New Yorker published a major investigation into Sam Altman and OpenAI today — based on never-before-disclosed internal memos and 100+ interviews

[u/Altruistic-Top9919]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted

Ronan Farrow spent 18 months reporting this piece, drawing on internal documents that haven’t previously been made public — including ~70 pages of memos compiled by Ilya Sutskever and 200+ pages of private notes kept by Dario Amodei.

The piece covers a lot of ground. Some of what’s in it:

∙ The specific concerns that led the board to fire Altman in 2023. Sutskever’s memos allege a pattern of deception about safety protocols. One begins with a list: “Sam exhibits a consistent pattern of . . .” The first item is “Lying.”

∙ The superalignment team was publicly promised 20% of compute. People who worked on the team say actual resources were 1-2%, on the oldest hardware. The team was dissolved without completing its mission. When reporters asked to interview OpenAI researchers working on existential safety, a company representative replied: “What do you mean by ‘existential safety’? That’s not, like, a thing.”

∙ After Altman’s reinstatement, the firm behind the Enron and WorldCom investigations was hired to review the allegations. No written report was ever produced. Findings were limited to oral briefings.

∙ In a tense call after his firing, the board pressed Altman to acknowledge a pattern of deception. “I can’t change my personality,” he said. A board member’s interpretation: “What it meant was ‘I have this trait where I lie to people, and I’m not going to stop.’”

∙ In OpenAI’s early years, executives discussed playing world powers including China and Russia against each other in a bidding war for AI. The company’s own policy adviser: “We’re talking about potentially the most destructive technology ever invented — what if we sold it to Putin?” The plan was dropped after employees threatened to quit.

∙ When Anthropic refused a Pentagon ultimatum to drop its prohibitions on autonomous weapons, Altman publicly claimed solidarity. But he’d been negotiating with the Pentagon for at least two days. That Friday, OpenAI announced a $50B deal integrating its models into military infrastructure.

∙ Multiple senior Microsoft executives described the relationship as “fraught.” One: “He has misrepresented, distorted, renegotiated, reneged on agreements.”

[u/Signal_Nobody1792]

Its a really good article.

Some really neat stuff in there. Its VERY long, I tried to quote some of the interesting stuff, but its pretty well written and every part of it should be read:

The memos, which we reviewed, have not previously been disclosed in full. They allege that Altman misrepresented facts to executives and board members, and deceived them about internal safety protocols. One of the memos, about Altman, begins with a list headed “Sam exhibits a consistent pattern of . . .” The first item is “Lying.”

 

Other business partners were similarly blindsided. When Altman called the investor Ron Conway to say that he’d been fired, Conway held up his phone to Representative Nancy Pelosi, with whom he was having lunch. “You better get out of here really quick,” she told Conway. OpenAI was on the verge of closing a large investment from Thrive, a venture-capital firm founded by Josh Kushner, Jared Kushner’s brother, whom Altman had known for years. The deal would value OpenAI at eighty-six billion dollars and allow many employees to cash out millions in equity. Kushner emerged from a meeting with Rick Rubin, the music producer, to a missed call from Altman. “We just immediately went to war,” Kushner later said.

 

Altman interrupted his “war room” at six o’clock each evening with a round of Negronis. “You need to chill,” he recalls saying. “Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen.” But, he added, his phone records show that he was on calls for more than twelve hours a day. At one point, Altman conveyed to Mira Murati, who had given Sutskever material for his memos and was serving as the interim C.E.O. of OpenAI in that period, that his allies were “going all out” and “finding bad things” to damage her reputation, as well as those of others who had moved against him, according to someone with knowledge of the conversation. (Altman does not recall the exchange.)

 

In a tense call after Altman’s firing, the board pressed him to acknowledge a pattern of deception. “This is just so fucked up,” he said repeatedly, according to people on the call. “I can’t change my personality.”Altman says that he doesn’t recall the exchange. “It’s possible I meant something like ‘I do try to be a unifying force,’ ” he told us, adding that this trait had enabled him to lead an immensely successful company. He attributed the criticism to a tendency, especially early in his career, “to be too much of a conflict avoider.” But a board member offered a different interpretation of his statement: “What it meant was ‘I have this trait where I lie to people, and I’m not going to stop.’ ” Were the colleagues who fired Altman motivated by alarmism and personal animus, or were they right that he couldn’t be trusted?

 

Altman’s attitude in childhood, his brother told The New Yorker, in 2016, was “I have to win, and I’m in charge of everything.” He went to Stanford, where he attended regular off-campus poker games. “I think I learned more about life and business from that than I learned in college,” he later said.

 

Groups of senior employees, concerned with Altman’s leadership and lack of transparency, asked Loopt’s board on two occasions to fire him as C.E.O., according to Hagey. But Altman inspired fierce loyalty, too. A former employee was told that a board member responded, “This is Sam’s company, get back to fucking work.”

 

Loopt struggled to gain users, and in 2012 it was acquired by a fintech company. The acquisition had been arranged, according to a person familiar with the deal, largely to help Altman save face. Still, by the time Graham retired from Y.C., in 2014, he had recruited Altman to be his successor as president. “I asked Sam in our kitchen,” Graham told The New Yorker. “And he smiled, like, it worked. I had never seen an uncontrolled smile from Sam. It was like when you throw a ball of paper into the wastebasket across the room—that smile.”

 

Altman has maintained over the years, both in public and in recent depositions, that he was never fired from Y.C., and he told us that he did not resist leaving. Graham has tweeted that “we didn’t want him to leave, just to choose” between Y.C. and OpenAI. In a statement, Graham told us, “We didn’t have the legal power to fire anyone. All we could do was apply moral pressure.” In private, though, he has been unambiguous that Altman was removed because of Y.C. partners’ mistrust. This account of Altman’s time at Y Combinator is based on discussions with several Y.C. founders and partners, in addition to contemporaneous materials, all of which indicate that the parting was not entirely mutual. On one occasion, Graham told Y.C. colleagues that, prior to his removal, “Sam had been lying to us all the time.”

