Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, a cutting-edge technology company that is dedicated to developing artificial intelligence responsibly and safely. Sam is a visionary entrepreneur and a well-respected leader in the tech community, known for his work in AI, startups, and philanthropy.
But why is such a visionary man preparing himself with guns, gold, and medicine? Maybe the answer lies within the life he has experienced.
Sam Altman, a 37-year-old tech CEO and advocate for ethical AI practices, has made a name for himself in the industry as a visionary. He honed his programming skills at the young age of 8. He attributes his Macintosh computer to play a role in his journey related to his sexuality by providing him with a safe space. This John Burroughs School alumnus is recognized for his efforts in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
Altman’s name is also associated with Loopt. He started studying computer science at Stanford University but could only last for 2 years. After that, he dropped out to work full-time on an app he and his two classmates were developing - Loopt. The app was pretty basic and simply shared the user’s location with friends.
Loopt was the reason Altman got introduced to Y-Combinator - a major milestone in Altman’s future. A total of 8 startups got funded $6,000 per founder by the company, which included Loopt and Reddit. The reason why Loopt isn’t a household name when compared to Reddit is that Loopt got sold off for $43 million after stunting at a valuation of $127 million.
Following Loopt, Altman established Hydrazine Capital, a venture fund that raised $21 million in funding. This sum comprised a substantial portion of the $5 million earned from Loopt. It also included an investment from Peter Thiel, a billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
What’s remarkable about Altman is that he allocated 75% of the funds raised for Hydrazine Capital to startups that were part of YC. He also played a key role in leading Reddit's Series B fundraising round.
According to his interview with The New Yorker, Altman believes in investing in messy and somewhat broken companies. The reason behind being that they tend to be underpriced due to their flaws and offer great potential for improvement.
Then came Altman’s next success story - YC. At the age of 31, he became the successor of YC when its former President and founder retired. After that, Altman took YC to new heights through innovation and a little strategy.
Next, we taught a series of lectures at his former university on how to start startups. This gave hope and direction to aspirers who wanted to be like him. The next year, Altman got featured in Forbes 30 under 30. The category was venture capitalist.
One of his first innovations as the YC president was to invest his own money in two unusual companies. These startups were fission and fusion. Since he was always interested in starting a nuclear-energy company of his own, this served as one of the first steps towards his philanthropy journey.
Altman is a man of taste and knows how to use his money to like and thrive. His love for sports cars is pretty evident through his collection of 5 race cars. These include two McLarens and an old Tesla.
When Altman started opening up about his life, we got to know what we are curious about. His reason for prepping for survival. The guy believes that the world will soon be under attack. Either by a lethal synthetic virus, AI attacking humans, or a nuclear war.
Although he claims that he doesn’t give much attention to this belief of his, he surely does keep his supply well stacked and prepped.
We think we do not have to worry about this being a threat or a warning as Altman’s mom confirmed that her son is a little sensitive about everything. The ample knowledge that Altman has at his disposal might be the cause of this. His mom confirmed that he Googles up every little thing, turning headaches into lymphomas. It is his mom’s job to then assure him that the headache is simply a headache. Sounds like a headache, doesn’t it?
In 2015, Altman co-founded his most popular venture yet - OpenAI. He did this with Elon Musk as a way to keep AI under control. The non-profit artificial intelligence is meant to regulate Artificial Intelligence so that it doesn’t take over humans.
Altman was also known for his hatred of Trump, which led to a lot of his employees trying to hide their identities in the fear of getting fired.
As for OpenAI, Altman has no idea how revenue will be generated through the successful projects of OpenAI, ChatGPT, and DallE2. ChatGPT’s paid version is being tested where users will have higher and faster access but the revenue generation opportunity still seems bleak.
Altman then played around with crypto a bit, launching a global cryptocurrency project called Worldcoin. The project wasn’t very successful as it had logistic issues in quite a few countries and got shut down.
The most recent development is Microsoft’s plan to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, after estimating that the company’s worth is around $29 billion.
