Sam Altman

American entrepreneur and investor (born 1985) · United States · Founders

Sam Altman is read about 19,481 times a day, in 66 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

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He runs the company that dropped ChatGPT on the world in 2022 and made artificial intelligence a kitchen-table topic overnight. The board fired him in 2023 for candor issues; the staff revolt had him back in five days.

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A life in dates

2025Axel Springer AwardAward2023“Do we make sure AI is a tool that has proper safeguards as it gets really powerful? (November 23, 2023)”In their words14 December 2023What Sam Altman said about AI at a CEO summit the day before OpenAI ousted him as CEO, Fortune (December 14, 2023)Read the whole statement

“Regulation will be crucial, and it will take time to understand this.”In their words20 February 2023Il futuro dell'AI per il creatore di ChatGPT: potenzialmente pauroso, va regolamentato, 20 February 2023 (referenced in Italian)Read the whole statement

2017“We are already in the phase of co-evolution - the AIs affect, effect, and infect us, and then we improve the AI.”In their words7 December 2017Sam Altman (December 7, 2017). "The Merge". (origial Medium post)Read the whole statement

“Although the merge has already begun, it’s going to get a lot weirder. We will be the first species ever to design our own descendants.”In their words7 December 2017Sam Altman (December 7, 2017). "The Merge". (origial Medium post)Read the whole statement

“It’s probably going to happen sooner than most people think.”In their words7 December 2017Sam Altman (December 7, 2017). "The Merge". (origial Medium post)Read the whole statement

Honorary DoctorateAward2016“I prep for survival. I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to.”In their wordsThe Context By David Wallace-Wells, The AI Backlash Will Be Ugly and No One is Ready. Not Even Tech C.E.O.s., The New York Times MagazineRead the whole statement

1985Born22 April 1985

Also in Deutsch

Photos 5

Nancy Pelosi presenting Altman with the Ric Weiland Award in 2017

Orb-shaped iris scanners on display

Altman at TED in 2025

Prime Minister of the UK Rishi Sunak and Technology Secretary Chloe Smith meets with Demis Hassabis (CEO of DeepMind), Dario Amodei (CEO of Anthropic), and Altman (CEO of OpenAI) in May 2023.

In their own words 10

Sam Altman

10 statements, newest first

Do we make sure AI is a tool that has proper safeguards as it gets really powerful? (November 23, 2023)
Dec 14, 2023, What Sam Altman said about AI at a CEO summit the day before OpenAI ousted him as CEO, Fortune (December 14, 2023), Own words
I expect AI to be capable of superhuman persuasion before it is superhuman at general intelligence, which may lead to some very strange outcomes.
Oct 28, 2023, As quoted in Maggie Harrison, Sam Altman Warns That AI Is Learning "Superhuman Persuasion", October 28, 2023., Own words
Regulation will be crucial, and it will take time to understand this.
Feb 20, 2023, Il futuro dell'AI per il creatore di ChatGPT: potenzialmente pauroso, va regolamentato, 20 February 2023 (referenced in Italian), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Axel Springer Award2025

Honorary Doctorate, University of Waterloo2017

In their orbit 3

Spouse Oliver Mulherin

Sibling Jack Altman

Sibling Ann Altman

About this person

Samuel Harris Altman was born April 22, 1985. He left Stanford after two years to co-found Loopt, a geosocial networking service that sold to Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million. In 2011 he joined Y Combinator and ran it as president from 2014 to 2019, building a portfolio that includes Reddit, Worldcoin, and Helion Energy - enough to make him a billionaire. He co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and took the CEO chair in 2019. Under him the company released ChatGPT in November 2022, the shot that turned AI from a tech-section story into a general panic. A year later the board ousted him for not being "consistently candid"; employee and investor backlash forced his return in five days with a new board in place.

Country

United States

Founders from the United States 6

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