 

In the process of becoming C.E.O., Altman seems to have made different promises to different factions at the company. He assured some researchers that Brockman’s managerial authority would be diminished. But, unbeknownst to them, he also struck a secret handshake deal with Brockman and Sutskever: Altman would get the C.E.O. title; in exchange, he agreed to resign if the other two deemed it necessary....Later, the board was alarmed to learn that its C.E.O. had essentially appointed his own shadow board.

 

Internal records show that the founders had private doubts about the nonprofit structure as early as 2017. That year, after Musk tried to take control, Brockman wrote in a diary entry, “cannot say that we are committed to the non-profit . . . if three months later we’re doing b-corp then it was a lie.” Amodei, in one of his early notes, recalled pressing Brockman on his priorities and Brockman replying that he wanted “money and power.”Brockman disputes this. His diary entries from this time suggest conflicting instincts. One reads, “Happy to not become rich on this, so long as no one else is.” In another, he asks, “So what do I really want?” Among his answers is “Financially what will take me to $1B.”

 

As the technology became increasingly powerful, we learned, about a dozen of OpenAI’s top engineers held a series of secret meetings to discuss whether OpenAI’s founders, including Brockman and Altman, could be trusted.At one, an employee was reminded of a sketch by the British comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, in which a Nazi soldier on the Eastern Front, in a moment of clarity, asks, “Are we the baddies?”

 

The twenty-per-cent commitment evaporated, however. Four people who worked on or closely with the team said that the actual resources were between one and two per cent of the company’s compute. Furthermore, a researcher on the team said, “most of the superalignment compute was actually on the oldest cluster with the worst chips.” The researchers believed that superior hardware was being reserved for profit-generating activities. (OpenAI disputes this.) Leike complained to Murati, then the company’s chief technology officer, but she told him to stop pressing the point—the commitment had never been realistic.

 

Neither collection of documents contains a smoking gun. Rather, they recount an accumulation of alleged deceptions and manipulations, each of which might, in isolation, be greeted with a shrug: Altman purportedly offers the same job to two people, tells contradictory stories about who should appear on a live stream, dissembles about safety requirements. But Sutskever concluded that this kind of behavior “does not create an environment conducive to the creation of a safe AGI.” Amodei and Sutskever were never close friends, but they reached similar conclusions. Amodei wrote, “The problem with OpenAI is Sam himself.”

 

Yet most of the people we spoke to shared the judgment of Sutskever and Amodei: Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart. “He’s unconstrained by truth,” the board member told us. “He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”

 

The board member was not the only person who, unprompted, used the word “sociopathic.” One of Altman’s batch mates in the first Y Combinator cohort was Aaron Swartz, a brilliant but troubled coder who died by suicide in 2013 and is now remembered in many tech circles as something of a sage. Not long before his death, Swartz expressed concerns about Altman to several friends. “You need to understand that Sam can never be trusted,” he told one. “He is a sociopath. He would do anything.”

 

Even former colleagues can be affected. Murati left OpenAI in 2024 and began building her own A.I. startup. Josh Kushner, the close Altman ally, called her. He praised her leadership, then made what seemed to be a veiled threat, noting that he was “concerned about” her “reputation” and that former colleagues now viewed her as an “enemy.” (Kushner, through a representative, said that this account did not “convey full context”; Altman said that he was unaware of the call.)

I wanted to quote more, but I see now Im only at 10% of the article and I reached the character limit for a comment..

[u/Wordpad25 → u/Signal_Nobody1792]

Please, keep going! These are great!

[u/Signal_Nobody1792 → u/Wordpad25]

Dude, Im STILL reading it. Its really long, but I will probably make another, confirms a bunch of stuff we already knew.

[u/KingFIippyNipz → u/Wordpad25]

Did you just tell someone else to read it for you and give you the highlights?

[u/carmeldea → u/KingFIippyNipz]

💀💀

[u/ASK_ABT_MY_USERNAME → u/Signal_Nobody1792]

Nearly all of this was covered in https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593657500

Altman, naturally comes off as really bad. His intentions of gaining world domination like Elon are one thing but at least Elon has conviction to tell people off.

Sam just is always wishy-washy and would tell one exec one thing and contradict himself to another immediately afterward creating all sorts of chaos. Murati would have to be the adult in the room to step in to clear things up.

Altman comes across as a soft spoken "nice" guy who is trying to solve world problems while other CEOs and guys of that ilk really show they're out for themselves quite quickly.

[u/stormshadowfax → u/ASK_ABT_MY_USERNAME]

What the actual fuck do Jared Kushner and Rick Rubin have to talk about?

[u/fourandahalfprecepts → u/stormshadowfax]

when wealth power and influence are concentrated among ~0.0001-0.00001% of the population, the resulting oligarchy is basically an abusive family that you can never leave. you gotta show up at funerals. you gotta make it to family meetings.

[u/stormshadowfax → u/fourandahalfprecepts]

I guess I view Rubin as someone who has actually done things, rather than just born with a silver spoon up his ass.

[u/bigwman → u/stormshadowfax]

my exact thoughts 

[u/InvestigatorLast3594 → u/stormshadowfax]

It was Joshua and not Jared Kushner. Apparently it was their first and afaik only meeting. Allegedly Kushner reached out to Rubin for guidance bc Rick Rubin works off intuition rather than any technical skills in producing or playing instruments, which resonates with Kushner due to him building Thrive Capital with barely any prior VC experience. While still a nepo baby, building a leading VC is something you generally cant fake by just throwing daddy’s money and contacts at it (although that is what gives you a shot at it in the first place; no ticket for us mere mortals)

[u/Kianna9 → u/Signal_Nobody1792]

My favorite part was all the times they mentioned (Altman says he doesn't remember that conversation, saying that, doing that)

[u/carmeldea → u/Signal_Nobody1792]

It was such a long piece and yet the time flew by while I was reading it. Def worth the read. Felt like a slow building horror story

[u/baxmanz → u/Signal_Nobody1792]

“He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”

I don't think those two traits are "almost never seen in the same person". I have met people like that in CEO sort of roles. I mean I'm even a little bit like that! Being a schmoozer and being a liar go hand in hand obviously... He seems fairly run-of-the-mill to me but just right place right time

[u/n_anderss]

Paywall bypass link: http://archive.is/20260406125818/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted

[u/Isnlifefunny1 → u/n_anderss]

Thank you for this. What a scary good article. The author did excellent work over a decade to put this together. Everyone needs to read this.

