OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT – is reportedly working on its own social media platform. This news recently surfaced through a series of tweets, leaks, and lively discussions on forums like Hacker News. What started as a rumor now seems more serious than initially thought. Allegedly, there is already an internal prototype where users can post AI-generated images in an Instagram-like feed. In this article, I’ll dive into it!
My first question, probably like many others: why on earth would an AI company dive into the already saturated world of social media? Is this a brilliant strategic idea, or an expensive distraction from their core mission? The first signals about this plan came from The Verge, which reported that OpenAI is working on a social platform where image generation via ChatGPT plays a central role.
Imagine: you create a Ghibli-style AI image, click ‘post,’ and share it with your followers in a feed. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, is said to be gathering feedback behind the scenes from trusted insiders about the idea.
That Altman is thinking about this isn’t really surprising. Back in February, he responded to a post about Meta’s AI plans by saying, “Ok fine maybe we’ll do a social app.” It sounded like a joke at the time, but now it appears to be a serious strategy. Combine that with OpenAI’s public experiments with an AI image feed on Sora.com, and the picture becomes clearer.
Why this could actually be a smart move
Over the past few days, I’ve been reading through countless forums like Reddit and Hacker News to form a well-rounded opinion on this plan. I have to admit, there are some interesting angles to it.
- Fresh data supply
OpenAI constantly needs new, real user data to improve its models. As more and more online data disappears behind paywalls or gets contaminated with AI-generated content, having a proprietary stream of genuine user data is invaluable. A social network where people actively post, comment, and share provides exactly that. - Creative co-creation
Instead of endless political arguments or viral videos, an AI-driven platform could revolve around expression and creativity. Think of posts created through collaboration between humans and machines. That’s a fundamentally different starting point compared to existing networks—and potentially refreshing. - Always a digital sparring partner
Imagine a platform where you type a thought, and the AI helps make it sharper, more visual, or more engaging. That’s not social media as we know it—that’s a personal assistant for your content creation. There’s real potential here. You can already see hints of this happening on platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, where similar features are being introduced.
A new network… or a repeat of past mistakes?
Of course, there are also plenty of reasons why this could end up being another Google Plus moment.
- An overcrowded market
We already have X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky, Reddit, Discord, Instagram… the list is endless. Why would users adopt yet another network, especially one potentially populated by bots? Personally, I’m finding myself reducing the number of active channels just to maintain focus. - AI as a social illusion
A network filled with posts and conversations created by AIs may sound fascinating, but in my view, it can quickly feel hollow. Many people value social networks because real people are behind them. If that human layer is missing, there’s little emotional value left. - Privacy and trust
OpenAI is already under fire for using training data without clear consent. If the company also starts reading your social posts—whether you consent or not—how transparent and fair will that be? And who decides what you are allowed to share on a network built by an AI company? - Loss of focus at OpenAI
Putting on my startup coach hat for a moment: OpenAI is fundamentally an AI research and product company. Building a social network—with all the moderation, growth hacking, community building, and everything else that entails—risks stretching the company too thin. Resources currently devoted to fundamental AI development could be scattered across a project far outside their original expertise. In a market where competition around model quality, reliability, and speed is heating up, this could be a major distraction.
Caught between ambition and a hunger for data
Whether this is a good idea really depends on your perspective. For OpenAI, it’s a smart move strategically: it delivers user data, visibility, and a way to integrate their tools more deeply into everyday life. But for users, the tension is greater. Do we want yet another platform? And more importantly: do we want to fill that platform with our thoughts, images, and conversations, knowing they might be used to train AI systems?
If this network manages to create a more positive, creative, and AI-assisted form of online interaction, it could add real value. But if it becomes just another smart data trap, filled with AI content and lacking a human soul, people will likely walk away as quickly as they arrived.
When will we hear more?
For now, nothing has been officially announced, but the direction is clear. The AI image feed on Sora seems to be the first public test. It’s likely that in the coming months, OpenAI will experiment with small features within ChatGPT itself—like sharing generated content with others—before potentially launching a separate app.
Whether this new network can truly attract users comes down to one thing: does it genuinely enhance the way we interact online? If it’s just an AI-coated version of existing networks, the hype will fade fast. But if OpenAI succeeds in giving co-creation and AI interaction a more human face, it could very well carve out a whole new kind of online space.
