Meta and OpenAI's same-day launches reveal a strategic split. Meta’s generic AI video feed, "Vibes," was poorly received as "slop." In contrast, OpenAI’s "Pulse" offers personalized, high-utility content, showcasing a superior strategy of personal intelligence over mass-market AI entertainment.
Related Insights
The backlash to Meta's AI video feed "Vibes" stemmed from its impersonal, generic content. This contrasts with ChatGPT's viral "Studio Ghibli" filter, which succeeded by letting users apply an AI aesthetic to their own photos. Successful consumer AI must empower self-expression, not just serve curated assets.
The obvious social play for OpenAI is to embed collaborative features within ChatGPT, leveraging its utility. Instead, the company launched Sora, a separate entertainment app. This focus on niche content creation over core product utility is a questionable strategy for building a lasting social network.
A strategic conflict is emerging at Meta: new AI leader Alexander Wang wants to build a frontier model to rival OpenAI, while longtime executives want his team to apply AI to immediately improve Facebook's core ad business. This creates a classic R&D vs. monetization dilemma at the highest levels.
Pulse isn't just a feature; it's a strategic move. By proactively delivering personalized updates from chats and connected apps, OpenAI is building a deep user knowledge graph. This transforms ChatGPT from a reactive tool into a proactive assistant, laying the groundwork for autonomous agents and targeted ads.
A strategic rift has emerged at Meta. Long-time executives like Chris Cox want the new AI team to leverage Instagram and Facebook data to improve core ads and feeds. However, new AI leader Alexander Wang is pushing to prioritize building a frontier model to compete with OpenAI and Google first.
OpenAI has a strategic conflict: its public narrative aligns with Apple's model of selling a high-value tool directly to users. However, its internal metrics and push for engagement suggest a pivot towards Meta's attention-based model to justify its massive valuation and compute costs.
An untapped startup idea is to create a tool that constantly polls AIs on subjective topics (e.g., "best candidate"). Visualizing these "vibes" over time would create a free content engine by exposing model biases and showing how AI consensus shifts, making it a "Wirecutter for everything."
By releasing Sora as an API for developers and businesses rather than a standalone consumer app, OpenAI reveals its core strategy. The goal is to empower enterprise use cases like ad generation, not to build a new video destination to compete with platforms like YouTube or TikTok.
When tech giants release low-ambition AI products, it damages their ability to recruit top talent who are drawn to mission-driven projects. This forces companies to significantly increase signing bonuses to compensate for the less inspiring work, turning a product launch misstep into a costly talent acquisition challenge.
The race to integrate AI and social interaction has two distinct strategies. OpenAI is adding group chats to its AI utility ("putting people in the AI"). Conversely, Meta is adding AI agents into its established messaging apps ("putting AI in the chat"). This framing highlights the different starting points and strategic challenges for each company.