OpenAI is planning to combine its Atlas web browser, ChatGPT app, and Codex coding app into a singular desktop super app. This news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and effectively confirmed by OpenAI on X when its CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, said the company was doubling down on its successful products.
Simo is set to oversee the development of the new super app and will get assistance from OpenAI’s President, Greg Brockman. By taking this move, the AI company aims to streamline the user experience and reduce fragmentation. With that said, each of the apps currently do quite different things so it will be interesting to see how they put this all together.
In an internal memo to employees, WSJ relays that Simo said: “We realized we were spreading our efforts across too many apps and stacks, and that we need to simplify our efforts. That fragmentation has been slowing us down and making it harder to hit the quality bar we want.”
OpenAI is in a fierce battle with companies like Anthropic and Google to produce the best models and products. By unifying and speeding up the development of their desktop offering, it gives OpenAI a leg up in the race. It could also make more users aware that products like Atlas and Codex even exist because right now they are much less known than ChatGPT.
Atlas is probably the least known among the three products. It launched in October and lets users browse the web with ChatGPT packed in, elevating it over traditional browsers that offer less features. Unfortunately, this browser is only available on macOS, so fewer people have had a chance to use it.
Source: Wall Street Journal and X via CNBC