OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has emerged as one of the world’s most influential AI leaders. Every word he speaks is widely reported and taken with the utmost seriousness. His influence extends not only to businesses but also to government. But recent reports have raised questions about whether he truly understands the technology he is promoting and warning the world about, in terms of its capabilities and risks.
The New Yorker recently published a report based on interviews with a number of OpenAI insiders who worked with Altman. According to the report, many people around him believe that he is not a technical expert but a skilled manipulator. Additionally, he said several engineers have alleged that he misuses or confuses basic technical terms.
Sam Altman dropped out of Stanford University and studied computer science for two years before dropping out in 2005 and starting his first company, Loopt.
Building OpenAI as a Businessman
The report states that Altman built OpenAI as a businessman, leveraging investors’ money and engineers’ technical talent, not for his engineering skills. The publication argued that he was an outstanding figure because of his ability to make very different groups of people with conflicting priorities believe that he supported their concerns.
Former OpenAI researcher Carol Wainwright commented on Altman’s level of influence and strategic skills in an interview with the publication. He said Altman was very good at persuading people and could change the way people thought and felt so smoothly that they didn’t even realize it.
“I think there’s a small but real possibility that he will ultimately be remembered as a fraudster on the level of Bernie Madoff or Sam Bankman Fried,” a Microsoft executive said of Altman.
Concerns about layoffs in 2023
Meanwhile, the report also examines what was going on behind the scenes when Altman was removed as CEO in 2023, and based on interviews with people involved in the matter, some board members said Altman did not have enough credibility to lead the company at a time when they believed OpenAI was close to developing AI that matched or exceeded human cognitive abilities.
Some board members accused him of misleading them about internal safety protocols and said he displayed a consistent pattern of lies. The publication also confirmed some of the suspicions raised by the OpenAI committee in its investigation.
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