All Eyes On Sam Altman

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In November 2022, OpenAI gave the world ChatGPT, and very unofficially—and maybe unintentionally—triggered a quasi-religious fervour towards artificial intelligence, with its enigmatic CEO Sam Altman as some sort of AI messiah.

That facade has now faded. And two recently released books hold testimony to this.

Disclaimer: I am yet to read these books, and much of what I write about them in this newsletter is based on reviews by credible sources.

The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future

Wall Street Journal’s Keach Hagey’s The Optimist is a biography of Altman, documenting his troubled childhood and a remarkable career. According to a few reviews, Hagey depicts the OpenAI CEO as a visionary, whose brilliance is often rivalled by his own manipulative manoeuvres

As Altman was being admired by the world, those closest to him were losing their trust. The book highlights how his personal charm was often trumped by his dishonesty, culminating in a historic boardroom showdown in 2023, leading to a temporary ousting of Altman from OpenAI.

Read: The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future | Google Books 

But Altman came back stronger, and his rivals—including co-founder Ilya Sutskever—did not stick around much longer.

Empire of AI: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination

Karen Hao’s ‘Empire of AI’ appears to be comparatively broader, and recounts Hao’s highly critical investigation into OpenAI’s role in defining the ambitions—and costs—of the booming AI industry.

Read: Empire of AI: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination | Penguin Books 

Having covered OpenAI long before the release of ChatGPT, Hao had early access into OpenAI’s inner workings. She pours her knowledge into her book, detailing the company’s shifting ethos from nonprofit idealism to total capitalist supremacy, while accelerating environmental costs, labour exploitation, and copyright infringements. 

Empire of AI highlights Altman’s role in further catalysing the dangerous ideology of “scale at all costs” into the tech industry, leading to AI companies taking off guardrails from their products to make them more lucrative.

Read: Hey ChatGPT, Which One of These Is the Real Sam Altman? | New York Times

Hagey’s book portrays Altman as a fascinating—but flawed—protagonist of the tech industry. Hao’s book speaks of a much darker, power-hungry, individual, who sugarcoats opportunism with Utopian ideals, while obscuring the fallout of the dangerous technology he promises the world.

Despite the difference in the takes on Altman, both these books raise a pertinent question—can we trust the future of this revolutionary and dangerous technology in the hands of someone with a track record of deception and manipulation?

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