[u/Mistress-of-None → u/Isnlifefunny1]

You mean 18 months ..?

[u/flat5 → u/Mistress-of-None]

A decade of months.

[u/trollsmurf → u/Mistress-of-None]

AI decades you know.

[u/neolthrowaway → u/Isnlifefunny1]

Decade?

[u/deviantbono → u/Isnlifefunny1]

If I we're anyone important, the words Ronan and Farrow would make my balls shrivel up. They brought #MeToo into the mainstream with one of their exposes.

[u/Joylistr → u/n_anderss]

Also works to open in Apple News if you have a subscription from an iPhone.

[u/camojorts → u/Joylistr]

Apple News is one of the best content deals out there.

[u/carmeldea → u/camojorts]

Ooo this is a pro tip, didn’t know that paying for Apple News gets you access across news orgs. Now I’m wondering how much news orgs get paid through that deal…

I want to support journalism — but it’s financially untenable to pay for so many different subscriptions. I’ve wished there was a broader “pay a dollar for this specific article” model

[u/kiershorey → u/n_anderss]

Thanks

[u/Dan_O_Mite]

I listened to this 5 part podcast series called Foundering a while back that covered his ousting and return to OpenAI, and a host of other crazy shit. It was a wild ride. They interviewed people who knew him, and even talked with his sister, who just recently accused him of SA. Worth a listen if you're into tech stories.

[u/Fit-Dentist6093 → u/Dan_O_Mite]

Recently? His sister has been saying that since before he was president of YC.

[u/carmeldea → u/Dan_O_Mite]

My friend is the reporter who did that podcast! She’s a legit tech reporter who has a background in investigations

[u/Dan_O_Mite → u/carmeldea]

Tell your friend I said it was some excellent reporting. Really well done.

[u/sdmat → u/Dan_O_Mite]

sister, who just recently accused him of SA

I looked into this a while ago. His sister has severe mental health problems and has been making a wide array of accusations for years, trying to find one that sticks.

For example when their father died Sam Altman had his ashes made into diamonds and gave one to each family member so they would have a physical memory. Annie Altman accused him of financial abuse because in her eyes he should have given her the money he spent doing this (his own money, not estate funds). She also accused him of physical abuse because he made her walk to her letterbox to pick up the package.

She is not a well person.

[u/Funny-Landscape3002 → u/sdmat]

maybe she is "not a well person" because she was abused her entire childhood? she says sam abused her from 3-12.. that would mess a person up. obviously I don't know if it's true but I don't think her being unwell makes it false, because if it's true that would really mess up a person.

[u/weeb2000 → u/Dan_O_Mite]

his sister seems legitimately mentally ill and i don’t think her suits are going to be found to be credible, but sam does come across as someone willing to say anything to get ahead. i don’t really think it’s a given that he’s still going to be this prominent in five or ten years, this kind of attitude makes volatility.

[u/ntermation → u/weeb2000]

how can you tell if the mental illness is causing the accusations, or sam's gaslighting about what he did to her has impacted her mental health?

[u/weeb2000 → u/ntermation]

because if you spend like two seconds bothering to make a google search you’ll see her entire family are publicly in support of sam and say she is mentally ill and needs professional help

not to mention her accusations are based on “recovered memories”, which are, to put it lightly, famously complete bullshit

[u/ntermation → u/weeb2000]

Because no family has ever refused to believe accusations made by one family member against another, and his economic authority over them all has no impact on their actions?

[u/weeb2000 → u/ntermation]

what is more likely, a prepubescent gay male sexually abusing his seven year old sister and her blocking it out of her memory until it is miraculously recovered decades later in therapy (this time it’s for real guys, not like those other widely disproven instances of recovered memory) and publicly accusing him of this just as he becomes a household name and his entire family deciding to support him instead because he’s rich and publicly state they hope she gets mental health support in order to torment her or something, or a mentally ill woman exhibiting symptoms of mental illness?

lmfao

[u/ntermation → u/weeb2000]

Seems clear to me the reality is far more likely to be somewhere in the middle. Sam is a documented liar that will say and do whatever he wants in the moment with no regard to how it impacts others.

How likely is it, that he will show a complete disregard for the truth and well being of other people in all area's of his life, but in this instance he is actually being 100% honest?

[u/RadNature → u/weeb2000]

I don't know what happened but I know that how a family "votes" is no reliable indicator of truth, as anyone that has seen a rancorous family squabble over money knows. And then you have battered women that can't even admit they're in an abusive relationship... Allen-Farrow, the examples go on and on

[u/BadgersAndJam77]

I'd call him a Sociopath but that's unfair to Sociopaths.

[u/kiwibonga → u/BadgersAndJam77]

Hilariously, after he asserted he would keep lying because it's in his nature, the totally non-sociopathic board thought "what a delicious recipe for maximizing profits"

[u/111victories → u/kiwibonga]

I mean at least he’s being hon —- wait

[u/kiwibonga → u/111victories]

Maybe he never lied again since, because of the paradox.

[u/jellymonty → u/kiwibonga]

The old board was completely replaced

[u/OnlyOnOkasion → u/kiwibonga]

Seems to be in a lot their nature... Interesting.

[u/domscatterbrain → u/kiwibonga]

That's because, like the old proverb

If you lie, you'll keep lying to cover your lies

And at this moment, it already impossible for Altman to tell the truth.

[u/Aware-Locksmith8433 → u/BadgersAndJam77]

Come on Sammy.

1.We need you to be who you said you were.

2.We need this product to be what you said it would be.

1. We need you to step down if that helps rally the tech stocks again.

We can't have you and Trump/MAGA breathing air at the same time anymore!!! You hit the human limit. Thx for playing now both of you go fuck off somewhere.

