The Hollow Crown of ChatGPT’s Head Honcho
Sam Altman may be the reigning king of the AI boom, but the story that matters isn’t his rise or fall. The sector will still demand scale, speed, and the right to run roughshod over the pesky public interest, no matter who wears the industry crown.
There is some debate as to what extent Sam Altman and OpenAI were ever truly devoted to the vision of a democratized AI utopia. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
Last week in the New Yorker, Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz profiled OpenAI chief Sam Altman. The piece opens with the company’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, doubting that Altman is the man to have his “finger on the button” of an artificial intelligence more intelligent than human beings.
What follows is the story of Altman’s fall, return, and future, including the details of the key players involved and capital at stake. The profile offers a comprehensive history of the moment, including the anxieties that attend the rise of OpenAI and what that means for us as we sort out what to do about — and with — artificial intelligence.
With AI, the stakes are high for everyone, and the story at hand is both new and familiar. As Farrow and Marantz write:
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