OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research lab and applied AI company building artificial general intelligence (AGI) and derived generative AI products and services.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization with a commitment of USD 1 billion from Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO as of July 2023), Tesla’s Elon Musk, Microsoft, and AWS. The firm launched as a non-profit with a charter to prioritize human interests in AI development, encouraging researchers to publish papers and share code and patents, having planned to collaborate with other organizations. The company transitioned to a “capped profit” model in 2019 to compete with projects like tech giant Google’s DeepMind lab, with plans to commercially license its technologies via a for-profit arm, “OpenAI Limited Partnership” (Open LP), while remaining aligned with its charter.

OpenAI’s foundation models include:

1) GPT-n: A family of generative pre-trained transformer (GPT)-type large language models (LLMs) that can generate text outputs, summarize and translate text, and answer natural language questions. This includes GPT-1, GPT-2, GPT-3, and GPT 3.5 models. It also offers GPT-3.5 Turbo, a lighter version of the GPT-3.5 model which is fine-tunable with custom data.

2) GPT-4: A multimodal model launched in March 2023 reportedly contains over a trillion parameters. GPT-4 is able to answer more complex questions, interpret nuanced instructions, respond with more creativity compared to previous models, and reportedly perform more reliably when faced with disallowed and sensitive content.

3) DALL.E: DALL.E is a family of multimodal generative models based on GPT-3 that generates images from text prompts. The latest version DALL.E 3 , which was made widely available in October 2023, helps users improve their image prompts by providing more descriptive guidance.

4) Codex: A programming-tuned model based on GPT-3, trained on GitHub Python code repositories, that generates code in several programming languages based on natural language prompts, including Go, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Shell, Swift, and TypeScript, though it performs best with Python.

5) Whisper: A speech recognition neural network for transcription, language identification, and translation.

OpenAI’s models (from GPT-3 onwards) are accessible via an API.

In November 2022, OpenAI launched its own application called “ChatGPT,” a chatbot-based on GPT-3.5, fine-tuned to interact with users in a conversational manner via a web platform. A subscription plan called “ChatGPT Plus” was introduced in February 2023, offering paid users faster response times, guaranteed access even during peak hours, and early access to new features. It also offers ChatGPT Team, tailored for smaller, solution-oriented groups. In August 2023, the company announced several new features to ChatGPT including example prompts, suggested replies, and follow-up questions to reduce user fatigue, a default GPT-4 setting for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, enabling multiple file uploads in the OpenAI Code Interpreter plugin, staying logged in and functioning with keyboard shortcuts. It also launched ChatGPT Enterprise, a business-focused iteration that provides "enterprise-grade" privacy, data analysis features, enhanced performance, and customization options. In September 2023, OpenAI announced a major update to ChatGPT allowing voice conversations and image interactions, available for subscribers of the Plus and Enterprise plans. In November 2023, the voice functionality was extended to all users. In October 2023, the company introduced a new beta feature for ChatGPT Plus members, which offers the ability to upload and work with files as well as multimodal support. It also introduced a new platform allowing users to create custom versions of ChatGPT named GPTs. In January 2024, introduced the ‘memory’ feature to personalize and enhance the user experience by remembering the user information and conversation details over time. In March 2024, OpenAI introduced an extension of its text-to-speech API named Voice Engine, which enables users to generate a synthetic copy of a voice from a 15-second sample. The solution relies on a combination of a diffusion process and transformer to generate the synthetic voices that match the sample voice's characteristics. The solution will reportedly be priced at USD 15 per 1 million characters or around 162,500 words. In April 2024, OpenAI launched a new feature for ChatGPT which enables users to highlight areas of a generated image, and suggest edits directly via the natural language interface. The company also rolled out a new style inspiration feature for DALL-E 3 which enables users to select between several pre-set image styles such as woodcut, close-up, low angle, artificial lighting and hand-drawn.

This version of ChatGPT also allows the use of plug-ins, enabling the language model to access information beyond its training data and perform limited external actions. Over 70 third-party plug-ins were rolled out in May 2023, including Wolfram, Zapier, Instacart, and Expedia. OpenAI also unveiled two of its own plug-ins—a web browser and a code interpreter—and open-sourced a third that allows the retrieval of information from personal documents and databases.

