Sources say OpenAI plans to turn ChatGPT into a "super intelligent personal work assistant" to compete with Microsoft

CTOnews.com, June 27 (Xinhua)-- OpenAI, a hot start-up in artificial intelligence, plans to launch a "job assistant," a move that seems to put the company in competition with its main investor, Microsoft, according to The Information.

Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, told investors privately that he planned to turn ChatGPT into a "super intelligent personal work assistant" who could draft emails or documents for users based on personal style and up-to-date business information, The Information said, citing unnamed sources.

However, the assistant may have conflicts of interest with customers such as Microsoft and Salesforce, which is also OpenAI's main partner, investor and cloud service provider, and they also want to use OpenAI's software to build artificial intelligence "Copilots" to assist in their work. But according to Altman and two other people familiar with the matter, building new ChatGPT features will be the focus of OpenAI's commercialization efforts.

In January, Microsoft announced an investment in OpenAI at a price of $10 billion (CTOnews.com Note: about 72.4 billion yuan) and took a 49% stake in the company. Under the agreement, Microsoft will receive a 75 per cent profit on OpenAI LP until the investment is recovered, after which it will retain a 49 per cent stake. After Microsoft recoups its investment, some of OpenAI LP's profits will continue to belong to Microsoft until a ceiling is reached, and the rest will be transferred to non-profits.

This unconventional structure worried early supporters of OpenAI, including Elon Musk, who expressed dissatisfaction with Microsoft's level of ownership and its potential impact on AI. However, Altman said at the recent Bloomberg Technology Summit that he and Microsoft were satisfied with the deal.