Sam Altman - How to Make an Abundant Future - [Invest Like the Best, EP.484]
My guest today is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
It's a conversation spanning the history, present, and future of OpenAI, from the origin of ChatGPT through Codex, hardware, and their new Jalapeno chip.
We discuss the early decision to buy compute at a scale nobody thought was rational, and the plan to build a gigawatt of new capacity every week.
We talk about Kimi and distillation, the Hugging Face incident and what it means for the pace of AI development, and what it's like to raise kids who will grow up never knowing a world without abundant intelligence.
Please enjoy my conversation with Sam Altman.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best
(00:02:02) Intro: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
(00:02:35) Refocusing
(00:05:43) OpenAI’s Compute Bets
(00:09:07) Data Centers
(00:11:14) Jalapeno Chip
(00:11:52) Kimi, Distillation & Open Source
(00:14:39) The Hugging Face Incident
(00:17:46) OpenAI's Mission & Vision
(00:22:14) All the Returns Are at the Frontier
(00:22:27) Bottlenecks: Compute, Research, Data
(00:23:49) Sam's View on AI & Jobs
(00:26:56) Unpopular Bets That Turned Out Right
(00:27:45) Model Cycles
(00:29:45) How Sam Uses AI
(00:32:44) Having Kids
(00:34:56) Why Sam Has No Equity in OpenAI
(00:35:33) Robotics
(00:36:48) The Origin Story of ChatGPT
(00:39:22) How to Get AI into More Hands
(00:42:20) How Sam Recruited Great AI Researchers
(00:43:57) What Sam Learned From Being an Investor
(00:45:22) What the Next 6–36 Months Look Like
(00:46:31) Codex
(00:49:36) Could We Be Oversupplied in Compute in Two Years?
(00:50:09) Sam's View on Scaling Laws
(00:50:20) Alec Radford
(00:51:12) Formative Moments
(00:53:50) Kindest Thing
Sam Altman: How OpenAI Wins, AI Buildout Logic, IPO in 2026?
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI. Altman joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss OpenAI's plan to win in a tightening AI race. Altman dissects his company's strategy, where he sees OpenAI having an advantage, and where he expects his product lineup to go in 2026 and beyond. We discuss AI memory and personalization, the distribution vs. product debate, how OpenAI will pay for its infrastructure buildout, AI devices, AI clouds, whether we've hit AGI yet, and plenty more. Tune in for an exclusive, 1-on-1 discussion with the AI industry's top catalyst.
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All things AI w @altcap @sama & @satyanadella. A Halloween Special. 🎃🔥BG2 w/ Brad Gerstner
Brad Gerstner sits down with Satya Nadella (Microsoft) and Sam Altman (OpenAI) to unpack the $3 trillion AI buildout transforming technology, business, and the global economy. They dive deep into the OpenAI–Microsoft partnership, how it unlocked massive scale in the cloud, and what it reveals about the future of intelligence and capital.Nadella breaks down how Microsoft is expanding Azure and Copilot to meet explosive demand. Altman shares his view on progress, power, and the human drive to push boundaries. A candid, energizing conversation about building the future at scale. Enjoy another episode of BG2!
(00:00) Intro
(02:28) Microsoft’s Investment in OpenAI
(03:19) The Nonprofit Structure and Its Impact
(05:46) Health, AI Security, and Resilience
(07:50) Models, Exclusivity, and Distribution
(08:58) Revenue Sharing and AGI Milestones
(11:38) OpenAI’s Growth and Compute Commitments
(15:21) Compute Constraints and Scaling
(21:27) The Future of AI Devices and Consumer Use
(24:31) Regulation and the Patchwork Problem
(28:01) Looking Ahead to 2026 and Beyond
(37:10) Microsoft’s Strategic Value from OpenAI
(57:15) The Economics of AI and SaaS
(1:04:28) Productivity, Jobs, and the Age of AI
(1:10:43) Reindustrialization of America
Produced by Dan ShevchukMusic by Yung Spielberg
Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com
Follow:Brad Gerstner @altcap https://x.com/altcap
BG2 Pod @bg2pod https://x.com/BG2Pod
Sam Altman on Sora, Energy, and Building an AI Empire
Sam Altman has led OpenAI from its founding as a research nonprofit in 2015 to becoming the most valuable startup in the world ten years later.
