- OpenAI launched a GPT Store marketplace for AI apps, similar to Apple’s App Store.
- OpenAI held its first developer conference in November, generating Apple WWDC-levels of hype.
- CEO Sam Altman was temporarily ousted from OpenAI but quickly reinstated, echoing Steve Jobs’ firing from Apple.
- Rumors suggest OpenAI may develop a consumer AI device, though it likely won’t rush to market first like Apple often didn’t.
- From its products to leadership drama, OpenAI is following Apple’s template to potentially become an AI powerhouse.
How OpenAI GPT Store is Mirroring Apple’s Rise to Tech Dominance
OpenAI’s moves to create its own developer ecosystem represent a pivotal power shift in Silicon Valley’s landscape. For over a decade, Apple has dominated the app economy, serving as a gatekeeper for which software thrives or fails. Now OpenAI is positioning itself to play that same role in the emerging market for AI applications.
With the launch of the GPT Store, OpenAI has given itself tremendous influence over which conversational AI tools gain exposure and financial upside. The company may aim to leverage developers’ creations to enhance its own AI capabilities down the line, similar to how Apple utilizes app creator innovations to improve iOS features and devices.
This mirrors the platform strategies employed by previous tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon to lock users into their ecosystems. By controlling access to OpenAI’s coveted models like ChatGPT, the lab can fuel network effects that discourage developers from supporting competitors.
The parallels to Apple also underscore OpenAI’s soaring ambitions under founder Sam Altman to become the world’s preeminent AI company. Altman clearly recognizes that superior technology alone does not guarantee market dominance—leveraging an ecosystem to align incentives often matters more. With Microsoft’s backing and the runaway success of ChatGPT, OpenAI is now poised to dictate the future paths and financial fortunes of countless AI builders. The GPT Store may one day drive the AI app economy as much as Apple’s App Store drove mobile.
OpenAI Follows Apple’s Playbook with Launch of GPT Store and Altman Drama
OpenAI has kicked off 2023 by emulating one of Silicon Valley’s most legendary companies: Apple. With the launch of its new GPT Store marketplace this month, the artificial intelligence startup now has its own equivalent to the Apple App Store.
The GPT Store allows developers to share and potentially monetize AI applications built using OpenAI’s technology like ChatGPT. It provides a platform for the over 3 million customized ChatGPT bots and apps that creators have built. Just as Apple takes a 30% commission from apps in its store, OpenAI plans to pay developers based on user engagement starting in March.
This launch comes on the heels of OpenAI’s first developer conference in November 2022. The hype and excitement around the event drew comparisons to Apple’s renowned Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), with investors calling it the most thrilling developer event since the early iPhone days.
And that’s not the only way OpenAI is taking pages from Apple’s playbook. The AI lab’s co-founder Sam Altman recently experienced his own Steve Jobs-esque saga. Much like Jobs was infamously ousted from Apple in 1985 due to tensions with the board, Altman was also pushed out as OpenAI’s CEO in November 2022 over issues around his communication transparency.
However, just a few weeks later, Altman was reinstated after intervention from key OpenAI backers like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. This echoes Jobs’ own return to Apple 11 years after his firing, when the company acquired his newer venture NeXT for $439 million in 1996.
Looking ahead, rumors suggest Altman aims to develop a consumer AI device for OpenAI, perhaps trying to replicate Jobs’ industry-changing success with the iPhone. While other startups like Humane are already working on personal AI gadgets, Altman may take a page from Apple’s strategy of improving on existing ideas rather than rushing to be first to market.
With its widening product portfolio, breakout hit in ChatGPT, cultish developer following, and even its own dose of leadership drama, OpenAI seems primed to follow Apple’s trajectory from promising startup to potential tech titan. If Altman continues channeling his inner Steve Jobs, more game-changing moves lie ahead in AI. The GPT Store may one day be as ubiquitous for intelligent apps as Apple’s is for mobile.
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