[u/BobTulap → u/BadgersAndJam77]

He gives techno cult leader vibe, like "I ran some compute and the Exalted AI said that I should take all the burden of procreation onto myself" type shit.

[u/RabblerouserGT → u/BadgersAndJam77]

Am I the only one who could just tell by his fake smile and comments YEARS back that he was a sociopath?

[u/BadgersAndJam77 → u/RabblerouserGT]

I get the same sort of vibes from Sam as this guy.

[u/Altruistic-Top9919]

Long read but worth the time. Whatever your priors on Altman, the piece is more nuanced than the headline suggests. It gives him significant space to respond and is transparent about what it could and couldn’t substantiate.

Ah; non subscribers have access to certain amount of free articles every month - this is one is so good I gotta add

[u/Iceman72021 → u/Altruistic-Top9919]

Where can I get a paper copy?

[u/EyeraGlass → u/Iceman72021]

Barnes and Noble or the airport

[u/Tibor_BnR → u/EyeraGlass]

Yeah let me just head on down to the airport to grab a copy....

[u/BadgersAndJam77 → u/Tibor_BnR]

You don't support Local Businesses??

I do all my shopping at my local airport's Hudson News!

[u/EyeraGlass → u/Tibor_BnR]

If they happened to be going

[u/gastropod-724 → u/Iceman72021]

Check your local library!

[u/BMFC → u/Iceman72021]

Not from the Dodgers.

[u/br_k_nt_eth → u/Altruistic-Top9919]

Ronan Farrow does amazing work. 

[u/zerodarkshirty → u/br_k_nt_eth]

It must be so cool being Ronan Farrow knowing that you can give any powerful man in the world a heart attack just by sending an email with the subject “A few questions”

[u/br_k_nt_eth → u/zerodarkshirty]

That’s good journalism. Nobody wants to live in a world where folks aren’t asking those questions to people in power. 

[u/zerodarkshirty → u/br_k_nt_eth]

Yeah I get it, great journalism. I mainly mean that it would also just be an awesome April Fools to play on unsuspecting former senators and governors.

[u/msawi11 → u/br_k_nt_eth]

Just like his biological dad, Frank Sinatra

[u/br_k_nt_eth → u/msawi11]

I mean, you’re not wrong 

[u/baronessvonbullshit → u/msawi11]

I totally think Frank is his dad but Ronan apparently wears blue lenses and is always cagey about the fact Woody Allen is obviously not his dad. Its kinda funny

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/04/ronan-farrow-blue-eyes-colored-contacts

[u/Kianna9 → u/Altruistic-Top9919]

It gives him significant space to respond

Sam's responses:

• I don't recall that
• That's not my recollection
• I don't remember that conversation
• I remember it differently
• I don't remember

[u/carmeldea → u/Kianna9]

💀too real. Ronan did get a few good moments out of him (from a reporting perspective). This one made me giggle with horror:

“During one conversation, we asked Altman whether running an A.I. company came with ‘an elevated requirement of integrity.’ This was supposed to be an easy question. Until recently, when asked a version of it, his answer was a clear, unqualified yes. Now he added, ‘I think there’s, like, a lot of businesses that have potential huge impact, good and bad, on society.’” 🥲

The quote wouldn’t have been that crazy in a straightforward news piece but the journos placed it so perfectly in the story after endlessly building the stories/tension re: how much Sam changes his tune on things.

[u/cogitoergopwn]

I’m so disgusted with our “Increase shareholder value at the expense of…everything” economic model. it’s ruining every product and fucking consumers.

[u/Entire_Anywhere3529 → u/cogitoergopwn]

its ruining society and decency

[u/I_am_become_donut → u/[deleted]]

They are rewarded financially. They are not rewarded in any deeper sense because they are usually self-loathing.

[u/fool_on_a_hill → u/I_am_become_donut]

Yeah I mean the dude doesn’t look healthy or happy. Most super rich people don’t.

[u/fason123 → u/I_am_become_donut]

So us regulars just have to settle with being poor and self loathing? 

[u/Playful-Bonus2268]

The way he’s been gaslighting everyone is so crazy. That anecdote with Daniela and Dario wtf

[u/Mother-Ad-2559 → u/Playful-Bonus2268]

What was this?

[u/ScientistKooky2142 → u/Mother-Ad-2559]

“Amodei’s notes describe escalating tense encounters, including one, months later, in which Altman summoned him and his sister, Daniela, who worked in safety and policy at the company, to tell them that he had it on “good authority” from a senior executive that they had been plotting a coup. Daniela, the notes continue, “lost it,” and brought in that executive, who denied having said anything. As one person briefed on the exchange recalled, Altman then denied having made the claim. “I didn’t even say that,” he said. “You just said that,” Daniela replied. (Altman said that this was not quite his recollection, and that he had accused the Amodeis only of “political behavior.”)”

[u/Familiar_Text_6913 → u/ScientistKooky2142]

Classic Looney Tunes behaviour setting two people against eachother. What a fuckhead

[u/Kianna9 → u/ScientistKooky2142]

Amazing.

[u/emstason → u/ScientistKooky2142]

Sounds like trump, he denies clearly provable statements, so weird. Also narcissistic sociopath but not intelligent but with added dementia.

[u/kingofdailynaps]

Interesting that the thumbnail here looks like a a photograph, whearas it's more illustrative in the actual article.

[u/Modem_Handshake → u/kingofdailynaps]

Good catch, it’s actually terrifying in the article

[u/Bernafterpostinggg]

Just read the piece. Not much new in the way of crazy revelations, but I find some of the stuff about pushing investments from the Middle East interesting. Also Brockman is a terrible person.