In this episode, a16z Cofounder Ben Horowitz and General Partner Erik Torenberg sit down with Sam to discuss the core thesis behind OpenAI’s disparate bets, why they released Sora, how they use models internally, the best AI evals, and where we’re going from here.
Resources:
Follow Sam on X: https://x.com/sama
Follow OpenAI on X: https://x.com/openai
Learn more about OpenAI: https://openai.com/
Try Sora: https://sora.com/
Follow Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz
Stay Updated:
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Is the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income? (Update)
A lot of jobs in the modern economy don’t pay a living wage, and some of those jobs may be wiped out by new technologies. So what’s to be done? We revisit an episode from 2016 for a potential solution.
SOURCES:Erik Brynjolfsson, professor of economics at Stanford University.
Evelyn Forget, professor of economics and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba.
Sam Altman, C.E.O. of OpenAI.
Robert Gordon, professor emeritus of economics at Northwestern University.
Greger Larson, professor of archeology at the University of Oxford.
RESOURCES:"Here's what a Sam Altman-backed basic income experiment found," by Megan Cerullo (CBS News, 2024).
Utopia for Realists, by Rutger Bregman. The Correspondent (2016).
The Second Machine Age, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (2014).
"The Town With No Poverty: Using Health Administration Data To Revisit Outcomes of a Canadian Guaranteed Annual Income Field Experiment," by Evelyn Forget (Canadian Public Policy, 2011).
"The Negative Income Tax and the Evolution of U.S. Welfare Policy," by Robert Moffitt (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2003).
Capitalism and Freedom, by Milton Freidman (2002).
"Lesson from the Income Maintenance Experiments," (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and The Brookings Institution, 1986).
Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 3: The Political Order of A Free People, by Frederick Hayek (1981).
"Daniel Moynihan and President-elect Nixon: How charity didn't begin at home," by Peter Passell and Leonard Ross (New York Times, 1973).
"Income Maintenance Programs," (Hearings Before The Subcommittee On Fiscal Policy Of The Joint Economic Committee Congress Of The United States, 1968).
EXTRAS:"President Nixon Unveils the Family Assistance Program," (1969).
"Milton Friedman interview with William F Buckley Jr.," (1968).
"Martin Luther King Jr. advocates for Guaranteed Income at Stanford," (1967).
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Hard Fork Live, Part 1: Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap of OpenAI
The first Hard Fork Live is officially in the books, and for those who couldn’t attend, we’re playing highlights from the event in this episode and the next. This week, Mayor Daniel Lurie of San Francisco makes a surprise appearance to discuss the advice he’s receiving from tech executives during the early days of his administration, as well as how he built a social media presence that’s got Kevin wondering: Could we do that? Then, the conversation that had everyone talking: We’ll play our interview with OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, and chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, and explain what was going on in our heads as the conversation unfolded in a way we did not expect.
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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LIVE: Sam Altman of OpenAI on Building the ‘Core AI Subscription’ for Your Life
Recorded live at Sequoia’s AI Ascent 2025: Sam reflects on OpenAI’s evolution from a 14-person research lab to a dominant AI platform. He envisions transforming ChatGPT into a deeply personal AI service that remembers your entire life's context—from conversations to emails—while working seamlessly across all services. Sam describes the generation gap in how users engage with ChatGPT, and makes surprisingly specific predictions for the next 2-3 years of AI evolution.
OpenAI's Sam Altman talks ChatGPT, AI agents and superintelligence — live at TED2025
The AI revolution is here to stay, says Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. In a probing, live conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Altman discusses the astonishing growth of AI and shows how models like ChatGPT could soon become extensions of ourselves. He also addresses questions of safety, power and moral authority, reflecting on the world he envisions — where AI will almost certainly outpace human intelligence. (Recorded on April 11, 2025)
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Sunday Pick: Sam Altman on the future of AI and humanity | ReThinking with Adam Grant
Each Sunday, TED shares an episode of another podcast we think you'll love, handpicked for you… by us. Sam Altman is the CEO and cofounder of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. In this episode of ReThinking with Adam Grant, another podcast in the TED Audio Collective, Sam and Adam discuss AI's advances in creativity and empathy, its ethical challenges, and the role of human oversight. They also discuss strategies for adapting to a changing world and their hopes for technology that enhances human progress while maintaining human values. If you like it, find more deep conversations with great thinkers on ReThinking with Adam Grant wherever you get your podcasts.
