OpenAI's DevDay 2025 preview: Will Sam Altman launch the ChatGPT browser?
OpenAI will host more than 1,500 developers at its largest annual conference on Monday, as the company behind ChatGPT seeks to maintain its edge in an increasingly competitive artificial intelligence landscape.The third annual DevDay conference at San Francisco's Fort Mason represents a critical moment for OpenAI, which has seen its dominance challenged by rapid advances from Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, and Meta's growing AI efforts. The event comes just days after OpenAI's new Sora video generation app topped Apple's App Store, demonstrating the company's ability to capture mainstream attention even as technical competitors close the gap.Chief Executive Sam Altman will deliver the opening keynote at 10 a.m. Pacific time, promising "announcements, live demos, and a vision of how developers are reshaping the future with AI." The session will be livestreamed, but subsequent presentations — including a developer-focused "State of the Union" with President Greg Brockman and a closing conversation between Altman and Apple design legend Jony Ive — will only be available to in-person attendees.Google and Meta challenge ChatGPT's developer dominanceThe conference arrives at a pivotal moment for OpenAI. While the company's ChatGPT remains the most recognizable AI brand globally, technical evaluations show Google's latest Gemini models performing competitively on coding tasks, while Anthropic's Claude has gained traction among developers for its safety features and reasoning capabilities.This intensifying competition has fundamentally altered OpenAI's strategic calculus. The company that once commanded premium pricing for access to its models now finds itself in a price war, releasing more capable systems at lower costs to retain developer loyalty.The shift reflects a maturing market where technical performance differences between leading AI models have narrowed considerably, forcing companies to compete on price, developer experience, and specialized capabilities rather than raw model superiority.The timing of DevDay also follows several strategic moves by OpenAI that signal broader ambitions beyond its core chatbot business. The company recently launched Sora 2, its advanced video generation model, alongside a social media application that allows users to create and share AI-generated videos. Industry observers speculate that Monday's event could feature the long-rumored ChatGPT browser, potentially challenging Google Chrome's dominance.Enterprise AI adoption takes center stage as revenue strategy shiftsThis year's agenda reflects OpenAI's growing focus on enterprise customers, who provide more predictable revenue streams than consumer subscriptions. Sessions will cover "orchestrating agents at scale," enterprise AI adoption challenges, and how OpenAI applies its own technology to internal workflows across sales, support, and finance.The enterprise emphasis marks a shift from earlier DevDay events. The inaugural 2023 conference introduced GPT-4 Turbo and the GPT Store marketplace, while 2024's more subdued gathering focused primarily on developer API improvements. This year's expanded format suggests OpenAI views the developer community as crucial to its competitive positioning.The State of the Union presentation is expected to focus on how artificial intelligence is transforming software development workflows, with anticipated demonstrations of enhanced capabilities in OpenAI's Codex programming assistant and the introduction of new open model offerings that could expand developer access to the company's technology.AI safety concerns prompt delays as OpenAI addresses deployment risksThe conference occurs against a backdrop of increasing scrutiny over AI safety and deployment practices. OpenAI recently delayed the release of its open-weight model — originally scheduled for last week — to conduct additional safety testing. Altman cited the irreversible nature of releasing model weights as justification for the cautious approach."Once weights are out, they can't be pulled back," Altman wrote in an X.com post, highlighting the delicate balance between open innovation and responsible deployment that has become central to AI development.The safety focus extends to the conference itself, where OpenAI will demonstrate what it calls "interactive evaluations" for measuring AI agent performance across complex, long-term tasks. These assessments represent an evolution beyond traditional benchmarks, addressing real-world deployment challenges that enterprise customers face.Sora cinema and interactive AI demos showcase next-generation capabilitiesBeyond formal presentations, DevDay will feature hands-on demonstrations of emerging technologies. A "Sora Cinema" will showcase AI-generated short films, while custom arcade games built using GPT-5 — OpenAI's latest model — will demonstrate the technology's creative applications.Perhaps most intriguingly, attendees can interact with a "living portrait" of computer science pioneer Alan Turing that responds to questions, representing the kind of interactive AI experiences that could define the next generation of human-computer interaction.The presence of Jony Ive at the closing session carries particular significance. The former Apple executive has been collaborating with OpenAI on a consumer AI device, suggesting Monday's conversation could provide insights into the company's hardware ambitions.Developer ecosystem and market positioning face unprecedented competitive pressureFor enterprise technology decision-makers, DevDay represents more than a product showcase — it's a window into how AI will reshape software development and business processes. The conference agenda includes sessions on context engineering, agent orchestration, and enterprise scaling challenges that reflect real-world implementation hurdles.The developer ecosystem around OpenAI's APIs has become a critical competitive moat. Companies like Cursor, Clay, and Decagon have built substantial businesses on OpenAI's foundation models, creating network effects that make switching to alternative providers more difficult.However, this ecosystem faces new challenges as competitors offer compelling alternatives. Google's recent improvements to Gemini for coding tasks and Meta's investments in its Superintelligence Labs represent serious threats to OpenAI's developer mindshare.As the AI industry matures beyond initial breakthroughs, Monday's DevDay will test whether OpenAI can maintain its leadership position through superior tooling, developer experience, and enterprise-focused innovation. With over $500 billion in market valuation riding on continued growth, the stakes for this year's conference extend far beyond San Francisco's shores.The keynote begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time and will be available via livestream on OpenAI's YouTube channel.