Lunch with Sam Altman at Davos

When Sam Altman arrived at Axios' doorstep with his armored car and an intimidating security detail, he was Davos' most powerful figure in everyone's eyes. However, the moment he stepped inside, that perception began to wane. But let's rewind a bit.

Last year's hottest topic was Sam's departure from OpenAI and the chaos that ensued upon his return. Artificial intelligence, which deeply affects all industries in the world and prompts us (pun not intended) to question the future of work at every level, naturally raises the question of how to manage this great power. The intimate discussion with 25 people at Sam Altman's Axios home was a highlight of Davos as it provided clues to how he approaches some of these questions.

The first question asked was what Sam had learned from 2023. Responding more like a product manager or research lead than a CEO, Altman mentioned that they had enough information to develop the next model, but there wasn't anything different from previous years in terms of what concrete thing they wanted to accomplish this year. He mentioned working on increasing the general intelligence level for the next version of ChatGPT; he talked about how the model could become even more complex. However, his tone and approach seemed almost rehearsed, like reciting a memorized text.

The long line of people waiting to attend Sam Altman's talk.

Publishers and OpenAI: Next, the topic shifted to the copyright lawsuit filed by The New York Times. Altman made it clear that they didn't need the vast datasets of different media companies; what they needed was small-scale but high-quality data. He stated that they would seek agreements like the one with Axel Springer and had no intention of endangering the media and journalism industry in any way.

Human rights and OpenAI: An interesting question posed by Axios' Chief Technology Correspondent, Ina Fried, was about how ChatGPT would be trained on LGBTI+ rights. Altman's response was quite disappointing. He mentioned that since every country has its own cultural codes, they wouldn't take any extra action on this matter, and they had no intention to impose restrictions. While referring to the fact that contexts vary from country to country as a sign of "freedom and sensitivity," he stated that it wasn't their role to define rights. I can't help but wonder, would this extreme libertarian take from a tech leader who set out to transform the world not regress it?

Sam Altman and his investments: Altman, who stopped investing in startups after the rapid rise of OpenAI following his long tenure at Y Combinator, stated that the reason was that he no longer saw himself as an investor in terms of both time and energy. He mentioned that he continued to contribute to the startups he had previously invested in because he saw it as a necessity.

At the end of a year which OpenAI made headlines and artificial intelligence was all over the place, it was truly intriguing to see Sam Altman calmly giving copy-paste answers to all questions. It seems evident that Sam's vision doesn't exactly match the course that artificial intelligence has taken. So, there's plenty of room for new leaders to emerge in the AI industry.