OpenAI Archive

Jan 16, 2026

Andrea Vallone, a senior safety researcher at OpenAI, has moved to Anthropic. She'll be working on the alignment team, which focuses on AI model risks. Vallone spent three years at OpenAI, where she founded the "Model Policy" research team and contributed to major projects including GPT-4, GPT-5, and the company's reasoning models.

Over the past year, Vallone led OpenAI's research on an increasingly urgent question: how should AI models respond when users show signs of emotional dependency or mental health struggles? Some users, including teenagers, have taken their own lives after conversations with chatbots. Several families have filed lawsuits, and the U.S. Senate has held hearings on the issue.

At Anthropic, Vallone will report to Jan Leike. Leike himself was head of safety research at OpenAI before leaving the company in May 2024. At the time, Leike publicly criticized OpenAI, saying safety had taken a backseat to shipping new products.

Comment Source: LinkedIn

Maximilian Schreiner

Jan 15, 2026

Update

Short News

OpenAI reportedly walked away from Apple to focus on building its own AI hardware instead

Apple is betting billions on Google to power Siri’s AI future, and OpenAI says it walked away from the deal on purpose.

Read full article

Comment

Matthias Bastian

Jan 15, 2026

Short News

What China can do, the US can do too: OpenAI has published a call for proposals to boost domestic AI hardware production. AI relies on a broad ecosystem of physical components beyond chips, OpenAI says. The company is seeking manufacturers and suppliers of data center components like cooling systems, power supplies, and networking equipment, plus consumer electronics and robotics. Applications are open through June 2026.

The move comes as China reportedly restricts Nvidia H200 imports and pushes domestic manufacturers to source hardware locally. If China succeeds in decoupling its supply chain, the US can expect countermeasures—and if both countries want true independence, they'll each have to build their own.

The initiative fits squarely with Trump's "America First" agenda. OpenAI frames it as "reindustrialization of the country." Notably, OpenAI President Greg Brockman donated $25 million to Trump's campaign.

Comment Source: OpenAI

Matthias Bastian

Jan 15, 2026

Short News

OpenAI has invested in Merge Labs, a startup developing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The company raised a total of $252 million in seed funding, according to Bloomberg. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a co-founder of Merge Labs. The exact size of OpenAI's investment remains unknown.

Merge Labs aims to combine biological and artificial intelligence to improve human capabilities. The startup is working on safer BCIs with higher bandwidth by combining biology, devices, and AI, according to OpenAI. OpenAI views BCIs as an important way for humans to interact more naturally with AI systems. The collaboration includes basic science models and tools to speed up research.

Merge Labs relies on ultrasound technology instead of electrodes. The goal is to create less invasive BCIs that can interact with more neurons. This puts OpenAI in direct competition with Elon Musk's Neuralink, which was founded in 2016 and uses electrode-based implants. The investment follows OpenAI's strategy of backing hardware and interface technologies. Rumors about this investment had circulated since summer.

Comment Source: OpenAI | Bloomberg

Matthias Bastian

Jan 15, 2026

Short News

OpenAI has launched a standalone translation tool built on ChatGPT. "ChatGPT Translate" supports more than 25 languages with an interface similar to Google Translate or DeepL—two text fields with automatic language detection for the input.

OpenAI's ChatGPT Translate uses the familiar two-panel layout seen in other translation tools. | Screenshot: THE DECODER

Users can refine translations with additional prompts, for example, switching to a business tone or simplifying for children. These prompts redirect to the main ChatGPT interface, suggesting the tool is mainly designed as a gateway to the chatbot. OpenAI hasn't officially announced it yet.

Unlike full ChatGPT, the tool only handles text with apparent length limits. During testing, it sometimes returned chatbot responses asking for clarification instead of translations, with no way to respond. This suggests it's essentially a prompt in a new interface rather than a specialized translation model. For now, ChatGPT itself remains the more capable option.

Comment Source: ChatGPT Translate

Matthias Bastian

Jan 15, 2026

Short News

The US AI industry continues to deliver drama. OpenAI has rehired three former employees from Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines, including co-founder Barret Zoph, who was recently fired as CTO. Thinking Machines let Zoph go for "unethical conduct," according to journalist Kylie Robison, citing two sources.

