TMTPOST -- OpenAI is exploring the idea of launching its own social media platform to compete with Elon Musk’s X and Meta’s Instagram, according to a person familiar with the matter. The initiative remains in the early stages, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the confidential nature of the project. The concept stems from the soaring popularity of OpenAI’s new image-generation tool, which has overwhelmed the company’s servers with user demand. The Verge first reported on the potential project. OpenAI declined to comment. Unveiled in March, the image-generation feature allows users to create visuals ranging from diagrams, logos, and stock photos to customized artwork, such as pet portraits or enhanced headshots. The tool can also modify or build upon existing images. Anime-style renderings made with the feature have gone viral across platforms like X, prompting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to change his own profile photo to an AI-generated image. “It’s super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT,” Altman posted on X last month, before noting, “our GPUs are melting,” referring to the intensive demand on graphics processing units. OpenAI has since imposed temporary limits on usage to improve system performance. The company is under pressure in the fiercely competitive generative AI market, with rivals like Musk’s xAI—which recently absorbed X—rapidly expanding. The rivalry between Altman and Musk has also spilled into courtrooms, as the two battle over OpenAI’s transition from a nonprofit lab, co-founded by Musk in 2015, to a for-profit AI powerhouse.