Available transcripts for ReThinking can be found at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts
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20VC: Sam Altman on The Trajectory of Model Capability Improvements: Will Scaling Laws Continue | Semi-Conductor Supply Chains | What Startups Will be Steamrolled by OpenAI and Where is Opportunity
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, one of the most important companies in history. OpenAI is on a mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Prior to OpenAI, Sam was the President of Y Combinator and an angel investor in Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit and Instacart.
15 Questions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman:
1. Will the trajectory of model capability improvement keep going at the same rate as it has been?
2. When did Sam doubt the continuance of scaling laws most? What has been the hardest technical research challenge OpenAI have overcome?
3. How worried is Sam about semiconductor supply chains and international tensions around them?
4. What is Sam's biggest worry today? How has it changed over the last 12 months and 5 years?
5. In what ways does Sam feel he was and is unprepared for the role of CEO of OpenAI?
6. Was Masa Son right to suggest that $9TRN of value will be created every year by AI?
7. Why does Sam disagree with Larry Ellison's statement that it will cost $100BN to enter the foundation model race?
8. Was Keith Rabois right that the best way to build companies is to hire under 30s?
9. What unmade decision weighs on Sam's mind most often?
10. What is Sam most grateful to Y Combinator for?
11. What would Sam build if he were a 23 year old starting today with the foundational AI technology that is already in place?
12. What should startups not try and build as OpenAI will steamroll them? What should they try and build where OpenAI will not go?
13. What does Sam believe is the most exciting use of agents that he has not seen created yet?
14. How does Sam believe that human potential is most wasted today?
15. Who does Sam most respect in the world of AI today? Why them?
20VC: OpenAI's Sam Altman, Mistral's Arthur Mensch and more discuss: Will Foundation Models Be Commoditised | Which Startups Are Threatened vs Enabled by OpenAI | Is the Value in the Infrastructure or Application Layer?
Sam Altman is the CEO @ OpenAI, the company on a mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is one of the fastest-scaling companies in history with a valuation of $90BN and $2BN+ in revenue.
Brad Lightcap is the COO @ OpenAI and the man responsible for the incredible scaling of sales, GTM, partnerships and business to today being over $2BN in revenue.
Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI. Since its inception in May 2023, Mistral has raised over $520M in funding from investors like Andreeseen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Microsoft with a current valuation of $2 billion.
Des Traynor is a Co-Founder of Intercom, and has built and led many teams within the company, including Product, Marketing, and Customer Support. Today Des leads all of Intercom's R&D efforts, and parts of Intercom's marketing.
Tom Hulme is a Managing Partner of GV (Google Ventures), and leads the European team. Today, GV has over $10BN in AUM and Tom has led investments in Lemonade.com (IPO), Snyk, Secret Escapes, Blockchain.com, GoCardless, and Currency Cloud (exited to Visa).
Tomasz Tunguz is the Founder and General Partner @ Theory Ventures, just announced last week, Theory is a $230M fund that invests $1-25m in early-stage companies that leverage technology discontinuities into go-to-market advantages.
Sarah Tavel is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the most successful and renowned venture firms in the world. At Benchmark, Sarah has led rounds in Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Medely, Rekki, Glide, Cambly and more.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
Will foundation models be commoditised?
What is the end state for the foundation model landscape in 10 years?
How will large cloud provider incumbents approach M&A with smaller foundation model providers?
When will we see marginal revenue exceed marginal cost in the foundation model business model?
Where is the value: the application layer or the infrastructure layer?
How can startups know whether they will be threatened by OpenAI?
What are good tests/questions to know if you are in the path of one of the large foundation models?
