Interviews with Sam Altman and 100+ people on if he can be trusted amid allegations of consistent lying and more: some defend him as others call him a sociopath
Slack messages and H.R. documents, some photographed on a cellphone to avoid detection on company devices. One memo begins with a list: “Sam exhibits a consistent pattern of...” The first item is “Lying.” Separately, Dario Amodei—who left to co-found Anthropic—kept years of private notes on Altman and Brockman. More than 200 pages of related documents, never before publicly disclosed, have circulated in Silicon Valley. In one document, Amodei writes that Altman's “words were almost certainly
New Yorker
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- https://www.newyorker.com/... it's easy to dunk on openai and i do it often but i have to admit, i was wrong about the board firing him. it was the right move that said, they should have executed it better and presented all the evidence publicly. the zeitgeist was not on their side at the time sam altman is untrustworthy @jjackyliang · Jacky Liang
- This is just one anecdote, and not even a central one, in the latest @ronanfarrow piece about Sam Altman, but it embodies why we have every reason to be as angry at our government as we are @sami · Sami Sage
- The ideas contained in Sam Altman's “New Deal” are kind of shocking. We should really keep saying these and holding his feet to the fire on them as Sam goes back on his word nonstop and you can't really trust him, but he has a terminal desire to please whomever he's talking to, so this has to become part of the discourse around AI period, and we can get other companies to sign on as well. @nwbrownboi
- The tl;dr here is that something that most people in Silicon Valley already know: Sam Altman lies a lot. Just constantly. About big and little things. And every effort to hold him accountable has failed. https://www.newyorker.com/... @evacide@hachyderm.io
- Sam Altman may control our future - can he be trusted? Hacker News
Discussion
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@ronanfarrow
Ronan Farrow
on x
(🧵1/11) For the past year and a half, I've been investigating OpenAI and Sam Altman for @NewYorker. With my coauthor @andrewmarantz, I reviewed never-before-disclosed internal memos, obtained 200+ pages of documents related to a close colleague, including extensive private [video…
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@arthurb
Arthur B.
on x
If there were solid, credible, counter arguments to existential risk from ASI, Altman would be aware of them and present those. “Vibes” is the best he has to offer. [image]
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@ronanfarrow
Ronan Farrow
on x
(2/11) In the fall of 2023, OpenAI's chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, acting at the behest of fellow board members and with other concerned colleagues, compiled some 70 pages of memos about Altman and his second-in-command, Greg Brockman—Slack messages and H.R. documents, some ph…
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@packym
Packy McCormick
on x
Also, TBPN should bring on Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz today.
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@packym
Packy McCormick
on x
If I'm Anthropic, I'm locking Dario in a room for like a month and not letting him near the internet, a camera, or a microphone. Just let OpenAI look weird by themselves for a while. Probably, though, he'll pen a NYT editorial warning that AI will steal your girl. [image]
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@buccocapital
@buccocapital
on x
Paul Graham, 18 years ago: “You could parachute Sam Altman into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and he'd be the king” At this point I think you should stop being surprised he'll do whatever it takes to try to win.
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@danprimack
Dan Primack
on x
For example, so much of this was in @_KarenHao book.
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@krishnanrohit
Rohit
on x
Something I find missing from these discussions is, sure yes they make it sound like everyone thought he was untrustworthy. So why did like 99% of the OpenAI team quit after he was fired and agitate for him to come back? Seems like an important piece of evidence.
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@mattzeitlin
Matthew Zeitlin
on x
How are we supposed to “align” superintelligence if the people who are building the thing keep on getting outwitted by the intelligent and ambitious — but human — Sam Altman
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@bigmeaninternet
Malcolm Harris
on x
Appreciate @jackclarkSF pointing to the real driver here, wish the risk-concerned industry seemed more interested in a critical understanding of this, more than all the sci-fi stuff [image]
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@dylanbyers
Dylan Byers
on x
I adore The New Yorker, always will, but reporting out the previously reported for a different audience is certainly one of the genres over there.
