Technology
Sam Altman, over bread rolls, explores life after GPT-5
I’m looking out at Alcatraz Island from a Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco with hundred-dollar fish entrées on the menu. As I make small talk with other reporters, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman jumps through the door on my left. Altman’s looking down at his bare iPhone to show us all something, and an intrusive thought slips out of my mouth: “No phone case is a bold choice.”
Of course, I immediately realize that the billionaire CEO of OpenAI, who employs Apple veteran Jony Ive, cares more about preserving the iPhone’s original design than the $1,000 it costs to replace one.
“Listen, we’re going to ship a device that is going to be so beautiful,” says Altman, referring to OpenAI and Ive’s forthcoming AI device. “If you put a case over it, I will personally hunt you down,” he jokes.
Altman has gathered roughly a dozen tech reporters to join him and other OpenAI executives for an on-the-record dinner (and off-the-record dessert). The night raises more questions than it answers.
For instance, why is Nick Turley, the VP of ChatGPT, kindly passing me a lamb skewer just a week after launching GPT-5? Is this to encourage me to write nice things about OpenAI’s biggest AI model launch yet, which was relatively disappointing given the years of hype around it?
Unlike GPT-4, which far outpaced rivals and challenged expectations of what AI can do, GPT-5 performs roughly on par with models from Google and Anthropic. OpenAI even brought back GPT-4o and ChatGPT’s model picker, after several users expressed concerns over GPT-5’s tone and its model router.
But throughout the night, it becomes clear to me that this dinner is about OpenAI’s future beyond GPT-5. OpenAI’s executives give the impression that AI model launches are less important than they were when GPT-4 launched in 2023. After all, OpenAI is a very different company now, focused on upending legacy players in search, consumer hardware, and enterprise software.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
OpenAI shares some new details about those efforts.
Altman says OpenAI’s incoming CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, will oversee multiple consumer apps outside of ChatGPT — ones OpenAI has yet to launch. Simo is slated to start work at OpenAI in just a few weeks, and she might end up overseeing the launch of an AI-powered browser that OpenAI is reportedly developing to compete with Chrome.
Altman suggests OpenAI would even consider buying Chrome — likely an offer that would be taken more seriously than Perplexity’s bid — should it become available. “If Chrome is really going to sell, we should take a look at it,” he says before looking at all of us and asking: “Is it actually going to sell? I assumed it wasn’t gonna happen.”
Simo also might end up running an AI-powered social media app — something the OpenAI CEO has said he’s interested in exploring. In fact, Altman says there’s “nothing” inspiring to him about the way AI is used on social media today, adding that he’s interested in “whether or not it is possible to build a much cooler kind of social experience with AI.”
While Turley and Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s COO, largely give the floor to Altman, drinking wine alongside the other seated guests, Altman also confirms reports that OpenAI plans to back a brain-computer interface startup, Merge Labs, to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. (“We have not done that deal yet; I would like us to.”)
How intertwined that company will be with OpenAI’s models and devices remains to be seen. Altman describes it only as a “a company that we’d invest in.”
For all the talk of browsers and brain chips, though, the elephant in the room remains GPT-5’s rough reception. Eventually, the conversation circles back to the model that has prompted our group dinner in the first place.
Turley and Altman say they’ve learned a lot from the experience.
“I legitimately just thought we screwed that up,” says Altman on deprecating GPT-4o without telling users. Altman says OpenAI will give users a more clear “transition period” when deprecating AI models in the future.
Turley also says OpenAI is already rolling out a new update to make GPT-5’s responses “warmer,” but not sycophantic, such that it won’t reinforce negative behaviors in users.
“GPT-5 was just very to the point. I like that. I use the robot personality — I’m German, you know, whatever,” says Turley. “But many people do not, and they really like the fact that ChatGPT would actually check in with you.”
It’s a delicate balance for OpenAI to strike, especially given that some users have developed dependencies on ChatGPT. Altman says OpenAI believes that less than 1% of ChatGPT users have unhealthy relationships with the chatbot — which could still be tens of millions of people.
Turley says OpenAI has worked with mental health experts to develop a rubric to evaluate GPT-5’s answers, ensuring that the AI model will push back on unhealthy behaviors.
That said, it seems that GPT-5 hasn’t hurt OpenAI’s business. In fact, Altman says OpenAI’s API traffic doubled within 48 hours of GPT-5’s launch, and the company is effectively “out of GPUs” thanks to all the demand. Cursor and other AI coding assistants have since made GPT-5 their default AI models.
