级员工表示。
OpenAI 高管日益将 ChatGPT 视为向用户推介更高价值产品的入口。自推出以来,ChatGPT 已吸引近 10 亿用户。大多数消费者免费使用这款聊天机器人。
该公司启动这些变革之际,内部相信 AI 智能体的到来将催生比聊天机器人更有价值的产品——这些智能体可以为用户执行从预订旅行到安排日程等多项任务。
与此同时,Codex 等产品能够根据用户的简单指令编写代码、创建软件。
这项全面改革将于未来几周开始逐步推出,最初将体现为 ChatGPT 网站和移动应用的改版,引导用户使用编程、图像生成以及来自外部合作伙伴的应用。
这些变化凸显出 OpenAI 的战略正日益向 Anthropic 靠拢——后者专注于为企业开发产品,推动了其迅猛增长,这也将成为其今年 IPO 中向投资者推介的核心内容。
在阐述这些变化时,此前负责 Codex、现领导 OpenAI 全部核心产品与平台的 Thibault Sottiaux 对英国《金融时报》表示:“它将超越实际的界面……我们正在构建的方向,是让你拥有自己的个人智能体,能够在你的生活中——无论是个人事务还是工作——全方位帮助你。”
他补充道:“你可以通过手机、桌面端或网页与它连接。当你在车里时,你可以和它对话。”
据知情人士透露,Codex 用户中大多数人付费使用该服务,而使用 OpenAI 产品的 200 万家企业贡献了其约 40% 的营收。
该公司预计,到今年年底这一比例将上升至 50%。
自 2 月推出桌面应用以来,OpenAI 的 Codex 产品用户规模增长了六倍,周活跃用户超过 500 万。
它的推出加剧了与 Anthropic 的竞争,后者的 Claude Code 产品已成为这家初创公司增长最快的业务之一。
“大约一年前,OpenAI 的策略是全力挥棒求全垒打,而 Anthropic 的策略是先赚钱,”Leonis Capital 合伙人、前 OpenAI 研究员 Jenny Xiao 表示。
“如今两者正在趋同,因为双方都在争取 IPO,而投资者更看重钱而非梦想。”
据知情人士透露,为鼓励用户使用这些服务,OpenAI 正在重新设计 ChatGPT 的界面,新增提示词和功能,引导用户使用编程工具、图像生成以及由 Canva、Booking.com 等合作伙伴构建的应用。
随着时间推移,OpenAI 打算去掉这些提示词和功能,押注其模型将能够在用户使用应用或网站时自动理解其意图。
今年,该公司将 ChatGPT、Codex 及其他产品团队整合到一个由 Sottiaux 领导的单一领导团队之下,同时包括前产品负责人 Kevin Weil 在内的多位高管已经离职。
有迹象表明,OpenAI 正在推动赢得更多企业客户,一些面向消费者的举措已被边缘化,包括一项允许在 ChatGPT 内完成购买的结账功能。该公司还关停了其视频生成产品 Sora,此时距其上线还不到一年。
高管们认为,用户将越来越多地与单一 AI 助手互动,而不是使用一堆各自独立的应用。随着智能体能力不断增强,OpenAI 预计聊天机器人、编程工具、搜索产品及其他软件类别之间的界限将变得模糊。
“当我们拥有[通用人工智能]时,我认为不会存在大量不同的品牌,”OpenAI 企业产品负责人 Alex Embiricos 表示。“大概会有一个单一的实体,我可以与之对话,它能完成我需要的任何事情。”
OpenAI is preparing the biggest overhaul of ChatGPT since its launch kicked off the AI boom, as the $850 billion group hunts for new engines of growth ahead of a planned listing this year.
The company intends to transform the chatbot into a “superapp” that combines coding tools and AI agents, adding products that executives believe will generate more revenue.
The changes are part of a broader reorganization at OpenAI as the San Francisco-based company shifts resources into trying to win lucrative business customers and compete more fiercely with rival Anthropic, according to more than a dozen current and former employees.
OpenAI faces growing pressure to drive revenues higher and forge a path to profitability, as it prepares for an initial public offering.
The strategy marks a departure for a company, led by chief executive Sam Altman, that became the face of the AI boom and took the technology mainstream when it unveiled ChatGPT in 2022.
The changes, which will give greater prominence and resources to OpenAI’s coding product Codex, reflect a growing conviction within the company that the future of AI lies not in chatbots that answer questions but in agents that perform tasks for users.
“Chat is dead,” said one senior OpenAI employee.
OpenAI executives increasingly view ChatGPT, which has attracted nearly 1 billion users since its launch, as a gateway to introduce users to higher-value products. The majority of consumers use the chatbot for free.
The company is embarking on the changes amid a belief that the advent of AI agents, which can perform multiple tasks for users from booking travel to organizing calendars, will be a more valuable product than the chatbot.
At the same time, products such as Codex are able to write code and create software based on simple instructions from users.
The overhaul, which is set to begin rolling out in coming weeks, will initially appear as changes to ChatGPT’s website and mobile apps, encouraging customers towards using coding, image-generation, and apps from external partners.
The changes underline how OpenAI’s strategy is moving closer to that of Anthropic, whose focus on developing products for businesses has stoked its blistering growth, and will be at the heart of its pitch to investors in an IPO this year.
Outlining the changes, Thibault Sottiaux, who previously ran Codex and now leads all of OpenAI’s core product and platform, told the FT: “It will transcend the actual surface… what we’re building towards is where you have your own personal agent that is capable of helping you… across everything in your life, be it personally or at work.”
He added: “You can connect through it on your mobile, desktop, or web. When you’re in the car, you can talk to it.”
The majority of Codex users pay for the service, according to people familiar with the matter, while the 2 million businesses that use OpenAI’s products account for roughly 40 percent of its revenue.
The company anticipates this will rise to 50 percent by the end of the year.
OpenAI’s Codex product has increased its user base sixfold to more than 5 million weekly active users since the launch of a desktop application in February.
Its launch has intensified competition with Anthropic, whose Claude Code product has emerged as one of the start-up’s fastest-growing businesses.
“Approximately a year ago, OpenAI’s strategy was swing for the fences, whereas Anthropic’s strategy is make money first,” said Jenny Xiao, partner at Leonis Capital and former researcher at OpenAI.
“Now the two are converging, because both of them are trying to aim for an IPO and investors care more about money than dreams.”
To encourage users to adopt those services, OpenAI is redesigning ChatGPT’s interface, adding new prompts and features that direct users towards coding tools, image generation, and applications built by partners such as Canva and Booking.com, according to people familiar with the plans.
Over time, OpenAI intends to ditch the prompts and features, betting that its models will be able to automatically understand users’ intentions when they are on the app or site.
This year, the company has brought ChatGPT, Codex, and other product teams under a single leadership group led by Sottiaux, while several senior executives, including former product head Kevin Weil, have departed.
In a sign of OpenAI’s push to win more business customers, some consumer-focused initiatives have been sidelined, including a checkout feature that allowed purchases within ChatGPT. It also shut down Sora, its video-generation product, less than a year since its launch.
Executives believe users will increasingly interact with a single AI assistant rather than a collection of separate applications. As agents become more capable, OpenAI expects the distinction between chatbots, coding tools, search products, and other software categories to blur.
“When we have [artificial general intelligence], I don’t think there will be a large number of distinct brands,” said Alex Embiricos, OpenAI’s head of enterprise product. “Probably there will be a single entity that I can talk to that can do whatever I need.”