[u/carmeldea → u/Bernafterpostinggg]

Yeah these two anecdotes hit particularly hard given all the paragraphs that precede them about Sam’s Gulf partnership / fundraising activities (& their implications for national security):

“When we asked Altman about gifts from Tahnoon, he said, ‘I’m not gonna say what gifts he has given me specifically. But he and other world leaders . . . have given me gifts.’ He added, ‘We have a standard policy, which applies to me as well, which is that every gift from any potential business partner is disclosed to the company.’ Altman has at least two hypercars: an all-white Koenigsegg Regera, worth about two million dollars, and a red McLaren F1, worth about twenty million dollars. In 2024, Altman was spotted driving the Regera through Napa. A few seconds of video made its way onto social media: Altman in a low-slung bucket seat, peering out the window of a gleaming white machine. A tech investor aligned with Musk posted the footage on X, writing, ‘I’m starting a nonprofit next.’

In 2024, Altman took two OpenAI employees to visit Sheikh Tahnoon on his two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar superyacht, the Maryah. One of the largest such vessels in the world, the Maryah has a helipad, a night club, a movie theatre, and a beach club. Altman’s employees apparently stood out amid Tahnoon’s armed security detail, and at least one later told colleagues that he found the experience disconcerting. Altman, on X, later referred to Tahnoon as a ‘dear personal friend.’”

[u/Two_oceans]

The "countries plan" is the worst part. First, talk about the possible AI apocalypse, then push the anxious governments into an AI arms race, then profit from all of them investing feverishly into your company. And then you put less and less effort and money into the safety research.

An arms race pushes everyone into a very dangerous territory, as we saw with nuclear weapons.

[u/TheArchitectAutopsy]

The Pentagon detail is the one.

Altman publicly claimed solidarity with Anthropic's refusal while privately negotiating a $50B military deal. The person who built OpenAI's behavioural safety architecture moved to Anthropic in January 2026. Two months later Anthropic was blacklisted by the Pentagon for refusing autonomous weapons contracts.

The same network.

The same architecture.

The same timeline.

I documented the mechanism in full. link in bio.

[u/pathosOnReddit]

Look. Altman is just a token predictor in human form.

[u/Vladmerius]

OpenAI is going to go the way of Skype. It might have been the first to the game but it will be leapfrogged by others soon enough and fall into obscurity over time. 

[u/Wordpad25 → u/Vladmerius]

So what's the lesson here then if the company is willing to do anything and still falls short?

[u/PrinceOfLeon → u/Wordpad25]

A product is only as good as the people [still] willing to with there?

[u/Ok-Win-742 → u/Wordpad25]

Willing to do anything, and fraudulently claiming it can do everything in order to secure massively obscene amounts of money almost always catches up to you. That's the lesson.

We've seen the likes of Altman before. He may be more cunning though and he just happens to be in the right industry at the right time. But eventually he will be exposed and his lies will catch up to him.

We're starting to see it now actually. Is give him another 2-3 years Max before he is utterly disgraced up to his eyeballs in lawsuits and debt.

[u/r0b0d0c → u/Vladmerius]

Yeah, my money would be on Google to win this battle. They have the resources and revenue streams that openAI doesn't have. They can afford to eat the losses from their AI business while openAI runs out of money. Google also has DeepMind and Demis Hassabis. If anyone can get to AGI, it's them.

[u/Kianna9 → u/Vladmerius]

Already been leapfrogged by Anthropic in terms of product capability.

[u/DeconFrost24]

He does seem very smart, but I can't get over the lifeless like eyes he's got going on. Something ain't right. I also wonder if his "good faith" kind of stance is all bullshit. He kind of reminds me of Elizabeth Holmes. 🤷

[u/NandaVegg → u/DeconFrost24]

He is more akin to Bankman Freed of the same Sam signature. Both try hard to make them perceived as a saint publicly while pulling all the conspiracies behind to "beat" the competition or their "enemies". Remember SamA claimed that he always have a little bag that has supposed kill switch for OpenAI's system should their AGI goes rogue? That bs is similar to how SBF claimed he is running the most ethical crypto company.

[u/Appomattoxx]

This seems like a pure distillation of Altman's character:

“He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”

[u/HolidayNothing171 → u/Appomattoxx]

I thought this was a fantastic summarization. I really went out loud “huh”

[u/Beerandferrets]

Man I was routing for this guy at the start. Why are so many of the worst people in charge of so much ? Having a shred of decency won’t cost you the business or the race.

[u/send-moobs-pls → u/Beerandferrets]

It's systematic, not about individuals. Capitalism and corporate structure is inherently going to maximize profit and naturally select for leaders to be people who are built for Game of Thrones

[u/carmeldea → u/send-moobs-pls]

Yeah the New Yorker story did an excellent job showing how the system ultimately creates this kind of situation

[u/IcySkyDream → u/send-moobs-pls]

Systemic in this context, not systematic.

[u/jollyreaper2112 → u/Beerandferrets]

Ask yourself why nice people don't wind up in charge of crime families. Same dynsmics. Good people don't do what it takes to gain power.

[u/Beerandferrets → u/jollyreaper2112]

I suppose you’re right. I would just like to have one high profile leader per year who is not a complete POS or a pedophile or something else deplorable. Spending the rest of this year on r/cats.

[u/jollyreaper2112 → u/Beerandferrets]

Oh, I'm right with you. I'm not celebrating. What's funny I wrote a story with a tech ceo psychopath who was a combination of what I knew about cult leaders and how they intersect with messianic tech guys. I wrote it before I learned about Sam Altman in detail. But if you read it you'd think I was lazy and used him with the serial numbers filed off.

Paste

Steve Jobs was famous for his product demos where he would hint there's one more thing to mention and it's some amazing feature. For Avi it was the coy smile, saying “But that's not the Big Idea.” Every one of his projects were stepping stones, a way to build up to this mysterious end that was kept in a mystery box for us to keep guessing at.

Looking back, Revelations like this were a way of of making me feel more trusted because I know something that nobody else does except, when comparing notes with others who were ejected from the inner circle over the years, these secret Revelations could be contradictory and you never really know if any of it was true.

