i_am_nuts

“Empire of AI” by Karen Hao was a nice read that I would recommend. It’s half hitpiece on how OpenAI corporate culture has evolved (with a focus on Sam Altman and his two-faced politicking), and half illustrating how frontier AI labs are “empires” that extract resources from the Global South (such as potable water for data center cooling and cheap labor for data labeling). Below I collect some quotes from the book that illustrate how Sam Altman is manipulative and power-seeking, and accordingly why I find it frightening that he wields so much power over OpenAI. There is some irony in the fact that I’ve put together a quote compilation focused on Sam Altman, when one of the main themes of the book is that the AI industry ignores the voices of powerless people, such as those in the Global South. Sorry about that. Regarding Sam Altman’s early years running Loopt (early 2010s): > In [storytelling] Altman is a natural. Even knowing as you watch him that his company would ultimately fail, you can’t help but be compelled by what he’s saying. He speaks with a casual ease about the singular positioning of his company. His startup is part of the grand, unstoppable trajectory of technology. Consumers and advertisers are clamoring for the service. Don’t bet against him—his success is inevitable. (pg. 33) > “Sam remembers all these details about you. He’s so attentive. But then part of it is he uses that to figure out how to influence you in different ways,” says one person who worked several years with him. “He’s so good at adjusting to what you say, and you really feel like you’re making progress with him. And then you realize over time that you’re actually just running in place.” (pg. 34-35) > [Altman] sometimes lied about details so insignificant that it was hard to say why the dishonesty mattered at all. But over time, those tiny “paper cuts,” as one person called them, led to an atmosphere of pervasive distrust and chaos at t