OpenAI plans desktop 'superapp' to streamline user experience

OpenAI on Thursday confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that it plans to fold its ChatGPT app, coding platform Codex and browser into a single desktop “superapp” to simplify user experience.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman will temporarily oversee the product overhaul and associated organisational changes, while Chief of Applications Fidji Simo will lead the sales team as the company prepares to market the new app, an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement.

“We realised we were spreading our efforts across too many apps and stacks, and that we need to simplify our efforts,” Simo told employees in an internal note, the Journal reported.

“That fragmentation has been slowing us down and making it harder to hit the quality bar we want.”

Executives hope that bringing the company’s tool under one app will help streamline resources as OpenAI seeks to counter rising competition from rival Anthropic, the Journal reported.

Earlier this year, OpenAI launched a standalone desktop version of its Codex coding tool as it moved to strengthen its presence in the AI code-generation market.

Reuters