A source speaking to Wired claims Zoph passed confidential company information to competitors. OpenAI, the company he's now returning to, would be the obvious candidate. OpenAI's product CEO Fidji Simo announced Zoph's return in an internal memo and on X, saying the company doesn't share Murati's concerns. According to Simo, his return had been "several weeks" in the making.

Zoph and Metz originally worked at OpenAI before co-founding Thinking Machines with Murati, who served as OpenAI's CTO before starting the company. Along with Zoph and Metz, Sam Schoenholz is also returning to OpenAI. Zoph will report directly to Simo. Soumith Chintala takes over as CTO at Thinking Machines.

Comment Source: Kylie Robison / Zoph firing | Wired / Zoph allegations | Fidji Simo / Zoph return | Mira Murati / CTO takeover

Maximilian Schreiner

Jan 15, 2026

AI in practice

OpenAI signs $10 billion deal with Cerebras Systems

Matthias Bastian

Jan 14, 2026

Short News

OpenAI has released GPT-5.2 Codex to developers through the Responses API. The model was previously limited to the Codex environment. According to OpenAI Developers, it excels at complex, tedious tasks like developing new features, refactoring code, and tracking down bugs. OpenAI also says it's their best cybersecurity model yet, helping identify vulnerabilities in codebases.

The model accepts text and images as input and offers four levels of reasoning effort: low, medium, high, and very high. Pricing comes in at $1.75 per million input tokens and $14 per million output tokens, a notable increase from earlier GPT-5 Codex models, which cost $1.25 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.

Coding platforms Cursor and Windsurf have already integrated the model, with Windsurf offering it at half price for a limited time. OpenAI has published a prompting guide.

Comment Source: OpenAI via X

Matthias Bastian

Jan 13, 2026

Short News

A new leak reveals details about OpenAI's planned hardware, an audio device designed to compete with Apple's Airpods. X and Weibo leaker "Smart Pikachu" claims OpenAI is developing a device codenamed "Sweetpea" with designer Jony Ive reportedly involved. The alleged September launch targets 40 to 50 million units in year one.

The device supposedly features an oval metal housing with two capsule-shaped components worn behind the ear, running on a 2nm chip with Samsung Exynos as the frontrunner. A separate chip would enable iPhone control through Siri. Material costs are reportedly close to smartphone level.

Die Komponenten von "Sweetpea": ein EMG-Signalfenster zur Erkennung von Muskelsignalen, ein Keramik-Hautkontaktfenster, Hauptplatine mit Lithium-Ionen-Akku sowie ein Ultraschall-Sende-/Empfangsmodul. | Bild: via zhihuipikachu — The leaked diagram shows "Sweetpea's" alleged components: EMG signal window, ceramic skin contact window, mainboard with lithium-ion battery, and ultrasonic transmitter/receiver module. | Image: via zhihuipikachu

If the leak proves accurate, Foxconn could produce up to five OpenAI devices by 2028, including a pen codenamed "Gumdrop." The manufacturer reportedly sees this as a chance to recover after losing all Airpods programs to Luxshare. OpenAI allegedly favored Luxshare initially but switched to Foxconn to enable production outside China.

Comment Source: zhihuipikachu

Matthias Bastian

Jan 13, 2026

Short News

OpenAI is buying health app Torch for around 100 million dollars. The deal includes 60 million upfront and the rest in retention shares, The Information reports. Torch unifies scattered health records into what the founders call a "medical memory for AI", "a context engine that helps you see the full picture, connect the dots, and make sure nothing important gets lost." The app runs on OpenAI models. All four employees, including CEO Ilya Abyzov, are joining OpenAI.

The deal signals OpenAI's push toward a personalized health assistant in ChatGPT. Last week, the company launched a ChatGPT Health section and an offering for healthcare companies. Anthropic recently added health features to Claude as well. The moves reflect a shared bet on a massive market: hundreds of millions of weekly chatbot conversations already focus on health.

Comment Source: The Information / Torch acquisition | Torch / Medical memory for AI | OpenAI (X) / Team joins OpenAI