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@katiemiller
Katie Miller
on x
After reading this piece on Sam Altman, one can reasonably conclude he's put profit over loyalty, principles, and company governance. There's business savvy and ruthlessness, and there's Sam, who at multiple points in his career has been the subject of investigations and forced
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@kakashiii111
@kakashiii111
on x
This is a terrifyingly detailed article on Sam Altman's personality. If you look at Sam's behavior over the past two years, it's hard to ignore the pattern: consistent lies, misleading disclosures, inflated active user statistics, including but not limited to a spree of hundreds…
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@pkafka
Peter Kafka
on x
On the one hand, the New Yorker profile of Sam Altman does a good of spelling out that many people who have worked with him do not trust him. On the other hand, there have been some clues. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... [image]
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@paulg
Paul Graham
on x
Since there's yet another article claiming that we “removed” Sam because partners distrusted him, no, we didn't. It's not because I want to defend Sam that I keep insisting on this. It's because it's so annoying to read false accounts of my own actions.
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@garymarcus
Gary Marcus
on x
Sam Altman in a nutshell, @newyorker: [image]
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@samfbiddle
Sam Biddle
on x
Looking forward to TBPN's robust discussion of this reporting
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@ronanfarrow
Ronan Farrow
on x
(3/11) The colleagues who facilitated his ouster accuse him of a degree of deception that is untenable for any executive and dangerous for a leader of such a transformative technology. Mira Murati, who had given Sutskever material for his memos, said: “We need institutions worthy…
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@buccocapital
@buccocapital
on x
I have it on good authority that Anthropic employees have Dario tied up in the basement. He is trying to chew through the rope so he can tell the press that AI will destroy the economy, but they've got him down there until OpenAI finishes destroying itself
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@danprimack
Dan Primack
on x
Read the New Yorker piece about @sama on plane ride back to Boston. Outside of a few specific quotes from Dario notes, not sure there was anything in there that hadn't been previously reported.
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@highyieldharry
@highyieldharry
on x
Bill Gurley hearing investors might want to oust Sam Altman [image]
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@aisafetymemes
@aisafetymemes
on x
It's confirmed. Multiple sources. OpenAI proposed enriching itself by playing China, Russia, and the US against each other, starting a bidding war. “What if we sold it to Putin?” OpenAI is not pro-America, they're pro-OpenAI They're spending unprecedented sums to buy Congress [im…
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@nkulw
Noah Kulwin
on x
What I appreciated most about this piece is the extent to which it shows people in the upper ranks of the AI corps are bag-chasing liars. Almost no one stood by their principles when a billion dollars came knocking, and I think it's bc those principles were weak to begin with
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@michhuan
Michael Huang
on x
Sam Altman (2015): “Development of superhuman machine intelligence (SMI) is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity.” OpenAI representative (2026): “What do you mean by ‘existential safety’? That's not, like, a thing.” [image]
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@mikeisaac
Rat King
on x
very nice piece by @RonanFarrow and @andrewmarantz on OpenAI drama of the past few years cannot tell you how many people, three years ago, flat out denied many of the things they're now copping to in this article what a difference a few years makes https://www.newyorker.com/...
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@alexandermccoy4
Alexander McCoy
on x
Every time someone says we can't regulate AI because “China,” remember: @sama invented that argument in 2017, without evidence. An intelligence official who investigated it told The New Yorker it was “just being used as a sales pitch.” Read more in this bombshell report: 👇👇
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@shakeelhashim
Shakeel
on x
This is a very good, very long piece. Excerpting some of the new/juicy bits (but you should read the whole thing!) [image]
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@ronanfarrow
Ronan Farrow
on x
The reporting on OpenAI and Sam Altman that I've been working on for the past year and a half, for @NewYorker, with @andrewmarantz: https://www.newyorker.com/...
