OpenAI Archive

Apr 6, 2026

OpenAI's Head of Business Finance Chengpeng Mou shared some numbers on ChatGPT's health usage. US users send about two million messages per week on health insurance topics alone, with roughly 600,000 of those coming from people in "hospital deserts," areas where the nearest hospital is at least a 30-minute drive away. Seven out of ten health queries come in outside regular office hours. All figures are based on anonymized US usage data.

Mou chimed in after Simon Smith posted on X about his family using ChatGPT to navigate his father's illness. They pooled information from different doctors and nurses into a shared ChatGPT project to make better decisions. According to Mou, stories like this aren't "edge cases."

OpenAI has been steadily pushing into healthcare, recently rolling out a dedicated health section inside ChatGPT and working to get its chatbot into more US hospitals.

Comment Source: Chengpeng via X

Matthias Bastian

Apr 4, 2026

Short News

Several leadership changes are underway at OpenAI. Fidji Simo, CEO of the newly created "AGI Deployment" division, is taking sick leave for several weeks to deal with an autoimmune disease affecting her nervous system. While she's away, OpenAI President Greg Brockman will take over product responsibilities, including the company's super app plans. On the business side, CSO Jason Kwon, CFO Sarah Friar, and CRO Denise Dresser will step in.

Head of Marketing Kate Rouch is also stepping down for health reasons. Rouch plans to return in a smaller role once her health improves. Gary Briggs will fill in as her temporary replacement.

COO Brad Lightcap is stepping down as well, moving to a new "special projects" team reporting directly to CEO Sam Altman. Dresser is picking up most of his responsibilities. Lightcap's work on government relations and "OpenAI for Countries" shifts to the strategy department.

Comment Source: via The Verge

Matthias Bastian

Apr 3, 2026

AI in practice

OpenAI is switching to usage-based pricing for Codex in ChatGPT Business and Enterprise. Admins can enable free Codex access across their workspace and pay only for actual usage; no upfront licenses required. Eligible Business customers can also claim up to 500 dollars in promotional credit per workspace as part of a limited-time promotion.

The move is designed to lower the barrier for enterprise adoption, OpenAI says. Coding tools typically spread from individual developers to full teams. "This model gives organizations a simpler way to support that motion inside a managed workspace," the company writes. OpenAI is likely betting that hands-on experience will drive long-term lock-in. It's a direct shot at GitHub Copilot and Cursor, which still charge per seat.

OpenAI says over two million developers use Codex weekly, with Business and Enterprise usage growing sixfold since January. The company's biggest competitor in this space is Anthropic with Claude Code.

Comment

Matthias Bastian

Apr 3, 2026

AI and society

OpenAI decides the best way to fight critical AI coverage is to own a newsroom

OpenAI has acquired tech talk show TBPN. The show will supposedly remain editorially independent but report to OpenAI’s communications department. That’s as contradictory as it sounds. So what’s OpenAI really after?

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Matthias Bastian

Apr 2, 2026

AI research

GPT reasoning models have "line of sight" to AGI, says OpenAI's Greg Brockman

Matthias Bastian

Apr 1, 2026

Short News

OpenAI has officially closed its latest funding round. The company raised $122 billion at a valuation of $852 billion. Key backers include Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank, and Microsoft, along with a16z, BlackRock, Sequoia Capital, and several other investors. Private investors put in $3 billion through banking channels, and the company also expanded its credit line to $4.7 billion.

OpenAI says it's now pulling in $2 billion in monthly revenue and has crossed 900 million weekly active ChatGPT users. The company also officially unveiled the ChatGPT Super App, a single product that rolls together ChatGPT, the Codex coding agent, web search, and what OpenAI describes as "our broader agentic capabilities into one agent-first experience."

The bulk of the new capital will go toward computing infrastructure. OpenAI is clearly leaning harder into enterprise going forward; the company recently killed off its Sora video model to free up compute and because it wasn't gaining traction anyway. Enterprise already accounts for more than 40 percent of the company's total revenue. "Our consumer scale becomes the front door for enterprise usage, as familiarity in daily life drives adoption at work," OpenAI writes.

Comment Source: OpenAI

Matthias Bastian

Mar 31, 2026

Short News

Oracle is laying off thousands of employees to fund its AI infrastructure push. Business Insider broke the story, and CNBC confirmed the cuts through two anonymous sources. Oracle, which had 162,000 employees as of May 2025, declined to comment.

The cuts stem from Oracle's aggressive AI spending, which has pushed the company into debt as cash flow shrinks. Since announcing plans to raise $50 billion in January, the stock has lost roughly a quarter of its value. TD Cowen analysts estimate that eliminating 20,000 to 30,000 positions could free up as much as $10 billion in cash flow.

On an earnings call, co-CEO Clay Magouyrk defended the spending, saying AI hardware demand outpaces supply. He pointed to $553 billion in guaranteed revenue, including a $455 billion order from OpenAI. But whether OpenAI can actually pay up remains unclear; the ChatGPT maker is also burning through cash at a rapid clip.

Oracle's internal termination email cites only "current business needs" without giving a specific reason. Meta is also reportedly planning large-scale layoffs to offset its own massive AI infrastructure costs.

Comment Source: CNBC | Business Insider

Maximilian Schreiner

Mar 31, 2026

AI in practice

OpenAI launches a Codex plugin that runs inside Anthropic's Claude Code

Matthias Bastian

Mar 30, 2026

Short News

OpenAI's Sora app saw rapidly declining usage while costing the company around one million dollars a day, according to the Wall Street Journal. After a hyped launch, the app grew to about one million users, but that number quickly dropped to around 500,000 and never recovered.

On top of the shrinking user base, OpenAI ran into copyright issues and growing internal concerns that the cheap, low-quality engagement videos people were generating could damage the OpenAI brand. Sora proved more liability than asset. Development costs piled up too. According to the report, OpenAI canceled training runs for new video models entirely.

The real nail in Sora's coffin was increasing competitive pressure from Anthropic. OpenAI chose to redirect its limited compute toward coding, enterprise, and agent-based AI products, areas with greater long-term business value. Sora fell victim to a strategic pivot: away from complex video generation, toward the most economically promising parts of the business. The Sora team will now focus on world models for robotics. The Sora app shuts down in April, with the API following in September.

Comment Source: Wall Street Journal

Matthias Bastian

Mar 28, 2026

AI and society

Anthropic reportedly views itself as the antidote to OpenAI's "tobacco industry" approach to AI

Anthropic grew out of more than just concern for AI safety—it was born from a bitter power struggle and personal conflict at OpenAI. A report by Sam Altman biographer Keach Hagey reveals how personal slights, rivalries, and strategic disagreements led to what may be the most consequential split in the AI industry.

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