How does the business model of SaaS fundamentally change in a world of AI?
Will we see the end of per-seat pricing in a new world of AI?
What is the right way to approach pricing in a world of AI? Consumption? Tokens?
EP 104: Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI) talks GPT-4o and Predicts the Future of AI
On the day of the ChatGPT-4o announcement, Sam Altman sat down to share behind-the-scenes details of the launch and offer his predictions for the future of AI. Altman delves into OpenAI's vision, discusses the timeline for achieving AGI, and explores the societal impact of humanoid robots. He also expresses his excitement and concerns about AI personal assistants, highlights the biggest opportunities and risks in the AI landscape today, and much more.
(00:00) Intro
(00:50) The Personal Impact of Leading OpenAI
(01:44) Unveiling Multimodal AI: A Leap in Technology
(02:47) The Surprising Use Cases and Benefits of Multimodal AI
(03:23) Behind the Scenes: Making Multimodal AI Possible
(08:36) Envisioning the Future of AI in Communication and Creativity
(10:21) The Business of AI: Monetization, Open Source, and Future Directions
(16:42) AI's Role in Shaping Future Jobs and Experiences
(20:29) Debunking AGI: A Continuous Journey Towards Advanced AI
(24:04) Exploring the Pace of Scientific and Technological Progress
(24:18) The Importance of Interpretability in AI
(25:11) Navigating AI Ethics and Regulation
(27:26) The Safety Paradigm in AI and Beyond
(28:55) Personal Reflections and the Impact of AI on Society
(29:11) The Future of AI: Fast Takeoff Scenarios and Societal Changes
(30:59) Navigating Personal and Professional Challenges
(40:21) The Role of AI in Creative and Personal Identity
(43:09) Educational System Adaptations for the AI Era
(44:30) Contemplating the Future with Advanced AI
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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In conversation with Sam Altman
(0:00) Welcoming Sam Altman to the show!
(2:28) What's next for OpenAI: GPT-5, open-source, reasoning, what an AI-powered iPhone competitor could look like, and more
(21:56) How advanced agents will change the way we interface with apps
(33:01) Fair use, creator rights, why OpenAI has stayed away from the music industry
(42:02) AI regulation, UBI in a post-AI world
(52:23) Sam breaks down how he was fired and re-hired, why he has no equity, dealmaking on behalf of OpenAI, and how he organizes the company
(1:05:33) Post-interview recap
(1:10:38) All-In Summit announcements, college protests
(1:19:06) Signs of innovation dying at Apple: iPad ad, Buffett sells 100M+ shares, what's next?
(1:29:41) Google unveils AlphaFold 3.0
Follow Sam:
https://twitter.com/sama
Follow the besties:
https://twitter.com/chamath
https://twitter.com/Jason
https://twitter.com/DavidSacks
https://twitter.com/friedberg
Follow on X:
https://twitter.com/theallinpod
Follow on Instagram:
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Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit:
https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect
Referenced in the show:
https://twitter.com/EconomyApp/status/1622029832099082241
https://sacra.com/c/openai
https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/1787864325258162239
https://openai.com/index/introducing-the-model-spec
https://twitter.com/SabriSun_Miller/status/1788298123434938738
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript
https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1788312545754825091
https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/warren-buffett-just-sold-more-than-100-million-shares-of-apple-reason-why-is-eye-opening.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbTCWL6rxo
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20240506PD216/apple-ev-startup-genai.html
https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036
https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-deepmind-isomorphic-alphafold-3-ai-model
20VC: OpenAI's Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap on The Future of Foundation Models: Will They Be Commoditised | How to Solve the Problem of Compute | Open vs Closed: Which Dominates and Why | Which Companies and Verticals Will Be Steamrolled by OpenAI
Sam Altman is the CEO @ OpenAI, the company on a mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is one of the fastest-scaling companies in history with a valuation of $90BN and $2BN+ in revenue. Prior to OpenAI, Sam was the President and CEO @ Y Combinator and made angel investments in the likes of Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Pinterest, Asana and more.