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@davelevitan
Dave Levitan
on bluesky
Just getting started with the New Yorker's big Sam Altman thing but this is a weird sentence that pretty much every editor I've had (and me, also an editor sometimes) would have probably cut or at least argued about. — www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... [image]
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@stokel
Chris Stokel-Walker
on bluesky
You'd do well to read this story - and particularly the tone and tenor of the right to replies in brackets throughout www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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@karlbode.com
Karl Bode
on bluesky
nope — I think often about how the past OpenAI board said he was an untrustworthy ass with all sorts of dodgy financial conflicts of interests and the tech press pretty broadly framed them all as hyperbolic cranks
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@petertl
Peter Thal Larsen
on bluesky
Almost 11,000 words on Sam Altman and I'm still none the wiser about how OpenAI plans to make money or whether it ever will. — www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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@emilynussbaum
Emily Nussbaum
on bluesky
Possible problem that the current default setting for “person in charge of globe-rattling technologies” is “sociopath”: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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@caseynewton
Casey Newton
on bluesky
This is petty but maybe my favorite part of the New Yorker's story about OpenAI www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... [image]
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@lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
on bluesky
(Altman does not recall the exchange.) (Altman doesn't remember this.) (Altman does not recall this. Kushner says that they were not in contact at the time.) www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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@miafarrow
Mia Farrow
on bluesky
Ronan has worked intensely on this investigation for the past year and a half, dealing with hostility behind the scenes. There's shrinking space for this kind of reporting that affects our lives-individuals that can acquire the press they want to control. — www.newyorker.com/m…
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@carnage4life
Dare Obasanjo
on bluesky
That the premise of this article is “we interviewed 100+ people to determine if Sam Altman is a liar and a sociopath” is wild. — The animation of the image in the article is also quite unsettling.
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@jacobsilverman.com
Jacob Silverman
on bluesky
“They'd met nine years prior, late at night in Peter Thiel's hot tub.” — www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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@harmancipants
Reyhan Harmanci
on bluesky
“He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.” www.newyorker.co…
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@thefarce.org
@thefarce.org
on bluesky
They're torn. Most think he's a terrible sociopath. The rest thing he's a wonderful sociopath. [embedded post]
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@paularmstrongtbd
Paul Armstrong
on bluesky
What helpful research. [embedded post]
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@nixCraft@mastodon.social
@nixCraft@mastodon.social
on mastodon
Sam Altman May Control Our Future: Can He Be Trusted? — New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI. — https://www.newyorker.com/... (archived version https://archive.is/... ) — Just so you know. …
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r/neoliberal
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on reddit
Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?
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r/indepthstories
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on reddit
Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?
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r/stupidpol
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on reddit
Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?
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r/OpenAI
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on reddit
OpenAI considered enriching itself by playing China, Russia, and the US against each other, starting a bidding war. “What if we sold it to Putin?”
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r/behindthebastards
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on reddit
Sam Altman episode when?
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r/ChatGPT
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on reddit
New Yorker investigation reveals OpenAI execs discussed selling AI to Russia/China in a bidding war, post-firing probe produced no written report …
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r/ChatGPTcomplaints
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on reddit
Ronan Farrow published a investigation into Sam Altman and OpenAI today in the New Yorker - Focused on Sams Lies and a Deepdive into his firing from OpenAi in 2023
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r/JoeRogan
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on reddit
A long article on Sam Altman, with spicy mentions of other guests, like Musk who is apparently spying on Altman.
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r/UnderReportedNews
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on reddit
Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?
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r/slatestarcodex
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on reddit
Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?
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r/TrueReddit
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on reddit
Unmasking Sam Altman - by Ronan Farrow
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r/BetterOffline
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on reddit
Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? (Ronan Farrow)
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r/Longreads
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on reddit
Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?
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r/fusion
r
on reddit
In a meeting with the Biden administration, Sam Altman claimed that by 2026 an extensive network of nuclear-fusion reactors across the United States would power the A.I. boom.
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r/OpenAI
r
on reddit
New Yorker published a major investigation into Sam Altman and OpenAI today — based on never-before-disclosed internal memos and 100+ interviews
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r/technology
r
on reddit
18-month New Yorker investigation finds OpenAI's Sam Altman lobbied against the same AI regulations he publicly advocated for …