Sam Altman and the other leaders at OpenAI have reportedly notified the company’s staff at an all-hands meeting, details of which were leaked to the Wall Street Journal, that an exciting new strategy is coming: focus on business and productivity to the exclusion of all else.
According to the Journal, OpenAI’s head of applications Fidji Simo, told the group “We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests,” adding, “We really have to nail productivity in general and particularly productivity on the business front.”
Earlier this month, OpenAI launched GPT-5.4, and the release focused on coding and agentic applications. It was the first general use model from OpenAI designed to natively work across multiple applications within a machine—bringing users a tiny bit closer to the feeling of addictive, limitless functionality they get from OpenClaw, the viral agentic platform whose creator, Peter Steinberger, OpenAI hired in February.
OpenAI’s competitor Anthropic, and its flagship AI model Claude, had an astonishing February. First it surpassed OpenAI in VC money received, then its bizarre conflict with the Pentagon made it one of the biggest new stories in the world for weeks. Simo reportedly told the group that Claude’s sudden success, such as its perceived indispensability by some in the federal government, should be seen as a “wake-up call” to OpenAI.
A laser-like focus on business and productivity could cause some time-consuming projects to atrophy. OpenAI, you may recall, rolled out a video-sharing social media app last year. Sam Altman’s close friendship with Jony Ive is rumored to be culminating in the rollout of AI-powered earbuds from OpenAI. And there’s also a ChatGPT web browser called ChatGPT Atlas. I bet you forgot about that one.
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