LOS ANGELES The brightest star in the artificial intelligence world. That’s what the 38-year-old has been called Sam Altman.
Under his leadership, the artificial intelligence application ChatGPT was born. That is, the artificial intelligence tool that anyone can try on the internet and which was used by a hundred million people around the world in a couple of months.
Altman is one of the founders of Open AI, the company that developed the hit product. Thanks to ChatGPT, the company grew into a so-called unicorn startup, i.e. a company worth more than a billion dollars, whose growth is considered exponential. Altman gave the company a face.
Now Altman is in the spotlight because he was surprisingly fired from Open AI – and then fired. This story tells what kind of person Sam Altman is. interviewed two industry experts for the story.
Despite his fame, Altman keeps a low profile and doesn’t talk much about himself. He prefers to talk about artificial intelligence and shoot compliments. This is how an expert who belongs to the inner circle of Silicon Valley, whom interviewed, and who works as a leading developer of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a large technology company, describes.
The interviewee speaks anonymously. He can tell what is being said about Altman, because he knows many employees of Open AI. The expert speaks anonymously because Silicon Valley’s core circle is small and he doesn’t want to burn bridges behind him.
In addition, the dismissal of Altman and the quick reversal of the decision is such a sensitive topic that people do not comment on it with their own names. We use the name of the source in the story John.
– Altman’s personality divides opinions, as you can imagine. The most amazing thing about this chain of events is the steadfast loyalty of the employees, John tells on the phone.
Open AI’s entire staff of 750 employees threatened to resign if the board did not reverse its decision to fire Altman. Altman has been invited to become a cult leader because of his loyal followers.
Belongs to the faithful Greg Brockman, one of the founders of OpenAI. He resigned in protest of Altman’s firing. When word of Altman’s return came out, Brockman posted a photo of himself celebrating with his co-workers on X (formerly Twitter).
“We are so back”, wrote Brockman, meaning freely translated: we came back with a kyba.
– Altman is very charismatic and intelligent, and has good social and business management skills. This combination is rare in Silicon Valley, analyzes John.
The employees of Open AI have been selected by people who firmly believe in Altman’s sermons that artificial intelligence will one day surpass human intelligence.
In addition to his employees, Altman has charmed investors and even heads of state. In May, he did a world tour and met, for example, the president of France Emmanuel Macronof the British Prime Minister Rishi Sun too and the president of South Korea By Yoon Suk-yeol. In June, Altman was at a dinner at the White House. Decision-makers listen to Altman’s advice on how to approach artificial intelligence programs.
– Altman is very good at giving compliments and flattering people, John laughs.
Altman himself has described in his blog that he gets surprisingly often wrapped around the world’s little finger around and act according to their own will.
A child genius who got rich at a young age
Altman’s talent was evident early on. He is said to have been a child prodigy who fixed his family video recorder at the age of three. He got his first computer at the age of eight. He started dreaming about the singularity, i.e. machine intelligence surpassing human intelligence, already as a child.
New York Magazine says in his personal story, that Altman is competitive and confident. Altman always won overwhelmingly in quizzes and other games he played at home with his three siblings. The firstborn of his parents has said that he is optimist, who still expects the worst. His ability to assess risk is excellent, because Altman does not care what others think.
Altman started computer science studies at Stanford University in 2003, but dropped out the following year.
Altman’s first company was Loopt, the sale of which made him rich. Loopt was a location-based mobile application. Altman finished developing the app with her boyfriend after dropping out of college. He sold the company for a whopping $43 million in 2012 when he was 27 years old, says The Wall Street Journal.
Having mentored thousands of start-up companies, Altman became the CEO of Y Combinator two years later. He invested in the company ten million dollars in 2011.
Altman, who got rich through business deals, owns two houses in San Francisco. He enjoys playing computer games and racing McLaren cars, of which he owns several. He has a ranch in Napa Valley, although he is vegan.
Humanity’s future in your hands?
In 2015, Altman founded the Open AI research center, whose goal was to develop safe artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. In addition to him, Tesla’s CEO was one of the founders Elon Musk and seven other Silicon Valley computer engineers, investors and companies. A for-profit company was also established in Open AI in 2019.
After a few years, Altman considered running for governor of California, but decided that developing artificial intelligence was more important.
Open AI’s revenue was $28 million in 2022. Net profit was $540 million unprofitable.
Microsoft is Open AI’s largest financier and owns 49 percent of the company.
– Microsoft is the real leader of Open AI, because if it closes the money taps, Open AI will go bankrupt within a few months. Only a charismatic leader can secure the company’s existence, says John.
A power struggle and differences of opinion in the background?
Many have described Altman as a master negotiator and strategist. He is said to have a keen eye for discovering new talent. He also mentors them.
Altman also mentored in his time Ilya Sutskever, who co-founded Open AI. Sutskever was on the company’s board when it fired Altman. He apologized for the decision and still sits on the board.
Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Arizona Gary Weiss thinks that the background of the separation is the showdown between Sutskever and Altman.
– It could be personal competition and envy of publicity. Altman won this round, Waissi analyzed to by email.
Waissi considers it important that Microsoft is not allowed to control and manipulate the development of Open AI, but that it is kept open in order to maintain competitiveness.
– This is what Altman has been driving at least until now, says Waissi.
He recalls what happened to Nokia’s mobile phone unit when the development of the Symbian operating system was kept closed: Nokia’s turnover collapsed and the mobile phone unit was sold to Microsoft in 2013.
– Although there is a lot of excitement around Altman, it is not for nothing. He is widely interested in other innovations that benefit humanity and is an investor in many start-up companies, such as Helion, which develops fusion energy, says Waissi.
Stains on a good reputation
According to John, Altman has a good reputation in the start-up community. As a counterweight to all the adulation, Altman has also been called a dangerous manipulator. Apple, for example, has been considered such in Silicon Valley Steve JobsElon Musk, Theranos Elizabeth Holmes and founder of FTX crypto Sam Bankman-Friedia. The latter two are in prison.
When Altman was at the helm of Y Combinator, his mentor and the founder of the incubator Paul Graham showed the door to its security in 2018. Graham felt that Altman put his own interests ahead of the company’s needs. The Washington Post reports that Altman has also been told lying to his employees and being deceptive.
Perhaps the biggest crack in Altman’s halo has come Annie-sister’s with allegations of abuse. However, Annie Altman, who has said she is autistic and suffered from severe depression, has not filed formal charges over the abuse, which she says took place as a child. Annie Altman, who lives in Hawaii, no longer has anything to do with her brother Sam Altman.
– I don’t know anything else about Annie other than what I’ve read on the internet. Those comments and the OpenAI board’s decision are the most negative I’ve ever heard about Altman, says John.
Annie Altman did not respond to ‘s request for an interview.