Who exactly is Sam Altman? The head of OpenAI is often described by colleagues as a liar and a sociopath

“Jedi-tricks” instead of programming knowledge

Although Altman presents himself as one of the leading minds of the AI ​​era, numerous engineers who have worked with him claim that he lacks fundamental experience in programming and machine learning. They state that this deficiency becomes obvious when mixing basic technical terms. It is worth noting that Altman dropped out of computer science at Stanford after two years. Instead of a technological wizard, associates describe him as a top-notch businessman and salesman who possesses an almost supernatural ability to persuade.

​- He is incredibly convincing. Like Jedi mental tricks – one technology executive who worked with Altman told The New Yorker. – He is simply on another level.

The most serious charges relate to an alleged pattern of lying and manipulation. Altman’s dramatic dismissal in November 2023, later dubbed “The Blip” by employees, was prompted by secret memos then-OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever sent to the board of directors. In them, based on the evidence gathered, he asserted that Altman “demonstrates a consistent pattern of … lying.”

Some of his former associates went one step further. One OpenAI board member reportedly called him a literal “sociopath.” A similar description was given by the late developer and activist Aaron Swartz, who was with Altman in the first generation of the Y Combinator incubator. He warned friends shortly before his death: “You have to understand that Sam can never be trusted. He is a sociopath. He would do anything.”

​- He is not bound by the truth. He has two qualities that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is the strong desire to please people, to be liked in every interaction. The second is an almost sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may result from deceiving someone – confided one of the board members.

Examples include situations such as negotiations with Microsoft, when Altman allegedly misled Dario Amodei, then an employee of OpenAI, and today director of the competing company Anthropic, about key security provisions of the contract. Multiple Microsoft executives also described how Altman repeatedly broke or changed agreements, damaging his relationship with Microsoft chief Satya Nadella.

Safety as a means to an end

Although Altman was building imidž an advocate of safe and responsible artificial intelligence, sources claim that security was merely a means to an end for him. He used her as a “carrot” to win over worried engineers, and then break his promises.

The best example is the internal “superalignment” team, charged with ensuring that future superintelligent AI systems do not harm the public. The team was publicly promised “20 percent” of the company’s computing power, a resource worth more than a billion dollars. In reality, they claim, they only got one to two percent, and that on the oldest and worst equipment. At the same time, Altman publicly called for strict regulation of AI, testifying before the US Senate, while his company lobbied behind the scenes to water down such laws in Europe and California.