Sam Altman is an American entrepreneur, programmer, and investor.
He is the co-founder and former CEO of OpenAI, a non-profit research company with the stated goal of promoting and developing friendly artificial general intelligence.
He is also the former president of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator.
Altman was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1985. He dropped out of Stanford University in 2005 to co-found Loopt, a location-based social networking service.
Loopt was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005 for $30 million. In 2009, Altman became the president of Y Combinator.
He served in this role until 2019. During his time at Y Combinator, Altman invested in a number of successful startups, including Airbnb, Dropbox, and Reddit.
In 2015, Altman co-founded OpenAI with Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, and others. OpenAI is a non-profit research company with the stated goal of promoting and developing friendly artificial general intelligence.
OpenAI has released several cutting-edge AI technologies, including the GPT-3 language model.
In 2019, Altman resigned as president of Y Combinator to focus on OpenAI. He stepped down as CEO of OpenAI in 2023.
Here are 10 things to know about Sam Altman:
- He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1985.
- He studied computer science at Stanford University, but he dropped out before graduating.
- He co-founded Loopt, a location-based social networking service, in 2005. Loopt was acquired by Yahoo in 2012 for $400 million.
- He was the president of Y Combinator from 2011 to 2019. Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that has helped to launch many successful companies, including Airbnb, Dropbox, and Reddit.
- He co-founded OpenAI in 2015. OpenAI is a non-profit research company that promotes and develops friendly artificial general intelligence (AGI).
- He is a strong advocate for the responsible development of AI. He has written and spoken extensively about the potential risks and benefits of the technology.
- He is a vocal critic of the "big tech" companies. He argues that they have too much power and that they are not doing enough to address the social and economic problems caused by technology.
- He was fired from OpenAI in November 2022 after the company's board of directors found that he had not been "candid" with them about his communications with the media.
- He is a brilliant entrepreneur and a thought leader on the issue of AI. It will be interesting to see what he does next.
Altman's sacking from OpenAI
In November 2023, Altman was sacked as CEO of OpenAI. The board of directors cited Altman's "lack of candour" in his communications with the board as the reason for his dismissal.
Altman has said that he disagrees with the board's decision and that he is considering legal action.
The sacking of Altman has been met with mixed reactions. Some have praised the board for taking action to remove Altman, while others have criticized the decision as being unjust.
The long-term impact of Altman's sacking on OpenAI is yet to be determined.
Sam Altman is a complex and controversial figure. He is a talented entrepreneur and investor, but he has also been criticized for his views on artificial intelligence.
It is too early to say what the long-term impact of his sacking from OpenAI will be, but it is clear that he is a significant figure in the world of technology.
This blog post has provided a brief overview of Sam Altman's life and career. I hope that it has been informative.