Good Stratechery update today on OpenAI’s “code red”, with Sam Altman telling the company to refocus:

Altman’s declaration raises another long-standing Stratechery concern about OpenAI: the lack of focus. I wanted the company for years to give up their enterprise business and focus on ChatGPT; I eventually conceded on this point, but there sure do seem to be some focus issues at play with this news!

I have mixed feelings. I like when companies try lots of things. But OpenAI’s strength is they have good products, so prioritizing ChatGPT also makes sense. Ads would get in the way too.

@manton A tough predicament to be sure. Enterprise is where the $ will be. If they double down on ChatGPT, then it’s essentially a competition for search & they’ll need to dethrone Google. But, 75% of Googles revenue is from (wait for it) ads on search. Without ads, it’s hard to see incentives.

@bradleyandroos Yeah, seems that they need to do “everything” and see what clicks. I know some people doubt the hardware ambitions, but I think that could really be something too. (“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”)

@manton Haha. Not sure if you meant for “see what clicks” to be a double entendre about ads, but it’s a good one either way. As for the hardware, I think you and Alan Kay are on to something.