ChatGPT was effectively banned in Italy in March 2023, following an accusation by the Italian Data Protection Authority (GPDP) that the platform unlawfully collected user data. The ban was lifted in late April 2023, with OpenAI reportedly having addressed the GPDP’s concerns. Other countries including France, Germany, and the rest of the G7 have also expressed concern about ChatGPT privacy issues. In September 2023, the company launched the Red Teaming Network to enhance the safety and resilience of its AI models by assessing and stress-testing AI systems with the help of external experts. It also reintroduced the ability for ChatGPT to browse the web and provide answers from current sources during the same period.

In November 2023, it was reported that the company had 100 million weekly active users.

In August 2023, OpenAI announced the acquisition of Global Illumination, a developer of AI-based creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences, marking the first public acquisition in its history of seven years.

In September 2023, OpenAI expanded its presence in Europe by opening its first EU office in Ireland.

In November 2023, OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, a multimodal model, was set to debut on the Azure OpenAI service, merging image analysis and textual responses for image-related inquiries.

In the meantime, a legal dispute was filed in a New York federal court involving allegations of copyright infringement against Microsoft and OpenAI by non-fiction authors in November 2023.

In November 2023, OpenAI named former Twitch boss Emmett Shear as its interim CEO, after previous CEO Sam Altman’s departure . It was reported that after a review process, the board determined that Sam Altman's lack of transparency in communication impaired the board's decision-making, leading to his exit. Additionally, OpenAI's board has reportedly engaged with Anthropic's CEO , Dario Amodei, regarding replacing Sam Altman as CEO and merging the two AI startups. The majority of OpenAI's employees —nearly 700 out of about 770—threatened to quit unless the current board steps down and former CEO Sam Altman is reinstated. Sam Altman has been reinstated as CEO after a recent reversal of his dismissal from the position a week before. The company has undergone a board reshuffle, replacing multiple members amidst scrutiny surrounding the prior decision.

In January 2024, the company formed a team that will crowdsource public opinion on the behavior of its AI models and implement suggestions. In the same month, OpenAI introduced GPT-3.5 Turbo version 0125 and GPT-4 Turbo version 0125 and lowered the prices for API access.

Key customers and partnerships

In 2016, the company partnered with Microsoft to leverage Azure cloud computing services to train and run its AI models. The two firms expanded their partnership in 2019 alongside a USD 1 billion funding package, with Microsoft becoming OpenAI’s exclusive cloud service provider. OpenAI has plans to develop a hardware-software platform within Azure and jointly develop supercomputing technologies. OpenAI exclusively licensed GPT-3 to Microsoft in 2020.

In October 2023, openAI partnered with G42, a UAE-based technology holding group, to deliver advanced AI solutions in the UAE and regional markets.

In February 2024, OpenAI rolled out its new ChatGPT app, exclusively designed for Apple's Vision Pro headset.

Some of OpenAI’s notable customers include Stripe, Salesforce, Snapchat, Duolingo, Be My Eyes, Yabble, and the Government of Iceland. In addition, many startups across the generative AI space leverage OpenAI models to build applications.

In November 2023 , OpenAI launched data partnerships, aiming to collaborate with external organizations for diverse dataset creation. The program focuses on collecting large-scale, multimodal data reflecting human society's diverse aspects, emphasizing human intention expression in images, audio, and video. OpenAI plans to create open-source and private datasets to aid AI model training and domain understanding while preserving data privacy. Initial collaborations involve the Icelandic government and other entities to enhance AI capabilities in specific domains.

In November 2023 , AI startup Humane unveiled its AI Pin, a wearable chatbot powered by OpenAI, eliminating the need for traditional screens. The company also partnered with Rakuten Group, an ecommerce solutions provider, to launch “Rakuten AI for Business,” an AI platform catering to global businesses; Be My Eyes , a company offering assistance for visually impaired people, incorporating OpenAI's GPT-4 to enhance customer service for the visually impaired; Paper, an EdTech platform that introduced GenAI-powered Review Center, uniting human tutors and AI for writing feedback; and Ontra, a contract automation and intelligence solutions provider, by integrating OpenAI's GPT-4 into Ontra Synapse, boosting its legal operating system for private markets firms. In November 2023, SurveyMonkey launched “Build with AI ,” a new survey creation feature powered by OpenAI, allowing users to generate tailored surveys and forms within 30 seconds by describing their survey goals or using pre-drafted prompts.

Funding and financials

OpenAI reportedly received USD 10 billion in January 2023 from Microsoft, followed by a June 2023 funding round raising USD 300 million from venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The latest round values the company at an estimated USD 27 billion–29 billion.