In many ways, the night’s contradictions — disappointing launches, record-breaking usage — reflect OpenAI’s strange reality right now.
Given OpenAI’s bets — and others the company is making around data centers, robotics, and energy — Altman clearly has ambitions of running a much bigger company than just the ChatGPT maker. The final form could look something like Google’s parent Alphabet, but perhaps even broader.
As the night winds down, it becomes clear we aren’t gathered to reflect on GPT-5 at all. We are being pitched on a company that’s eager to outgrow its famous and controversial product.
It seems likely that OpenAI will go public to meet its massive capital demands as part of that picture. In preparation, I think Altman wants to hone his relationship with the media. But he also wants OpenAI to get to a place where it’s no longer defined by its best AI model.
Technology
The Case for Custom eLearning Platforms: Why Organizations Are Making the Switch
The corporate eLearning market has exploded in recent years, growing over 800% since 2000. As the demand for eLearning continues to accelerate, more and more organizations are finding that off-the-shelf solutions cannot keep pace with their training needs. This has led many companies to make the switch to custom-built eLearning platforms tailored specifically for their requirements.
There are several key reasons driving the demand for customized eLearning tools:
Greater Flexibility and Scalability
Generic eLearning software packages often impose rigid constraints that limit their ability to adapt to an organization’s evolving needs. Meanwhile, the “one-size-fits-all” approach fails to support the personalized learning critical for employee development. Custom platforms provide flexibility to add and modify features to match ever-changing business goals. As companies scale training across global workforces, custom solutions built on cloud infrastructure can scale seamlessly to handle growing demand.
Deeper Integration Across Systems
Smooth integration with existing HR, LMS, and other business systems is critical for optimizing training workflows. However, off-the-shelf tools rarely integrate well, creating data and process siloes. Custom platforms can tightly integrate role-based learning paths with core business applications, sync user profiles, enable single sign-on, and more. This level of integration catalyzes more impactful training function.
Better Data and Analytics
Generic software severely limits access to data insights that drive improvement. Custom platforms unlock a trove of analytics on content consumption, learner progression, platform adoption, and real-time feedback. Integrated analytics dashboards and APIs allow businesses to derive deep visibility across the learner lifecycle. These insights help continuously enhance learner experience, target development gaps, and demonstrate direct training ROI.
Enhanced Learner Engagement
For modern learners accustomed to consumer-grade digital experiences, poor platform usability quickly erodes engagement. Custom designs allow companies to incorporate familiar features from popular apps and websites while optimizing for their audience. Adaptive learning approaches further personalize content to individual styles and needs. With modular component architecture, custom platforms stay on the cutting edge of new modalities like AR/ VR to captivate learners.
Brand and Culture Alignment
Off-the-shelf tools impose a generic and often disruptive experience that clashes with existing brand identity and culture. In contrast, custom platforms allow organizations to carry over familiar styling, voice, and workflow patterns. Consistency in experience preserves brand recognition while smoother onboarding leads to wider adoption across all employee groups. Over time, the platform can evolve alongside cultural changes as well.
While custom elearning tools require greater upfront investment, for enterprise training needs, the long-term benefits far outweigh the costs. The ability to mold platforms to current and future needs results in greater leverage from learning spend.
As businesses demand ever-more from their learning technology, custom solutions provide the agility needed for true scale. Rather than forcing training functions into the constraints of generic software, custom elearning development keeps the focus on nurturing talent and capabilities. For any organization looking to drive workforce transformation through learning, custom elearning represents the way forward.
Technology
Pintarnya raises $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia
Pintarnya, an Indonesian employment platform that goes beyond job matching by offering financial services along with full-time and side-gig opportunities, said it has raised a $16.7 million Series A round.
The funding was led by Square Peg with participation from existing investors Vertex Venture Southeast Asia & India and East Ventures.
Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan founded Pintarnya in 2022 to tackle two of the biggest challenges Indonesians face daily: earning enough and borrowing responsibly.
“Traditionally, mass workers in Indonesia find jobs offline through job fairs or word of mouth, with employers buried in paper applications and candidates rarely hearing back. For borrowing, their options are often limited to family/friend or predatory lenders with harsh collection practices,” Henry Hendrawan, co-founder of Pintarnya, told TechCrunch. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”
Around 59% of Indonesia’s 150 million workforce is employed in the informal sector, highlighting the difficulties these workers encounter in accessing formal financial services because they lack verifiable income and official employment documentation.
