New Yorker Profiles Sam Altman Amid Lying Allegations
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- The New Yorker published an 18-month investigation into Sam Altman by Ronan Farrow, interviewing 100+ people and reviewing never-before-disclosed internal memos
- The profile alleges 'consistent lying' by Altman, with some former colleagues calling him a 'sociopath' while others defend him as a misunderstood leader
- Tech Brew reports the leaked memos reveal 'OpenAI's safety retreat,' suggesting the documents expose internal tensions over safety priorities at the company
- Ronan Farrow reviewed 200+ pages of documents related to a close colleague of Altman's, according to his own thread announcing the piece
- The Verge and Gary Marcus both frame the profile as showing Altman is 'unconstrained by truth,' with Marcus running a same-titled Substack analysis
- Business Insider's Peter Kafka notes the piece highlights 'doubts about its CEO' set against OpenAI's clear and growing ambitions in the AI race
- Bill Gurley is reportedly hearing from investors who might want to oust Altman as CEO, per a high-engagement X post reacting to the profile
Why it matters: This is the most comprehensive journalistic examination of Altman to date, with leaked internal memos backing the allegations — and the CFO is already publicly disputing the framing (per Implicator.ai's coverage on the same Techmeme page). If investor confidence erodes, the pressure on OpenAI's board and major backers could mount right as the company is racing Anthropic and Google on frontier AI development.