Brad Lightcap is the COO @ OpenAI and the man responsible for the incredible scaling of sales, GTM, partnerships and business to today being over $2BN in revenue. Before OpenAI, Brad was an investor at Y Combinator, where he met Sam and before that led finance and operations initiatives at Dropbox.
In Today's Episode with Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap We Discuss:
1. The Partnership: The Most Powerful Double Act in Tech:
How did 25 people rejecting OpenAI's CFO positions 6 years ago, lead to Brad joining OpenAI before Sam even did? What did he see that the world did not?
What does Brad think is Sam's biggest superpower that the world does not know? What does Sam think it Brad's biggest superpower that the world does not now?
How do decisions get made between Brad and Sam? How do they decide what to delegate vs what not to? What is the most recent disagreement they had? How did they resolve it?
2. The Next 12 Months for OpenAI: Bottlenecks, Compute and Commoditisation:
What are the core bottlenecks facing OpenAI in the next 12 months?
How does Sam believe we solve the fundamental problem of compute?
What is the single biggest barrier to the quality of models improving?
What is the end state for the model landscape? Will models become commoditised?
3. OpenAI: The Fastest Scaling Company in History:
What has been the secret to how OpenAI has scaled to $2BN in revenue in 24 months?
Why does Sam believe that he is "not a great operator"? What drives this thinking?
What have been the first things to break in the scaling of OpenAI?
What do Brad and Sam know now about the scaling that they wish they had known at the start?
Why does OpenAI lean towards hiring more experienced people in the team?
4. How to Invest and Operate in a World of OpenAI:
What single question can founders ask that will reveal if they will be steamrolled by OpenAI?
Does Sam believe huge numbers of companies will be steamrolled by OpenAI?
For investors, is there money to be made investing in the application layer of AI today?
What question should all businesses be asking about how to adopt and use AI in their business?
5. Sam Altman: AMA:
What have been the single biggest lessons Sam has learned from the founders he has invested in?
Which founders has he learned the most from? What did he learn from each?
What is Sam most concerned about in the world today? Why what?
What unexpected traits or characteristics does Sam most look for in the founders he invests in?
Why does Sam say that he is not happy but he is grateful?
#419 – Sam Altman: OpenAI, GPT-5, Sora, Board Saga, Elon Musk, Ilya, Power & AGI
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind GPT-4, ChatGPT, Sora, and many other state-of-the-art AI technologies. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/sam-altman-2-transcript
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:51) – OpenAI board saga
(25:17) – Ilya Sutskever
(31:26) – Elon Musk lawsuit
(41:18) – Sora
(51:09) – GPT-4
(1:02:18) – Memory & privacy
(1:09:22) – Q*
(1:12:58) – GPT-5
(1:16:13) – $7 trillion of compute
(1:24:22) – Google and Gemini
(1:35:26) – Leap to GPT-5
(1:39:10) – AGI
(1:57:44) – Aliens
How did Kara Scoop OpenAI, and More on Burn Book (with Sam Altman)
This week, we join Kara on tour as she speaks with some of the most influential names in tech about her memoir Burn Book: a Tech Love Story. Today's stop: San Francisco’s City Arts & Lectures with Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO (and recently reinstated Board Member). This time, it’s Kara in the hot seat and Altman asking the questions. The two talk about last year’s OpenAI drama, Kara’s live coverage of Sam’s ouster and return, the lawsuit Elon Musk has brought against OpenAI and the public spiral that Musk has taken in recent years.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
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'Hard Fork': An Interview With Sam Altman
It was a head-spinning week in the tech world with the abrupt firing and rehiring of OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman. The hosts of “Hard Fork,” Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, interviewed Altman only two days before he was fired. Over the course of their conversation, Altman laid out his worldview and his vision for the future of A.I. Today, we’re bringing you that interview to shed light on how Altman has quickly come to be seen as a figure of controversy inside the company he co-founded.“Hard Fork” is a podcast about the fut...
Mayhem at OpenAI + Our Interview With Sam Altman
Last week, we interviewed Sam Altman. Since then, well, everything has changed. The board of OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, fired Altman as chief executive on Friday. Over the weekend, it looked as if he might return. On Sunday night, Microsoft hired Altman to lead a new A.I. venture. Who knows what will happen next.