Photo: TC / Flickr
Read next: The World Economic Forum’s insight on the largest global risks
But why is such a visionary man preparing himself with guns, gold, and medicine? Maybe the answer lies within the life he has experienced.
Sam Altman, a 37-year-old tech CEO and advocate for ethical AI practices, has made a name for himself in the industry as a visionary. He honed his programming skills at the young age of 8. He attributes his Macintosh computer to play a role in his journey related to his sexuality by providing him with a safe space. This John Burroughs School alumnus is recognized for his efforts in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
Altman’s name is also associated with Loopt. He started studying computer science at Stanford University but could only last for 2 years. After that, he dropped out to work full-time on an app he and his two classmates were developing - Loopt. The app was pretty basic and simply shared the user’s location with friends.
Loopt was the reason Altman got introduced to Y-Combinator - a major milestone in Altman’s future. A total of 8 startups got funded $6,000 per founder by the company, which included Loopt and Reddit. The reason why Loopt isn’t a household name when compared to Reddit is that Loopt got sold off for $43 million after stunting at a valuation of $127 million.
Following Loopt, Altman established Hydrazine Capital, a venture fund that raised $21 million in funding. This sum comprised a substantial portion of the $5 million earned from Loopt. It also included an investment from Peter Thiel, a billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
What’s remarkable about Altman is that he allocated 75% of the funds raised for Hydrazine Capital to startups that were part of YC. He also played a key role in leading Reddit's Series B fundraising round.
According to his interview with The New Yorker, Altman believes in investing in messy and somewhat broken companies. The reason behind being that they tend to be underpriced due to their flaws and offer great potential for improvement.
Then came Altman’s next success story - YC. At the age of 31, he became the successor of YC when its former President and founder retired. After that, Altman took YC to new heights through innovation and a little strategy.
Next, we taught a series of lectures at his former university on how to start startups. This gave hope and direction to aspirers who wanted to be like him. The next year, Altman got featured in Forbes 30 under 30. The category was venture capitalist.
One of his first innovations as the YC president was to invest his own money in two unusual companies. These startups were fission and fusion. Since he was always interested in starting a nuclear-energy company of his own, this served as one of the first steps towards his philanthropy journey.
Altman is a man of taste and knows how to use his money to like and thrive. His love for sports cars is pretty evident through his collection of 5 race cars. These include two McLarens and an old Tesla.
When Altman started opening up about his life, we got to know what we are curious about. His reason for prepping for survival. The guy believes that the world will soon be under attack. Either by a lethal synthetic virus, AI attacking humans, or a nuclear war.
Although he claims that he doesn’t give much attention to this belief of his, he surely does keep his supply well stacked and prepped.
We think we do not have to worry about this being a threat or a warning as Altman’s mom confirmed that her son is a little sensitive about everything. The ample knowledge that Altman has at his disposal might be the cause of this. His mom confirmed that he Googles up every little thing, turning headaches into lymphomas. It is his mom’s job to then assure him that the headache is simply a headache. Sounds like a headache, doesn’t it?
In 2015, Altman co-founded his most popular venture yet - OpenAI. He did this with Elon Musk as a way to keep AI under control. The non-profit artificial intelligence is meant to regulate Artificial Intelligence so that it doesn’t take over humans.
Altman was also known for his hatred of Trump, which led to a lot of his employees trying to hide their identities in the fear of getting fired.
As for OpenAI, Altman has no idea how revenue will be generated through the successful projects of OpenAI, ChatGPT, and DallE2. ChatGPT’s paid version is being tested where users will have higher and faster access but the revenue generation opportunity still seems bleak.
Altman then played around with crypto a bit, launching a global cryptocurrency project called Worldcoin. The project wasn’t very successful as it had logistic issues in quite a few countries and got shut down.
The most recent development is Microsoft’s plan to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, after estimating that the company’s worth is around $29 billion.
Photo: TC / Flickr
Read next: The World Economic Forum’s insight on the largest global risks
