Sam Altman Has Some Unfinished Business
Just a few months after OpenAI released ChatGPT—the viral artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that uses "generative pre-trained transformers" (GPTs) to hold human-like conversations that has become the go-to source of assumed-accurate information for people across the globe—journalists Berber Jin and Keach Hagey published a profile of Big Tech’s fastest-rising star: OpenAI chief Sam Altman. The Wall Street Journal article, "The Contradictions of Sam Altman, AI Crusader," was released in the spring of 2023, and just over two years later, this profile has morphed into Hagey’s new book, The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future.
The author cuts no corners in framing The Optimist in the context of the high-stakes world being created, immediately referencing another high-profile figure in the world of AI, Eliezer Yudkowsky. Regarded as the founder of the field of artificial general intelligence—a form of AI that would match or beat human capabilities—he wrote an open letter for Time magazine just days before Altman’s Wall Street Journal profile, predicting "the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die."
Whether or not tools like ChatGPT will go from students cheating on history assignments to a modern incarnation of Terminator 2 is far from a fringe debate. In fact, this argument represents the binary split within the foundational pieces of the blossoming world of AI, between—as investor Peter Thiel, mentor of both Altman and Yudkowsky, put it—the "black-pilled and Luddite" doom-and-gloomers, and those like Altman who believe AI will enable the creation of a new world order, in which people are liberated from the burdens of a pre-AI world. In fact, while Yudkowsky believes AI will deliver our collective doom, Altman has invested millions in technologies that will—in one way or another—help humanity cheat death.
The Optimist takes the reader through the first 40 years of the 40-year-old investor and entrepreneur, exploring his childhood, Loopt (his first startup), his investment in countless startups, and finally, the founding of OpenAI and the creation of ChatGPT. While replete with details based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, colleagues, and investors, The Optimist does, at times, feel more like an exercise in capitalizing on the highest-profile personality at the center of the world of AI before any bubbles come close to popping. Indeed, Altman himself argued such a book both jumps the gun and incorrectly focuses on him alone, objecting to "the warping of history that comes when one person gets imputed onto a company, or a movement, or a tech revolution, because that’s just not how the world works and is unfair to the exceptional work of other people," adding that "there’s something about the superstition of not prematurely celebrating, and I think this is a decade or two premature."
Assuming AI doesn’t result in the destruction of humanity, it does seem likely that Altman will be one of this generation’s tech behemoths, alongside figures like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos. But while reading this book, and after having recently reviewed the first volume of Bill Gates’s memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings, I couldn’t help but agree with Altman’s instinct.
Of course, there are multiple fascinating elements of this book, including many that were not explored deeply in the 2023 profile, and many that were not previously mentioned at all. Others are particularly relevant given the current political and cultural climate, such as Altman’s hugely profitable relationship-turned-feud with cofounder-turned-competitor Elon Musk—who prior to founding his own AI company, xAI, was hugely wary of superintelligence—or Altman’s chaotic firing and rehiring as CEO during what became known as "the blip." Another interesting insight provided by The Optimist explored the nature of Silicon Valley itself, where those who find success (at least initially) are often the most adept at selling investors dreams of a better future: one of Altman’s ultimate talents.
Then there are the clichéd narratives used by technology journalists to anthropomorphize personalities in tech, with anecdotes of supposedly pivotal experiences with computers, parents who instilled determination and tenacity, tales of dropping out of Stanford to dive head-first into the world of tech startups, and the almost contradictory "religious conviction" projected upon some deeper mission beneath profit and fame. Other anecdotes explain Altman’s political proclivities, such as the brief mention of the progressive rabbi of the Altman family’s St. Louis synagogue, who declared they "made our messiah a trans person with tattoos" under the exhausted bastardization of a central concept of Judaism that has morphed into justification for any and all features of progressivism: "Tikkun olam."
While many attempt to paint Altman as a unique personality—with the Guardian’s James Ball writing in his review of The Optimist Altman appeared "not to fit the typical mould of the tech bro" because he was "short, slight, Jewish and gay"—the reality for those who have lived and worked in Silicon Valley is that while Altman’s achievements are unique, he is arguably the tech giant stereotype. Zuckerberg is Jewish and stands at 5 feet 7 inches, the same height as Bezos, and Thiel—one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the history of American tech—is gay. Sorry, but being short, Jewish, and/or gay isn’t exactly out of the ordinary in the California Bay Area, and smacks of the broader attempt to create interest in areas of Altman’s life that, frankly, only matter when you’re padding out a biography of someone just entering the prime of their career.
It’s impossible to deny Altman is one of the central figures of the latest technological age, especially given his (presumably genuine) desire for AI to be a force for good. It’s also impossible to deny Hagey’s The Optimist is impeccably detailed, excellently researched, and hugely insightful. It still feels, however, like what it is: an extension of a detailed, well-researched, and insightful newspaper profile aiming to capitalize on the "it girl" personality inside the "it girl" industry: Sam Altman and AI. Like Altman himself predicted—whether out of actual concern or an investor-style proclivity for avoiding future pitfalls—it’s simply too soon to declare, like Hagey does, we have all "collectively stepped into a science fiction short story" of Altman’s creation.
Maybe Altman can predict the future after all.
To conclude, it seems only fair I would turn to Altman’s greatest contribution to humanity: ChatGPT.
In The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future, Keach Hagey offers more than just a portrait of a tech visionary—she delivers a gripping narrative about ambition, power, and the ethical fault lines of innovation. As Altman emerges as a figure both emblematic of Silicon Valley's utopian drive and its unsettling opacity, Hagey neither glorifies nor vilifies, but instead illuminates. The result is a nuanced, compelling exploration of what it means to shape the future—and who gets to do the shaping. Whether you leave the book feeling inspired or uneasy, one thing is certain: you won’t look at AI, or its architects, the same way again.
The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future
by Keach Hagey
W. W. Norton, 384 pp., $31.99
Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and podcast host. You can find him on Substack and follow him on X at @ighaworth.
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