Today, an update on a crazy weekend in tech, and our interview with Sam Altman.
Today’s Guest:
Sam Altman is the former chief executive of OpenAI.
Additional Reading:
On Sunday, Microsoft hired Sam Altman after OpenAI had fired him.
Kevin breaks down the winners and losers from the OpenAI rift.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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Sam Altman: Customer love is all you need
The true seed of scale is customer love, which you can’t buy, hack, or game. Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator, scaled countless start-ups by focusing on this one idea: Finding 100 users who love you is better than 1 million who kinda like you. As CEO of OpenAI, Sam leads the creation of genuinely useful AI products. He shares timeless insights in his interview from 2018 on how to build on the love of passionate customers to create world-shifting tools.
Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com/sam-altman-why-customer-love-is-all-you-need/
Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
180 - Worldcoin’s Sam Altman & Alex Blania on Crypto's Most Ambitious Project
Disclaimer: This episode was recorded on May 14th, 2023
David is joined by Worldcoin Co-Founders, Alex Blania and Sam Altman. Alex is Worldcoin’s CEO and Sam is CEO of OpenAI. Both Co-founded Worldcoin in 2020.
Worldcoin is one of the most ambitious crypto projects in the space. It’s Worldcoin’s philosophy that the best way to produce unique verifiable humanness is through human biometrics that map to our unique DNA. This is the most robust way to achieve sybil resistance. That is why Worldcoin created its silver Orb that scans user's eyeballs.
Why scan the eye? Is it safe? How is data stored? What’s Worldcoin’s crypto token distribution plan? All of these questions and much more answered in the episode.
------ ✨DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-worldcoin
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------ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro 6:15 Inception of Worldcoin Idea 8:35 How Sam & Alex Met 10:57 Why Scan Eyes 16:35 The Technology Behind the Orb 21:40 Worldcoin & Privacy 25:05 How Worldcoin Data Flows 28:35 Why Worldcoin is Needed 33:02 Proof of Personhood & Crypto 35:05 Worldcoin’s Distribution Plan 36:49 Worldcoin’s Complexity & Pressure 39:25 Sam’s Involvement with Worldcoin 39:47 Worldcoin & Optimism 42:00 Orb Operations 48:10 Worldcoin Roadmap 49:25 The Ups & Downs of Worldcoin 53:10 Reflecting on Worldcoin’s Critiques 56:10 What Does Worldcoin Need the Most? 56:50 Where Sam Stands on AI Alignment 59:20 Closing & Disclosures
----- RESOURCES
Worldcoin Privacy Deep Dive https://worldcoin.org/blog/developers/privacy-deep-dive
Worldcoin https://worldcoin.org/
Alex Blania https://twitter.com/alexblania
Sam Altman https://twitter.com/sama
------ Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
AI Senate Hearing - Executive Summary (Sam Altman, Gary Marcus)
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In a historic and candid Senate hearing, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Professor Gary Marcus, and IBM's Christina Montgomery discussed the regulatory landscape of AI in the US. The discussion was particularly interesting due to its timing, as it followed the recent release of the EU's proposed AI Act, which could potentially ban American companies like OpenAI and Google from providing API access to generative AI models and impose massive fines for non-compliance.
The speakers openly addressed potential risks of AI technology and emphasized the need for precision regulation. This was a unique approach, as historically, US companies have tried their hardest to avoid regulation. The hearing not only showcased the willingness of industry leaders to engage in discussions on regulation but also demonstrated the need for a balanced approach to avoid stifling innovation.
The EU AI Act, scheduled to come into power in 2026, is still just a proposal, but it has already raised concerns about its impact on the American tech ecosystem and potential conflicts between US and EU laws. With extraterritorial jurisdiction and provisions targeting open-source developers and software distributors like GitHub, the Act could create more problems than it solves by encouraging unsafe AI practices and limiting access to advanced AI technologies.
One core issue with the Act is the designation of foundation models in the highest risk category, primarily due to their open-ended nature. A significant risk theme revolves around users creating harmful content and determining who should be held accountable – the users or the platforms. The Senate hearing served as an essential platform to discuss these pressing concerns and work towards a regulatory framework that promotes both safety and innovation in AI.
