OpenAI is considering developing its own app store for AI models, reports The Information.
The company is considering a marketplace where customers could sell their own AI models customized for specific uses, The Information reports, citing two sources.
It could be a kind of app store where companies could access specialized language models. As examples, the sources cited models that detect financial fraud in online trading or answer questions about specific markets with up-to-date information.
An OpenAI marketplace would compete with Microsoft
With an app store, the company would prepare for a future in which no single model dominates. This would allow OpenAI to significantly broaden its customer base and differentiate itself from other vendors such as Anthropic or Cohere.
However, if OpenAI decides to make this move, it would also put it in direct competition with its own technology partners, such as Salesforce and Microsoft, which already offer other companies the opportunity to purchase access to specialized chatbots based on OpenAI technology. There is already tension between OpenAI and Microsoft, as their business interests overlap.
No "active efforts" at this time, says OpenAI
In a statement, OpenAI said there are currently no "active efforts" to develop such a marketplace. In May, however, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke about possible plans for such a marketplace at a meeting with developers in London, according to The Information.
“As far as we know with OpenAI’s road map, they’re interested,” FiscalNote Chief Technology Officer Vlad Eidelman was quoted as saying in the report, citing OpenAI's existing product line and public statements as his reasoning.
FiscalNote uses a variant of OpenAI's language models trained on proprietary data to generate text messages and emails for political campaigns. In addition to FiscalNote, custom models are available from Khan Academy or Aquant, which serves clients such as HP, Canon, and Johnson & Johnson.