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Sam Altman

Sam Altman
GPT-4o There are two things from our announcement today I wanted to highlight. First, a key part of our...
9 months ago
139
9 months ago
There are two things from our announcement today I wanted to highlight. First, a key part of our mission is to put very capable AI tools in the hands of people for free (or at a great price). I am very proud that we’ve made the best model in the world available for free in...
Sam Altman
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me Optimism, obsession, self-belief, raw horsepower and personal connections are how things get...
a year ago
91
a year ago
Optimism, obsession, self-belief, raw horsepower and personal connections are how things get started. Cohesive teams, the right combination of calmness and urgency, and unreasonable commitment are how things get finished. Long-term orientation is in short supply; try not to worry...
Sam Altman
Reflections The second birthday of ChatGPT was only a little over a month ago, and now we have transitioned into...
a month ago
54
a month ago
The second birthday of ChatGPT was only a little over a month ago, and now we have transitioned into the next paradigm of models that can do complex reasoning. New years get people in a reflective mood, and I wanted to share some personal thoughts about how it has gone so far,...
Sam Altman
Reinforcement Learning Progress Today, OpenAI released a new result.  We used PPO (Proximal Policy Optimization), a general...
over a year ago
29
over a year ago
Today, OpenAI released a new result.  We used PPO (Proximal Policy Optimization), a general reinforcement learning algorithm invented by OpenAI, to train a team of 5 agents to play Dota and beat semi-pros. This is the game that to me feels closest to the real world and complex...
Sam Altman
The Merge A popular topic in Silicon Valley is talking about what year humans and machines will merge (or, if...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
A popular topic in Silicon Valley is talking about what year humans and machines will merge (or, if not, what year humans will get surpassed by rapidly improving AI or a genetically enhanced species). Most guesses seem to be between 2025 and 2075. People used to call this the...
Sam Altman
Time to Take a Stand It is time for tech companies to start speaking up about some of the actions taken by President...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
It is time for tech companies to start speaking up about some of the actions taken by President Trump’s administration. There are many actions from his first week that are objectionable.  In repeatedly invoking unsubstantiated conspiracy theories (like the 3 million...
Sam Altman
Helion Needs You Helion has been progressing even faster than I expected and is on pace in 2024 to 1) demonstrate Q >...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
Helion has been progressing even faster than I expected and is on pace in 2024 to 1) demonstrate Q > 1 fusion and 2) resolve all questions needed to design a mass-producible fusion generator. The goals of the company are quite ambitious—clean, continuous energy for 1...
Sam Altman
Idea Generation The most common question prospective startup founders ask is how to get ideas for startups. The...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
The most common question prospective startup founders ask is how to get ideas for startups. The second most common question is if you have any ideas for their startup. But giving founders an idea almost always doesn’t work. Having ideas is among the most important qualities for...
Sam Altman
PG and Jessica A lot of people want to replicate YC in some other industry or some other place or with some other...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
A lot of people want to replicate YC in some other industry or some other place or with some other strategy. In general, people seem to assume that: 1) although there was some degree of mystery or luck about how YC got going, it can’t be that hard, and 2) if you can get it off...
Sam Altman
A Clarification I made a point in this post inelegantly in a way that was easy to misunderstand, so I’d like to...
over a year ago
26
over a year ago
I made a point in this post inelegantly in a way that was easy to misunderstand, so I’d like to clarify it. I didn’t mean that we need to tolerate brilliant homophobic jerks in the lab so that we can have scientific progress.  Although there are famous...
Sam Altman
E Pur Si Muove Earlier this year, I noticed something in China that really surprised me.  I realized I felt more...
over a year ago
25
over a year ago
Earlier this year, I noticed something in China that really surprised me.  I realized I felt more comfortable discussing controversial ideas in Beijing than in San Francisco.  I didn’t feel completely comfortable—this was China, after all—just more comfortable than at home. That...
Sam Altman
Quora I'm a strong believer in the importance of the internet in helping people to share knowledge and...
over a year ago
25
over a year ago
I'm a strong believer in the importance of the internet in helping people to share knowledge and learn from each other.  So I’m delighted to share, on behalf of YC Continuity, that we’re investing alongside Collaborative Fund in Quora. Quora is doing extremely well. They now...
Sam Altman
What I Heard From Trump Supporters After the election, I decided to talk to 100 Trump voters from around the country.  I went to the...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
After the election, I decided to talk to 100 Trump voters from around the country.  I went to the middle of the country, the middle of the state, and talked to many online. This was a surprisingly interesting and helpful experience—I highly recommend it.  With three exceptions,...
Sam Altman
Keep the Internet Open The FCC has announced plans to roll back policies on net neutrality, and its new head has indicated...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
The FCC has announced plans to roll back policies on net neutrality, and its new head has indicated he has no plan to stop soon. The internet is a public good, and I believe access should be a basic right.  We've seen such great innovation in software because the internet has...
Sam Altman
Funding for COVID-19 Projects I’m trying to fund startups/projects helping with COVID-19, because it’s basically the one thing I...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
I’m trying to fund startups/projects helping with COVID-19, because it’s basically the one thing I know how to do that can help.  I think we will soon have enough testing capacity, so now I’d like to start funding more startups working on: Producing a lot of ventilators or...
Sam Altman
The Virus Although I still hope things will go differently, the experts I’ve spoken to think we are likely to...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
Although I still hope things will go differently, the experts I’ve spoken to think we are likely to face a global tragedy—hundreds of thousands of deaths from Covid-19. I hope that society views this as a warning for the future.  Covid-19 is bad, but only a warm-up.  I think it’s...
