OpenAI is making it easier for ChatGPT users to connect to third-party apps to perform tasks, the company's latest effort to establish its flagship product as a key gateway to a wide range of digital services.

Unveiled at OpenAI's annual developer conference on Monday (October 6th), ChatGPT users can create a playlist for the weekend and the app will connect to Spotify for recommendations. Or, without leaving ChatGPT, they can search for three-bedroom homes in a specific neighborhood on Zillow. Other available apps include Figma, Expedia, and Booking.com. OpenAI calls this feature "talking to apps" and requires logging into the corresponding app to use it for the first time.

"This opens up opportunities for developers to build completely new applications, even natively on ChatGPT," OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said in an interview on Monday (October 6th). "And of course, all of your favorite services will benefit from this as well."

The event capped a busy few weeks for OpenAI. The company completed a secondary share sale, making it the world's most valuable startup. It also launched several notable features and products, including a social video app called Sora, which quickly climbed to the top of Apple's App Store charts. OpenAI also announced several large infrastructure deals with companies like Nvidia and AMD to support broader adoption of its technology.

In a sign of OpenAI's growing market influence, a long list of companies, including Figma Inc., Expedia Group, and Booking Holdings, saw their shares rise on Monday (October 6th) after being mentioned at the developer conference. "This is a strange new thing that's started to happen recently," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said when asked about these market trends at a press briefing. "We're trying to figure out how to adapt to this world, but it's a strange place."

Altman said OpenAI now has over 800 million weekly users using ChatGPT. The service's rapid growth has boosted OpenAI's revenue, and in September, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar stated at a conference that the company is on track to generate $13 billion in revenue this year, up from $4 billion in 2024. Despite this, the AI ​​developer remains unprofitable due to billions of dollars in annual computing and R&D costs, not to mention OpenAI's recent heavy investments in chips and data centers.