Pintarnya tackles this challenge by partnering with asset-backed lenders to offer secured loans, using collateral such as gold, electronics, or vehicles, Hendrawan added.
Since its seed funding in 2022, the platform currently serves over 10 million job seeker users and 40,000 employers nationwide. Its revenue has increased almost fivefold year-over-year and expects to reach break-even by the end of the year, Hendrawn noted. Pintarnya primarily serves users aged 21 to 40, most of whom have a high school education or a diploma below university level. The startup aims to focus on this underserved segment, given the large population of blue-collar and informal workers in Indonesia.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
“Through the journey of building employment services, we discovered that our users needed more than just jobs — they needed access to financial services that traditional banks couldn’t provide,” said Hendrawan. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”

While Indonesia already has job platforms like JobStreet, Kalibrr, and Glints, these primarily cater to white-collar roles, which represent only a small portion of the workforce, according to Hendrawan. Pintarnya’s platform is designed specifically for blue-collar workers, offering tailored experiences such as quick-apply options for walk-in interviews, affordable e-learning on relevant skills, in-app opportunities for supplemental income, and seamless connections to financial services like loans.
The same trend is evident in Indonesia’s fintech sector, which similarly caters to white-collar or upper-middle-class consumers. Conventional credit scoring models for loans, which rely on steady monthly income and bank account activity, often leave blue-collar workers overlooked by existing fintech providers, Hendrawan explained.
When asked about which fintech services are most in demand, Hendrawan mentioned, “Given their employment status, lending is the most in-demand financial service for Pintarnya’s users today. We are planning to ‘graduate’ them to micro-savings and investments down the road through innovative products with our partners.”
The new funding will enable Pintarnya to strengthen its platform technology and broaden its financial service offerings through strategic partnerships. With most Indonesian workers employed in blue-collar and informal sectors, the co-founders see substantial growth opportunities in the local market. Leveraging their extensive experience in managing businesses across Southeast Asia, they are also open to exploring regional expansion when the timing is right.
“Our vision is for Pintarnya to be the everyday companion that empowers Indonesians to not only make ends meet today, but also plan, grow, and upgrade their lives tomorrow … In five years, we see Pintarnya as the go-to super app for Indonesia’s workers, not just for earning income, but as a trusted partner throughout their life journey,” Hendrawan said. “We want to be the first stop when someone is looking for work, a place that helps them upgrade their skills, and a reliable guide as they make financial decisions.”
Technology
OpenAI warns against SPVs and other ‘unauthorized’ investments
In a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs.
“We urge you to be careful if you are contacted by a firm that purports to have access to OpenAI, including through the sale of an SPV interest with exposure to OpenAI equity,” the company writes. The blog post acknowledges that “not every offer of OpenAI equity […] is problematic” but says firms may be “attempting to circumvent our transfer restrictions.”
“If so, the sale will not be recognized and carry no economic value to you,” OpenAI says.
Investors have increasingly used SPVs (which pool money for one-off investments) as a way to buy into hot AI startups, prompting other VCs to criticize them as a vehicle for “tourist chumps.”
Business Insider reports that OpenAI isn’t the only major AI company looking to crack down on SPVs, with Anthropic reportedly telling Menlo Ventures it must use its own capital, not an SPV, to invest in an upcoming round.
-
Trending3 weeks agoAnalysis: How the Trump administration could be hurting Israel’s already damaged brand
-
News2 weeks ago
Men of the Trump Administration, 2026
-
Entertainment3 weeks agoRestaurateur Max Chodrow is bringing his hip Jean’s bistro to the Hamptons
-
News1 week agoOldest Carbon-rich Stars Open a Window to Early Cosmic Chemistry
-
Entertainment5 days agoPaige DeSorbo, Hannah Berner show support for Ciara Miller after ‘Summer House’ betrayal
-
News5 days agoAn Aerobot With ISRU Capabilities Could Explore Venus’ Atmosphere for Years
-
Trending5 days agoWho Are Illinois Guard Keaton Wagler’s Parents?
-
News4 days agoIf Life Exists in Venus’ Atmosphere, It Could Have Come From Earth
