OpenAI Is Jealous

TechnologyAnthropic’s Little BrotherOpenAI is racing to catch up to its greatest rival.By Matteo WongIllustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The AtlanticApril 28, 2026, 9 AM ET ShareSave OpenAI does not like to be left out. The week after Anthropic announced Claude Mythos Preview—an AI model that has put governments around the world on edge because of its potential ability to hack into banks, energy grids, and military systems—OpenAI shared a program that is uncannily similar. And just like Anthropic did with its model, OpenAI has, for cybersecurity purposes, restricted access to this new bot, called GPT-5.4-Cyber, to a small group of trusted users.This sequence has become something of a pattern: First Anthropic will make an announcement, and then OpenAI will follow suit. Last year, Anthropic launched Claude Code, an AI coding tool. A couple of months later, OpenAI came out with its own version, Codex. When Claude Code had a breakout moment in January, OpenAI responded with two major updates to Codex alongside a press blitz for the product. And earlier this month, OpenAI released a version of Codex that allows it to use other apps on your desktop—similar to an existing Anthropic tool called Claude Cowork.Until recently, Anthropic—founded by a group of former OpenAI employees in 2021—played the role of younger brother. OpenAI kicked off the entire AI boom with the release of ChatGPT, and has had more users, funding, and name recognition ever since. But Anthropic has been riding high on the explosive popularity of Claude Code and booming sales of its AI models to large corporations. The firm’s showdown with the Pentagon has also helped vault it into the public eye. In early April, Anthropic said its revenue rate had hit $30 billion a year—appearing to surpass OpenAI’s.Read: Claude Mythos Is Everyone’s ProblemIn its public messaging, OpenAI has been indifferent or even somewhat derogatory toward Anthropic. Last week, when OpenAI released its newest model, GPT-5.5, the announcement was paired with direct and veiled references to how it beat out Anthropic’s latest, Claude Opus 4.7. But internally, the firm is seemingly on edge. In a recent leaked company-wide memo, Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s chief revenue officer, felt the need to address one particular competitor: “Here are a few things worth keeping in mind, especially on Anthropic.” The rival firm’s product offerings are narrow, Dresser wrote, and “their story is built on fear,” referencing Anthropic’s loud messaging about the dangers of AI. “Our positive message will win over time.” (OpenAI, which has a business partnership with The Atlantic, did not respond to a request for comment. Anthropic also did not respond to a request for comment.)If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, OpenAI’s actions are especially telling. At every turn, OpenAI has appeared eager to copy the success of its rival. For starters, as Anthropic’s explicit focus on mitigating the risks of AI has apparently won the trust of many consumers, OpenAI has imitated many of its rival’s safety initiatives. In early 2026, after Anthropic published a major update to Claude’s “Constitution,” a document that tells the AI model how to behave, OpenAI launched a major campaign around its equivalent document.But OpenAI’s most important, Anthropic-esque pivot has been in its business model. Early on, these two companies made fundamentally different bets on how they would eventually make money. OpenAI positioned itself as a…

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