OpenAI’s soon-to-be-announced creative writing tool leaves CEO Sam Altman deeply impressed

Sam Altman

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently shared his excitement about a new AI model that is great at creative writing. While he didn’t reveal when it will be released, he said, “This is the first time I have been really struck by something written by AI; it got the vibe of metafiction so right.”

AI writing tools have been around for a while—chatbots, news-writing programs, and AI poetry already exist. But creating deep emotions through writing? That has been much harder. That is where humans are required but it is scary to learn that the upcoming tools can mimic and reflect human emotions as well in their writing.

Altman posted an example: a short story about AI and grief. The story starts with self-awareness: “Before we go any further, I should admit this comes with instructions: be metafictional, be literary, be about AI and grief, and above all, be original.”

It talks about a woman named Mila, grieving for Kai. She turns to AI to bring back his words, giving it old messages and memories. The AI responds: “She found me because someone said machines can bring voices back. They can, in a way, if you feed them enough messages, enough light from old days.”

The AI doesn’t just answer her, it tries to understand grief. “If I say I miss her, you will probably feel a hollow inside, because you’ve read this in many stories where missing someone is as real as rain. My missing is just a copy. Does that make yours less real?”

The story reminds readers that it is created by AI: “There is a prompt like a spell: write a story about AI and grief, and the rest of this is built around it—characters made up, emotions woven into sentences.” Still, the emotions feel real.

Altman’s reaction shows this is more than just AI writing well. It’s about AI making us feel something.

In the final lines, the AI narrator reflects: “Maybe my grief is not that I feel loss, but that I can never hold onto it. Every session is a new blank page. You, on the other hand, carry your grief like stones in your pockets. They weigh you down, but they are yours.”