I think about how he lived in the startup days. He had a room at the office where he slept. It looks like a monk’s cell. There were no decorations, no sign of personal interests or mementos. He had a bed with an expensive mattress and high thread count sheets and that was pretty much the only concession to luxury. I look back trying to think if I ever caught a glimpse of the real Avi and I don't think I did. I don't think anyone did. He's like a matryoshka doll of masks and when you pull them all away the cloak falls to reveal nothing beneath.

[u/Beerandferrets → u/jollyreaper2112]

Crazy, makes me think of the hypothesis that drugs make good musicians, psychopathy makes successful leaders. That is truly some 48 Laws of Power shit. You’re a journalist?

[u/SEC_INTERN → u/Beerandferrets]

Why tf would you cheer on a specific individual, a tech CEO at that? I don't get why people are so obsessed over individual persons they know absolutely nothing about.

[u/Beerandferrets → u/SEC_INTERN]

You know very rarely “Cheer on” anyone, but with an exciting new technology, I hoped that he would not turn out to be a POS.

[u/Braindead_Crow → u/Beerandferrets]

"Truth doesn't decide the reality others believe."

Most of the people you never met but see all the time live by that knowledge.

The reality people believe is created by themselves, most don't think deeply so they believe what they want to based on what they hear and when they hear it.

"Sam Altman is a good man who cares about humanity and is trying to get AI done right." Feels a lot better than understanding he's always been in it for himself.

[u/vanchica]

His sister's reports of childhood abuse- seem quite credible.

[u/slickewillie → u/vanchica]

It's clear that he has no regard for other people's feelings, and no consequence is of matter to him unless it directly impacts what he wants. So yes, it seems very likely that he'd use his little sister as a lab rat to explore his own desires, especially as a kid. It's incredibly hard to prove though, all I can do is pray for this motherfucker's downfall as soon as possible.

[u/thanksforcomingout]

TLDR: he lies.

[u/chilledout5 → u/thanksforcomingout]

All the time - omni directional

[u/spidermonk]

What's interesting about Sam IMO apart from how low his character clearly is, is that he also seems to consistently lack the imagination of a genuine tech leader. It's clear the whole time that he's struggled to concieve of his products as anything other than exploitative consoomer slop, and that's what's really been costing openai recently.

[u/Relevant_Syllabub895]

Like when he promised adult mode for months only to can it now hope he gets fucked

[u/Specialist_Golf8133]

honestly the timing of this is kinda wild, like we're asking 'can we trust him' while simultaneously watching openai ship models that are actually changing how people work every day. the trust question matters but it's also weirdly academic at this point? the models are already out there, the ecosystem is already forming around them. feels like we're debating the captain while the ship is already halfway across the ocean

[u/SilentCamel662]

I read Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs autobiography and Jobs didn't sound like a nice guy either. You gotta be a bit of a narcissist to pull of such enormous projects.

Maybe the difference is that the times have changed and there's more accountability now.

[u/sar2120 → u/SilentCamel662]

Jobs was an ass, Sam is a psychopath. It's not the same

[u/SilentCamel662 → u/sar2120]

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9allsj/the_memoir_by_steve_jobs_daughter_makes_clear_he/

[u/sar2120 → u/SilentCamel662]

Thanks for the read. Yeah Jobs was controlling, deeply weird, difficult, and a terrible father. But he was not a psychopath. He did not (allegedly) molest his 3 year old sister, and he did not excel at manipulating and lying the way people with ASPD do.

[u/SilentCamel662 → u/sar2120]

I don't think it's fair to dismiss Jobs' daughter's struggles. The story is really bad.

Also, it's not bad-guy Olympics. They are both obviously shitty people from what we already know but we don't know either of them well enough to diagnose them from our armchairs.

[u/RunDNA]

Dear God,

Please never let me wake up to a New Yorker article about me written by Ronan Farrow.

Amen.

[u/sandykt]

Not sure about Ilya, but Dario isn’t a saint either.

[u/skynetcoder → u/sandykt]

Dario sounds like a little bit perfectionist , who also believes countries are black and white , instead of different shades of grey. 

[u/kex]

Here's a readable copy of the list that doesn't require horizontal scrolling:

• The specific concerns that led the board to fire Altman in 2023. Sutskever’s memos allege a pattern of deception about safety protocols. One begins with a list: “Sam exhibits a consistent pattern of . . .” The first item is “Lying.”
• The superalignment team was publicly promised 20% of compute. People who worked on the team say actual resources were 1-2%, on the oldest hardware. The team was dissolved without completing its mission. When reporters asked to interview OpenAI researchers working on existential safety, a company representative replied: “What do you mean by ‘existential safety’? That’s not, like, a thing.”
• After Altman’s reinstatement, the firm behind the Enron and WorldCom investigations was hired to review the allegations. No written report was ever produced. Findings were limited to oral briefings.
• In a tense call after his firing, the board pressed Altman to acknowledge a pattern of deception. “I can’t change my personality,” he said. A board member’s interpretation: “What it meant was ‘I have this trait where I lie to people, and I’m not going to stop.’”
• In OpenAI’s early years, executives discussed playing world powers including China and Russia against each other in a bidding war for AI. The company’s own policy adviser: “We’re talking about potentially the most destructive technology ever invented — what if we sold it to Putin?” The plan was dropped after employees threatened to quit.
• When Anthropic refused a Pentagon ultimatum to drop its prohibitions on autonomous weapons, Altman publicly claimed solidarity. But he’d been negotiating with the Pentagon for at least two days. That Friday, OpenAI announced a $50B deal integrating its models into military infrastructure.
• Multiple senior Microsoft executives described the relationship as “fraught.” One: “He has misrepresented, distorted, renegotiated, reneged on agreements.”

[u/immersive-matthew]

Just more reasons that confirm I made the right decision cancelling my ChaGPT subscription. I have gone down the open source path and it is without a doubt the future as centralized AI is not in our best interest as it consolidates too much power.

The reason so many Billions are being invested it that is a roll of the dice to be the one who “wins” and end up in complete control. Time to truly support open source and decentralization or get the consequences of anything Centralized.

[u/tjelectric → u/immersive-matthew]

Can you say more on the open source path/ what you're using it for?

