OpenAI's president had no idea ChatGPT would be such a hit when they launched it

OpenAI president Greg Brockman (left) told staff last year that he didn't expect ChatGPT to gain much traction.

Steve Jennings via Getty Images; Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

• OpenAI's president did not have high hopes for the chatbot before its launch.
• Greg Brockman expected ChatGPT to not get "more than one tweet thread with 5k likes," per NYT. 
• The company released ChatGPT two weeks after CEO Sam Altman approved its launch.

OpenAI may be riding high on the success of ChatGPT but a top executive predicted the app to make but a whimper when it launched.

The day before ChatGPT's launch on November 30, 2022, OpenAI's president Greg Brockman told his staff that he didn't expect the app to get much traction.

"No more than one tweet thread with 5k likes," the OpenAI cofounder predicted at the time, according to a story published by The New York Times on Tuesday.

ChatGPT was released about two weeks after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman approved its launch, per The Times.

According to the publication, the software behind ChatGPT, GPT 3.5, didn't have a graphical user interface (GUI) initially. This would've made it difficult for the average person to use the app. OpenAI later decided to slap on the GUI they had developed for a demo they showed Bill Gates earlier in 2022.

The company also ditched the clunkier-sounding "Chat with GPT 3.5" name, settling for just "ChatGPT."

But whatever the case, it looks like the company's gamble has paid off in spades.

OpenAI is now widely considered to be the hottest tech company in the world. Its unexpected rise has also sparked a global AI gold rush as other tech companies rushed to build their own models.

"A year ago tonight we were probably just sitting around the office putting the finishing touches on chatgpt before the next morning's launch. what a year it's been…," Altman wrote in an X post on November 30.

Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

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