Report: OpenAI to Launch Previously Delayed Online Store Next Week

OpenAI will reportedly launch an online store next week after delaying it in November.

The store will allow people to share custom versions of the company’s ChatGPT chatbot, which are dubbed “GPTs,” Bloomberg reported Thursday (Jan. 4), citing an email sent by OpenAI Thursday to people who have been building GPTs.

The email did not specify the launch date of the online store, per the report.

OpenAI did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The company announced in early November that it would launch a GPT store in the following weeks to collect the best custom GPT apps and — someday — share revenues with the most popular creators.

The move was reminiscent of Apple’s entry into the software services market with the launch of its App Store.

“We believe if you give people better tools, they will do amazing things,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, per a Nov. 6 Financial Times report. “Eventually you’ll ask a computer for what you need and it will do all these tasks for you.”

It was reported Dec. 1 that OpenAI delayed the opening of its custom GPT store until early 2024. The company attributed the delay to its continuing efforts to make improvements to the GPTs.

OpenAI went through a period of leadership turmoil in the middle of November, with Altman being removed from the company Nov. 17 but then returned to the CEO post less than a week later.

It was reported at the time that one of the issues leading to the ouster of Altman was his plan to launch the OpenAI app store. There had been a debate over whether an app store would be good or bad for OpenAI’s mission and commercial intent.

Around 92% of Fortune 500 companies are using the firm’s AI products, and 100 million people are actively using ChatGPT every week, Altman said Nov. 6 at OpenAI’s first-ever Developer Day event.

The AI pioneer is betting on natural language prompts as being a future-fit interface for users to engage with AI technology as the innovation matures and adoption grows. By making it easy for everyday users to create GPTs, the company hopes that more users will do so.

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