OpenAI's AgentKit wants to be your portal to the web | Ep 157

Quick Overview

OpenAI unveiled its ambitious strategy at Dev Day, positioning ChatGPT as the new front door to the internet via the introduction of 'Apps,' allowing integration with services like Spotify and Zillow, while simultaneously locking in a trillion-dollar infrastructure commitment, including a major deal with AMD for GPUs, signaling a massive push toward becoming the operating system for web activities.

Key Points: ChatGPT has grown to over 800 million weekly users, and the tokens processed through its API increased to 6 billion tokens per minute, up from 300 million in 2023. OpenAI announced 'Apps' for ChatGPT, which allows tagging into services like Expedia, Zillow, Figma, Target, and Spotify, aiming to make ChatGPT the 'new front door to the internet.' The introduction of Apps carries significant privacy risks, drawing comparisons to Facebook's platform strategy before the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as users share intimate details with ChatGPT. OpenAI made a multi-billion dollar deal with AMD to purchase 6 gigawatts worth of GPUs, receiving cheap AMD stock in return, as part of a broader plan to build a 'trillion dollar GPU empire' over the next few years. OpenAI executives stated they are 'compute constrained' and Greg Brockman revealed they have unreleased products they cannot power due to lack of compute. The financial strategy to fund this trillion-dollar infrastructure buildout involves new fundraising, debt, vendor financing, and revenue generation, leading to concerns about creating 'novel financial instruments' and the system becoming 'too big to fail.' The hosts discussed Katie Nopoulos's viral engagement with Sora 2, noting that while she initially drafted an article calling it a 'terrible idea,' she became a 'slop piggy' enjoying making amusing videos of friends, like one depicting the hosts farting during a podcast recording.

Context: The hosts, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton of the New York Times and Platformer respectively, discuss major announcements from OpenAI's third annual Developer Day in Fort Mason, San Francisco, contrasting the event's atmosphere with a similar Facebook announcement years prior. Key topics include the launch of ChatGPT Apps, massive infrastructure spending plans, and the highly anticipated but vague hardware collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive, alongside a segment with guest Katie Nopoulos regarding her use of the new Sora video generation model.