OpenAI Acquires Multi to Expand Its Collaborative Technology Portfolio

Co-founder and CEO of Multi, Alexander Embiricos, posted on his X account today, explicitly stating that he (and possibly the entire Multi team) has joined OpenAI's "ChatGPT Desktop Team," which is responsible for developing the ChatGPT for Mac desktop application set to be released in May 2024.

Multi first announced this news to its users and followers in a blog post, stating:

"Recently, we have been asking ourselves how we can collaborate with computers. Not just on computers or using computers, but truly collaborating with computers. Collaborating with AI. We believe this is one of the most important product questions of our time."

Therefore, we are thrilled to announce that Multi is joining OpenAI!"

This news has sparked speculation among users on the X platform that OpenAI will allow Multi to use its AI models, such as GPT-4o, to "take over" users' computers and perform actions on behalf of the users based on text or voice prompts. For example, users could say something like "ChatGPT, create a spreadsheet based on my recent work hours and send it to my manager," and it would attempt to execute that action.

Analysis suggests that OpenAI may view this acquisition as a way to enhance its ChatGPT Team and Enterprise subscription plans, as these versions have already focused more on providing technology for teams to collaborate better.

The current Multi application will cease operations and delete all user data in one month.

However, Multi also revealed that it will "phase out" the current version of its software within a month and shut down on July 24, 2024, while deleting all user data.

In a brief FAQ section in its blog post, Multi advises users to export their data before this date, which can be done through the "Export Session Notes" setting at the following URL: https://app.multi.app/account.

For individual users or company accounts, Multi will extend the deletion date to July 24, 2024, if they directly request it via email to Embiricos (alexander@multi.app). Multi also states that its team members can recommend alternative solutions through the same email address.

What has Multi done?

Multi was initially founded as Remotion in 2019, focusing on developing a video conferencing and desktop screen sharing application similar to Zoom.

Reportedly, the company raised a total of $13 million from its Series A and seed funding rounds, with investors including Graylock and First Round.

Multi first released its initial macOS application in October 2020, which Fast Company described as a "lightweight" video conferencing alternative to Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The contact list is displayed on one side of the screen, rather than in full-screen or tiled view, and it continuously shows your frequently contacted individuals or team members, along with status indicators indicating their willingness for quick one-on-one or group chats.

Last summer, the company changed its name from Remotion to Multi as part of a strategic "refocus on helping technical teams build together faster." This shift indicated that the company was evolving with the changing market and no longer limited to purely remote work, unlike Remotion, which primarily focused on remote teams.

In a blog post at the time, the company stated, "With this new product focus, we are building tools that enable all technical teams to collaborate better, whether they are next to each other or on different continents... Our long-term goal is to create a multiplayer collaboration layer for all the tools you use, whether they are web-based or native. This should feel like your entire operating system has been upgraded for team collaboration."

At that time, the Multi application was redesigned to emphasize screen sharing of application windows across multiple desktops, allowing team members to collaborate in a shared view on their desktops, draw and annotate on the applications open on their desktops, and even merge their different application views into one shared view.

A few months ago, Multi launched an iOS beta app and started adding support for large language models (LLMs) to work sessions and video calls shared among team members.

Interestingly, the company stated at the time that "chatbots are not the future" and linked to a blog post by researcher Amelia Wattenberger on Github, explaining why current chat interfaces for large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are essentially empty shells that do not provide enough context or cues for users to interact with these models effectively or enough information to explain what the AI is doing.

Now, the entire Multi team is joining OpenAI and ChatGPT, the provider most relevant to chatbot interfaces for large language models (LLMs), particularly focused on developing their chatbot for desktops. If the Multi team can bring more of their own vision to the ChatGPT team, it will be an interesting and inspiring transformation.