OpenAI names Sottiaux to helm ChatGPT super‑app
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- Thibault Sottiaux was appointed OpenAI’s head of core products last month, overseeing ChatGPT and Codex and reporting directly to Greg Brockman.
- OpenAI has shut down its video app Sora and an AI platform for scientists to reallocate resources toward the upcoming super‑app.
- ChatGPT is being reengineered into a proactive personal agent with advanced memory that can handle tasks such as making reservations and filing expense reports.
- Codex will serve as the core engine for the super‑app, leveraging its rapid revenue growth and expanding usage among non‑technical users.
- Visa partnered with OpenAI to enable agentic payments, part of the super‑app’s plan to integrate with existing financial services.
- Google DeepMind gave Sottiaux experience building infrastructure for AlphaGo, which he now applies to scaling ChatGPT’s consumer assistant.
Why it matters: The super‑app push could secure OpenAI’s dominance in consumer AI and boost revenue ahead of its IPO, while giving it a unified interface that rivals Google and Anthropic; meanwhile, the shutdown of side products like Sora sacrifices those niche offerings for resources.