00:00 Show
01:35 Legals
03:44 Intro
10:33 Altman intro
14:16 Christina Montgomery
18:20 Gary Marcus
23:15 Jobs
26:01 Scorecards
28:08 Harmful content
29:47 Startups
31:35 What meets the definition of harmful?
32:08 Moratorium
36:11 Social Media
46:17 Gary's take on BingGPT and pivot into policy
48:05 Democratisation
#367 – Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO on GPT-4, ChatGPT, and the Future of AI
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind GPT-4, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Codex, and many other state-of-the-art AI technologies. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Sam’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sama
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OpenAI’s Website: https://openai.com
GPT-4 Website: https://openai.com/research/gpt-4
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:41) – GPT-4
(20:06) – Political bias
(27:07) – AI safety
(47:47) – Neural network size
(51:40) – AGI
(1:13:09) – Fear
(1:15:18) – Competition
(1:17:38) – From non-profit to capped-profit
(1:20:58) – Power
(1:26:11) – Elon Musk
(1:34:37) – Political pressure
(1:52:51) – Truth and misinformation
(2:05:13) – Microsoft
(2:09:13) – SVB bank collapse
(2:14:04) – Anthropomorphism
(2:18:07) – Future applications
(2:21:59) – Advice for young people
(2:24:37) – Meaning of life
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on GPT-4 & the A.I. Arms Race
We’re on the cusp of an artificial intelligence arms race that has venture capitalists drooling, regulators petrified and competitors from Google to Microsoft to Elon Musk racing to get their products out the door. Kara talks to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and the man who’s led the launches of ChatGPT and GPT-4. They discuss the hallucinations of ChatGPT+, why Open AI moved from an open-source nonprofit to a closed-source “capped profit” company and why Altman doesn’t believe artificial intelligence developers should enjoy Section 230 immunity. Afterwards, Kara and Nayeema break down the interview and the promises and perils of an unknowable A.I.-powered future.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema
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ICYMI... HIBT Lab! OpenAI: Sam Altman
Artificial Intelligence was once the realm of science fiction. But over the last several years, advances in machine learning and deep neural networks have moved us closer to a reality where computers can learn and solve problems independently, the way a human does. From art and music to medicine and politics, the potential applications of AI are nearly endless, and the technology just keeps getting better.
This week on How I Built This Lab, Guy talks with one of the leaders in the field of AI development, Sam Altman. Sam talks about his journey from Stanford dropout and teenage entrepreneur to president of the legendary startup incubator Y Combinator and co-founder of the nonprofit OpenAI. Plus, Sam shares his hopes and fears for the future of AI and how his company is working to ensure it ultimately benefits all of humanity.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Bing’s Revenge + Google’s AI Faceplant
Microsoft’s release of a ChatGPT-powered Bing signifies a new era in search. Then, a disastrous preview of Bard — Google’s answer to ChatGPT — caused the company’s stocks to slide 7 percent. The A.I. arms race is on.
Plus: What “Nothing, Forever,” the 24/7, A.I.-generated “Seinfeld” parody, says about bias in A.I.
On today’s episode:
Sam Altman is the chief executive of OpenAI.
Kevin Scott is the chief technology officer of Microsoft.
Additional reading:
Microsoft integrated OpenAI's technology into its search engine and kicked off an A.I. arms race.
Google released Bard, a rival chatbot to ChatGPT.
“Nothing, Forever” was temporarily banned on Twitch.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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HIBT Lab! OpenAI: Sam Altman
Artificial Intelligence was once the realm of science fiction. But over the last several years, advances in machine learning and deep neural networks have moved us closer to a reality where computers can learn and solve problems independently, the way a human does. From art and music to medicine and politics, the potential applications of AI are nearly endless, and the technology just keeps getting better.
