Sam Altman responds to the “incendiary” New Yorker article after the attack on his home

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Published a blog post Friday evening in response to an apparent attack on his home and An in-depth profile in The New Yorker Which raises questions about its credibility.

Early Friday morning, someone allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s home. No one was injured in the incident, and one of the suspects was later arrested at OpenAI headquarters, where he was threatening to burn down the building. According to the San Francisco Police Department.

While police did not publicly identify the suspect, Altman noted that the incident came a few days after an “inflammatory article” was published about him. He said one person suggested that publishing the article “at a time of great concern about AI” could make things “more dangerous” for him.

“I just ignored it,” Altman said. “Now I’m up in the middle of the night angry, and I think I’ve underestimated the power of words and narrative.”

The article in question was a lengthy investigative piece written by Ronan Farrow (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting that exposed numerous sexual assault allegations about Harvey Weinstein) and Andrew Marantz (who has written extensively about technology and politics).

During interviews with more than 100 people with knowledge of Altman’s business conduct, most described Altman as someone whose “relentless will to power, even among the industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart,” Farrow and Marantz said.

Echoing Other journalists who profiled AltmanFarrow and Marantz suggested that several sources raised questions about his credibility, with one anonymous board member saying that he combined a “strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction” with a “social lack of concern for the consequences that might come from deceiving someone.”

In his response, Altman said that looking back, he can identify “a lot of things I’m proud of and a bunch of mistakes.”

Among the mistakes, he said, was a tendency toward “conflict avoidance,” which he said “caused me and OpenAI great pain.”

Altman said: “I am not proud of having dealt poorly with myself in a conflict with the previous board that led to great chaos in the company,” in an apparent reference to… His dismissal and quick reinstatement as CEO of OpenAI “I’ve made many other mistakes along the crazy path of OpenAI; I’m a flawed person in the middle of a very complex situation, trying to get a little better every year, always working toward the mission.”

He added: “I’m sorry to the people I hurt and wish I had learned more sooner.”

Altman also admitted that there seemed to be “a lot of Shakespearean drama between companies in our industry,” which he attributed to a “power loop dynamic” that “makes people do crazy things.”

Of course, the correct way to deal with Ring of strength “I don’t mean that[AI]is the ring per se, but rather the overarching philosophy of being the one in control of AGI,” Altman added. The solution he proposes is to “move towards sharing the technology with people on a large scale, and no one person gets the ring.”

Altman concluded by saying that he welcomed “good-faith criticism and debate,” while emphasizing his belief that “technological advances can make the future incredibly good, for your family and mine.”

“As we have this debate, we must de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to reduce the number of explosions in fewer homes, both figuratively and literally,” he said.