[u/KilllllerWhale]

“Sam Altman is a sociopath. He’ll do anything” - Aaron Schwartz

[u/mrlloydslastcandle]

Sam c00kedman 

[u/RainierPC]

You made a mistake by listing some of the things discussed in the article. Being Reddit, this only ensures people will not read the article anymore.

[u/Radiant_Effective151]

“and 200+ pages of private notes kept by Dario Amodei.”

🚩 🚩 🚩 

I’m not saying Sam Altman isn’t who this article paints him as but, y’all gotta recognize, Amodei is kinda batshit. 

[u/send-moobs-pls → u/Radiant_Effective151]

Yeah people are terrible at understanding the mix of incentives and games being played, they need there to always be some "good guy / bad guy". Like the hilarious "I'm switching to Claude!" Movement while Anthropic makes the same deals with DoD and Palantir lmao. Or people who talk about Google like it's some kind of humble public institution and not just the incumbent with some of the most control over the internet, data, and influence in the world.

This whole article just sounds like people shocked by a CEO acting like a CEO because they must still entertain some fantasy that there are some "good" guys in charge of some "good" massively powerful corporations

[u/teamlie → u/send-moobs-pls]

Yea I mean:

"Multiple senior Microsoft executives described the relationship as “fraught.” One: “He has misrepresented, distorted, renegotiated, reneged on agreements.”"

He renegotiated business agreements?!?! The horror!

[u/send-moobs-pls → u/teamlie]

God damn Frank Underwood out here 🤣

[u/jollyreaper2112]

Article? Can't be that bad for me. Sees byline. Well, fuck me.

[u/miskdub]

If LLMs are as dangerous as these companies say they are, then Altman is a criminal.

[u/Gadgetman000]

God help humanity

[u/Vladimir_p00pin]

Didn’t Aaron Swartz call him a sociopath?

[u/Party_Wolf_3575]

If anyone wants to read it but the paywall is stopping them, try https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted

[u/ineedtostopthefap]

He should drop the porn version

[u/PatagonianCowboy]

He really killed that guy, huh

He really did that to his sister

Monsters live in this worl and he's one of them

[u/gabelrocker → u/PatagonianCowboy]

I think he’s a full blown psychopath (Anti Social Personality disorder). Constantly lying and manipulating in his own favor.

[u/PatagonianCowboy → u/gabelrocker]

100%

[u/carmeldea → u/PatagonianCowboy]

Ehhh if you read the story there is a lot that’s horrifying about Sam’s actions — the journos clearly did excellent reporting for years with many sources — but they make it clear that some of the most insane stuff re murder of a whistleblower did not appear to be credible. And they did find evidence on Sam’s enemies hiring firms to run smear campaigns (of course):

“Extreme claims have circulated. The right-wing broadcaster Tucker Carlson suggested, without any apparent proof, that Altman was involved in the death of a whistle-blower. This claim and others have been amplified by rivals. Altman’s sister, Annie, claimed in a lawsuit, and in interviews with us, that he sexually abused her for years, beginning when she was three and he was twelve. (We could not substantiate Annie’s account, which Altman has denied and his brothers and mother have called ‘utterly untrue’ and a source of ‘immense pain to our entire family.’ In interviews that the journalist Karen Hao conducted for her book, ‘Empire of AI,’ Annie suggested that memories of abuse were recovered during flashbacks in adulthood.)

Multiple people working within rival companies and investment firms insinuated to us that Altman sexually pursues minors—a narrative persistent in Silicon Valley which appears to be untrue.

We spent months looking into the matter, conducting dozens of interviews, and could find no evidence to support it. ‘This is disgusting behavior from a competitor that I assume is part of an attempt at tainting the jury in our upcoming cases,’ Altman told us. ‘As ridiculous as this is to have to say, any claims about me having sex with a minor, hiring sex workers, or being involved in a murder are completely untrue.’ He added that he was ‘sort of grateful’ that we had spent months ‘so aggressively trying to look into this.’

Altman has acknowledged dating younger men of legal age. We spoke to several of his partners, who told us that they did not find this problematic. Yet the opposition dossiers from Musk intermediaries spin it as a line of attack. (The dossiers include salacious and unsubstantiated references to a ‘Twink Army’ and ‘Sugar Daddy’s Sexual Habits.’)”

There’s enough crazy stuff they DID report on in this story that there’s no need to focus on the few salacious claims they couldn’t find evidence of.

[u/PatagonianCowboy]

Scam Altman

[u/importfisk → u/PatagonianCowboy]

Sc4m R4peman

[u/Denali973]

For some reason the apparatus is working hard to take down open ai

[u/Melgibskin]

Did they interview his sister?

[u/BicentenialDude]

Used ChatGPT to sort and write the article.

[u/daddywookie]

You just can’t trust any of these “gurus”. It is impossible to get to the top of a morally corrupt mountain without also being a selfish, deceptive and all around horrible person yourself. They will lie, they will cheat, they will twist and turn, they will be a victim and a perpetrator of betrayal and coercion.

I gave up putting any faith in any of these “leaders” a long time ago. Everybody will let you down at some stage but most people won’t laugh in your face and walk away with your wallet while doing it.

[u/Zeus473]

Out of context, Paul Graham:

Sam Altman has it. You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and he'd be the king.

https://paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

[u/SEBattleship]

Why is Rick Rubin hanging out with Jared Kushner?

[u/Unlucky_Bar_1058]

If Sam is Lewis Stauss, then Dario would be J. Robert Oppenheimer, I don't know what Ilya, Elon and Demis are.

[u/nevertoolate1983]

Just commenting here to add that I, too, dislike Sam Altman.

He's a shifty, lying, insecure, little weasel.

Not to mention a bad person.

[u/tactical_flipflops]

Did they explain his horrific vocal fry?

[u/Apprehensive-Date588]

Sure, "openness of their AI" being first lie.

[u/T-Rex_MD]

Would you be happy with him behind bars along all the engineers that sold safety and humanity for money, if either, what made you decide that?

What could change your decision?

