Mumbai, Aug 9 (NationPress) The creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, has unveiled substantial bonus distributions for around 1,000 employees, representing nearly one-third of its full-time team.

On the brink of the GPT-5 launch, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, shared an unexpected announcement through the messaging platform Slack. According to The Verge, a quarterly bonus for the next two years was granted to researchers and software engineers working in applied engineering, scaling, and safety.

The bonus amounts differ based on roles and levels of seniority. Leading researchers are set to receive bonuses in the mid-single-digit millions, while engineers can expect hundreds of thousands. These bonuses will be disbursed quarterly over two years and can be taken in cash, stock, or a blend of both.

Altman explained that this adjustment in compensation is a response to market trends, primarily influenced by the growing demand for AI professionals.

“As we noted a few weeks ago, we have been reassessing compensation for our technical teams due to market shifts,” Altman's message to staff stated, as reported by The Verge.

“Our intention is to continue enhancing compensation as our company progresses,” he remarked. “We wanted to be open about this initiative since it’s a novel approach for us,” he added.

Major tech firms and well-financed startups in Silicon Valley are ramping up their competition for AI talent by offering bonuses to lure skilled professionals. Recently, Altman has seen several prominent researchers depart to Meta, while Elon Musk's xAI is also in pursuit of talent.

India ranks as OpenAI’s second-largest market globally, right after the U.S., and it has the potential to become the largest market shortly, according to Altman.

GPT-5 is accessible to all users, with Plus subscribers enjoying increased usage, and Pro subscribers gaining entry to GPT-5 pro, a variant designed for enhanced reasoning to provide even more thorough and accurate responses.

“GPT-5 is an integrated system featuring an intelligent, efficient model that addresses most inquiries, a deeper reasoning model (GPT-5 thinking) for complex challenges, and a real-time routing system that swiftly determines which model to use based on conversation context, complexity, tool requirements, and user intent,” the company stated.

—IANS

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