Sam Altman
Researchers and Founders I spent many years working with founders and now I work with researchers. Although there are always...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
I spent many years working with founders and now I work with researchers. Although there are always individual exceptions, on average it’s surprising to me how different the best people in these groups are (including in some qualities that I had assumed were present in great...
Sam Altman
Project Covalence Almost every company and non-profit working on COVID-19 that I offered to help asked for support...
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
Almost every company and non-profit working on COVID-19 that I offered to help asked for support with clinical trials—for companies focusing on developing novel drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics, rapidly spinning up trials is one of their biggest bottlenecks.  Science remains the...
Sam Altman
Tech Workers' Values For good and bad, technology has become a central force in all our lives. As members of the...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
For good and bad, technology has become a central force in all our lives. As members of the community, we're interested in ways in which tech companies can use their collective power to protect privacy, rule of law, freedom of expression, and other fundamental American rights....
Sam Altman
How To Be Successful I’ve observed thousands of founders and thought a lot about what it takes to make a huge amount of...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
I’ve observed thousands of founders and thought a lot about what it takes to make a huge amount of money or to create something important. Usually, people start off wanting the former and end up wanting the latter. Here are 13 thoughts about how to achieve such outlier...
Sam Altman
US Digital Currency I am pretty sure cryptocurrency is here to stay in some form (at least as a store of value, which is...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
I am pretty sure cryptocurrency is here to stay in some form (at least as a store of value, which is the only use case we have seen work at scale so far).  There was possibly a time when governments could have totally stopped it, but it feels like that’s in the rearview mirror. ...
Sam Altman
The Strength of Being Misunderstood A founder recently asked me how to stop caring what other people think. I didn’t have an answer, and...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
A founder recently asked me how to stop caring what other people think. I didn’t have an answer, and after reflecting on it more, I think it's the wrong question. Almost everyone cares what someone thinks (though caring what everyone thinks is definitely a mistake), and it's...
Sam Altman
Productivity I think I am at least somewhat more productive than average, and people sometimes ask me...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
I think I am at least somewhat more productive than average, and people sometimes ask me for productivity tips.  So I decided to just write them all down in one place. Compound growth gets discussed as a financial concept, but it works in careers as well, and it is magic.  A...
Sam Altman
American Equity I’d like feedback on the following idea. I think that every adult US citizen should get an annual...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
I’d like feedback on the following idea. I think that every adult US citizen should get an annual share of the US GDP. I believe that owning something like a share in America would align all of us in making the country as successful as possible—the better the country does, the...
Sam Altman
Join the YC Software Team If you want to get funded by YC as a founder in the future, but you don't have a startup that's...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
If you want to get funded by YC as a founder in the future, but you don't have a startup that's ready for that yet, joining the YC software team is a great hack to get there. The YC software team is a small group of hackers in SF that write the software that makes all the parts...
Sam Altman
DALL•E 2 Today we did a research launch of DALL•E 2, a new AI tool that can create and edit images from...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
Today we did a research launch of DALL•E 2, a new AI tool that can create and edit images from natural language instructions.  Most importantly, we hope people love the tool and find it useful. For me, it’s the most delightful thing to play with we’ve created so far. I find it to...
Sam Altman
Hard Startups The most counterintuitive secret about startups is that it’s often easier to succeed with a hard...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
The most counterintuitive secret about startups is that it’s often easier to succeed with a hard startup than an easy one.  A hard startup requires a lot more money, time, coordination, or technological development than most startups. A good hard startup is one that will be...
Sam Altman
2017 YC Annual Letter Dear YC Community: In response to a comment on Hacker News, I’m going to try writing an annual...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
Dear YC Community: In response to a comment on Hacker News, I’m going to try writing an annual letter to the YC community with an update on our progress. Our mission is to enable the most innovation of any company in the world in order to make the future great for everyone.  We...
Sam Altman
How To Invest In Startups There is a lot of advice about how to be a good startup founder.  But there isn’t very much about...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
There is a lot of advice about how to be a good startup founder.  But there isn’t very much about how to be a good startup investor. Before going any further, I should point out that this is a particularly hard time to invest in startups—it’s easier right now to be a...
Sam Altman
Please Fund More Science Experts on the COVID-19 pandemic seem to think there are three ways out—that is, for life, health,...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
Experts on the COVID-19 pandemic seem to think there are three ways out—that is, for life, health, and the economy to return roughly to normal.  Either we get a vaccine good enough that R0 for the world goes below 1, a good enough treatment that people no longer need to be...
Sam Altman
Helion I’m delighted to be investing more in Helion. Helion is by far the most promising approach to fusion...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
I’m delighted to be investing more in Helion. Helion is by far the most promising approach to fusion I’ve seen. David and Chris are two of the most impressive founders and builders (in the sense of building fusion machines, in addition to building companies!) I have ever met,...
Sam Altman
Greg A lot of people ask me what the ideal cofounder looks like.  I now have an answer: Greg...
over a year ago
17
over a year ago
A lot of people ask me what the ideal cofounder looks like.  I now have an answer: Greg Brockman. Every successful startup I know has at least one person who provides the force of will to make the startup happen.  I’d thought a lot about this in the abstract while advising YC...
Sam Altman
The United Slate I would like to find and support a slate of candidates for the 2018 California elections, and also...
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
I would like to find and support a slate of candidates for the 2018 California elections, and also to find someone to run a ballot initiative focused on affordable housing in the state.  A team of aligned people has a chance to make a real change. I believe in creating prosperity...
Sam Altman
Three Observations Our mission is to ensure that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) benefits all of...
a week ago
11
a week ago
Our mission is to ensure that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) benefits all of humanity.  Systems that start to point to AGI* are coming into view, and so we think it’s important to understand the moment we are in. AGI is a weakly defined term, but generally speaking we mean...