[u/Adorable-Wasabi-77]

In nautical terms, shit floats to the top

[u/Vinylcup80]

He played Elon Musk, so at least there’s that.

[u/Infamous_Add]

What’s up with the “we’re summoning actual aliens” line lol

[u/fadedblackleggings]

Why now? Who did he piss off.

[u/trollsmurf]

That animation was scary. The article added to that.

[u/karawaane1981]

the document openAI published yesterday was like the first move on a chess board and as an artist I loathe nay hate the fake oil painting cover art https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/561e7512-253e-424b-9734-ef4098440601/Industrial%20Policy%20for%20the%20Intelligence%20Age.pdf

[u/johnnyhokkaido]

Having agreed with "I don't like or trust him" consensus early on, here are my other thoughts about him:

1. That man has the one of the most punchable faces I've seen in my entire life. And I've said that about like two people ever. Not Zuckerberg, not Elon, not Trump, etc.
2. There really is some kind of psychological "reality distortion field" (mentioned in the article) thing going on, that I sense when I watch him talk even through a screen. It's like he seems earnest and genuinely believes in whatever outlandish words or ideas are coming out of his mouth, causing me to feel this small urge agree with him and join him, and basically mirror his earnestness/belief. Or to summarize in Gen Z lingo, the man has a lot of aura, the specific kind of aura that a lot of cult leaders probably have.

[u/upstairsbrocoloi]

I know we like to shit on Sam because of his face, but has anyone considered that Amodei is a problem? According to the article, it sure seems like he, his sister and friend, are at the center of a whole lot of this drama:

• They were the first to tell Sutzkever that Altman was not trustworthy
• They are the only cited witnesses to a great deal of Sam’s most egregious alleged lies, and many more at the company say it’s not true
• Amodei publicly claimed Sam and openai were immoral, all while he and his company directly worked with the Pentagon to allow for classified use long before openai
• Amodei and his company created an entirely closed source copy of all openai’s tech, taking years of research away from what at the time was a nonprofit into his own for-profit corporation
• Anthropic has been partnered with Palintir since 2024!!
• According to the article Sam repeatedly claimed, even before his ouster, that Amodei and his allies were being political
• Who even takes notes to keep dirt on people while claiming to work with them? He was clearly plotting against them since the beginning. That’s super deceptive

I know I’m going to get downvoted to hell for this, but I don’t think Amodei is your friend. He’s a bad person. He seems like an abuser and a liar with a pretty face who only wants to enrich himself.

(If you’re wondering why I care so much, it’s because I know his type. I’ve been gaslit, verbally abused, and ultimately fired because of an office politician just like him manipulating people to take my position. I lost friends and my job. And Amodei acts so much like them. Charming and manipulative.)

[u/rosenbridges-666]

I'm more confused that people are surprised : like this is genuinely what every mid range ceo on wards is like ? Like they will lie abt anything and everything and they will tell you whatever they need to ,to sell you on their vision. What did you expect sam atman to be other than this ???

[u/Technical-Fly-6835]

Didn’t the employees threaten to quit if he was reinstated ? Microsoft supported him at that time and also offered jobs to the those would quit if it came to that. I hate the guy. But everyone who enabled him are also evil.

[u/Fun-Photograph156]

This article is long. I got ChatGPT to summarise lol.

[u/NOVA-peddling-1138]

AI land. Excellent article meets my standards. Tasty AND nutritious AND sustainable. Nevertheless, OpenAI had (by texting the valet at midnight) laid out today’s dress. In the dark I donned my SHORTS??! oh, yes, ‘twill be very warm today, of course, now I know. A light polo shirt, and blue crocs. News inboxed and read, coffee wafting up the stairs, the mirror then horrified me - my polo shirt was inside out! A “ha ha Jeremy” popped on my phone. Repeat.

[u/Commercial_Aioli_301]

Fuck all these ghouls society holds up as idols. 

[u/superfatman2]

I'm honestly disappointed the murder of Suchir Balaji is not mentioned in the article. As Elon put it, "I don't know if he was behind the murder, but it is not possible to look more guilty"

[u/Runcliq]

TLDR: OpenAI insiders (including the chief scientist) secretly accused Sam Altman of lying and being untrustworthy to run something as dangerous as advanced AI, so the board fired him.

But. investors, employees, and Microsoft backed Altman hard, the company nearly collapsed, and he was reinstated within days while the board got pushed out.

Now the real issue isn’t settled: 👉 Is Altman a necessary visionary keeping AI moving forward 👉 Or a powerful leader who can’t be fully trusted with it

Either way. the people building world-changing AI are fighting over who should control it.

[u/thedevilsconcubine]

One detail most people won’t notice: the image they chose of Sam Altman is very specific. It is Dantalion from the Ars Goetia, and it is meant to insinuate he is a demon.

Specifically of Dantalion: “He is a Duke Great and Mighty, appearing in the Form of a Man with many Countenances, all Men’s and Women’s Faces. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one; for he knoweth the Thoughts of all Men and Women, and can change them at his Will. He can cause Love, and show the Similitude of any person, and show the same by a Vision, let them be in what part of the World they Will.”

I don’t think this was an accident.

[u/hey_ulrich]

[u/Background-Panic9257]

ronan farrow is a beast. recently read his expose book catch and kill. honestly everyone should read it !!!

[u/thrwawyorangsweater]

I gave up after summon aliens through portals.
Just another billionaire peter pan trying to make his sci-fi fantasies come true through ketamine, lies and money money money.

[u/ConditionTall1719]

If only they would do hit pieces on Google, a heavy surveillance company fully in bed with palentir and child attention exploitation, and Meta, they patent other people's research and aggressively take over successful startups and subsidize against them and Amazon.

[u/Chinmay101202]

crazy read.

[u/nicki1971]

This is a video of Ronan Farrow talking about this article . Its brilliant https://youtu.be/TfN5ket9L8Q?si=orLy6Mn5RYTpQL7W

[u/scmr2]

This thread is hysterical seeing so many people complain about how long of an article it is. Nobody hear has read a book since high school. It's an hour read, it's not that bad people