This week on How I Built This Lab, Guy talks with one of the leaders in the field of AI development, Sam Altman. Sam talks about his journey from Stanford dropout and teenage entrepreneur to president of the legendary startup incubator Y Combinator and co-founder of the nonprofit OpenAI. Plus, Sam shares his hopes and fears for the future of AI and how his company is working to ensure it ultimately benefits all of humanity.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sam Altman: Customer love is all you need
The true seed of scale is customer love, which you can’t buy, hack, or game. Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator, scaled countless start-ups by focusing on this one idea: Finding 100 users who love you is better than 1 million who kinda like you. As CEO of OpenAI, Sam leads the creation of genuinely useful AI products. He shares timeless insights in his interview from 2018 on how to build on the love of passionate customers to create world-shifting tools.
Read a transcript of this episode at https://mastersofscale.com/sam-altman-why-customer-love-is-all-you-need/
Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The race to build AI that benefits humanity with Sam Altman | The TED Interview
In this new season of The TED Interview, conversations with people who make a case for ... optimism. Not some blind, hopeful feeling, but the conviction that somewhere out there are solutions that, given the right attention and resources, can guide us out of the dark place we’re in. For the first episode: artificial intelligence. Will innovation in AI drastically improve our lives, or destroy humanity as we know it? Head of TED Chris Anderson sits down with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who makes a case for AI’s potential to make the future better for all of us -- and explains how his company is leading that charge with an unusual new business model.
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Recode Decode: Should Mark Zuckerberg fire himself?
Sam Altman, the president of YCombinator and co-chairman of OpenAI, joins Recode's Kara Swisher for this live interview at Manny's in San Francisco, moderated by Manny Yekutiel. In this episode: (01:45) What did techies think was going to happen?; (06:35) Would the techlash have been the same if Hillary Clinton had won?; (10:31) Did tech develop too quickly?; (18:06) What would change if tech's leaders were more diverse?; (19:47) Why Swisher and Altman considered running for office; (25:38) What does fixing Facebook actually look like? (33:30) Where does the techlash go next?; (37:55) What can we do other than sit and wait?; (42:56) How to respond to accusations of sexual misconduct; (49:17) Race, cities and making tech companies more diverse; (55:38) Who owns your data?; (59:17) What happens when AI gets smarter than humans?; (1:04:12) Outrage and tech addiction; (1:12:39) Should investors expect less revenue from responsible tech companies?; (1:16:56) The crypto “scam” and privacy; (1:19:48) Final takeaways
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20VC: Sam Altman, Y Combinator President on What Makes Truly Great Leaders, Why We Will See A Compression of Seed Funding & The Future Scaling of YC
Sam Altman is the president of Y Combinator, the world's most successful accelerator with alumni that includes the likes of Airbnb, Dropbox, Reddit, Flexport and many more incredible companies. Sam is also the co-chair of OpenAI, thenon-profit AI research company, discovering and enacting the path to safe artificial general intelligence. Prior to YC, Sam was co-founder and CEO of Loopt, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2005 and acquired by Green Dot in 2012. Sam also founded Hydrazine Capital, whose stellar portfolio included the likes of Zenefits, Flexport and Soylent.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Sam made his way into the world of startups with Loopt and YC? How he came to invest with Hydrazine Capital and then rejoin YC as Partner and now President?
2.) Having watched and seen Paul Graham since Batch 1, what does Sam believe makes Paul Graham the special leader he is? What makes Sam and Paul such great Partners? How did they enact the transition of Sam to President? How did it change the relationship?
3.) What is Sam's tactic that he uses to fully evaluate the skills and execution of a founder? When investing where did Sam make his most frequent mistakes? Why does Sam expect seed stage investing as a whole, will compress? Is Sam concerned of too much capital in the market at present?
4.) Question from Jack Altman: what is the main difference between a great seed investor and a great Series A investor? Sam has said before he likes to invest in messy, somewhat broken companies". How does Sam determine between the fixable and the unfixable? How much of a role does price play in his evaluation of an opportunity?
5.) One of Sam's recent goals was "figure out how to scale YC 2x". How does Sam think about this in terms of stage? Will YC replace VC with lifecycle funding? How does Sam think about YC's expansion geographically into China? How does Sam assess the vertical expansion of deep tech and bio tech that YC is going after?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Sam's Fave Book: The Making of The Atomic Bomb
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Sam on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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