How OpenAI CEO Sam Altman became the most influential voice in tech

How OpenAI CEO Sam Altman became the most influential voice in tech | GZERO World

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has become the poster child for AI, but it's difficult to understand his motivations.

Artificial intelligence was a major buzzword at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was the hottest ticket in town. CEOs and business leaders crowded into sold-out conference halls to hear his take on the current explosion in generative AI and where the technology is headed.

On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sat down with AI expert and author Azeem Azhar and asked why everyone, both at Davos and in the tech community as a whole, seems to be pinning their hopes and fears about the future of AI on Altman. Azhar says that there are actually a lot of similarities between the individual and the technology he works on.

“I like to think of [Altman] as someone who has been fine-tuned to absolute perfection,” Azhar explains, “And fine-tuning is what you do to an AI model to get it to go from spewing out garbage to being as wonderful as ChatGPT is. And I think Sam’s gone through the same process.”

Watch full episode: How AI is changing the world of work
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television every week. Check local listings.

More from GZERO Media

Displaced Palestinian woman Mai Anseir stands with children at a school where they shelter as they prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza City, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 13, 2024.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Dutch far-right politician and leader of the PVV party Geert Wilders.
REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician notorious for his fervent anti-Islam and anti-migrant views, has struck a deal to form a coalition government — making the Netherlands the latest EU country to drift to the hard right.

FILE PHOTO: Chinese Coast Guard vessels fire water cannons towards a Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah on May 4 as it made its way to the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024.
REUTERS/Adrian Portugal//File Photo

A flotilla of Philippine fishing vessels was put to sea Wednesday to assert sovereignty over the disputed Scarborough Shoal — where China has dozens of ships waiting for them.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in their first 2020 presidential campaign debate held on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., September 29, 2020.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder

President Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to two head-to-head presidential debates.

Jess Frampton

Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, a school where I teach a class on applied geopolitics, invited me to deliver this year’s commencement speech. It was a privilege – and a challenge – that I took very seriously.

President Joe Biden is delivering remarks on his agenda to promote American investments and jobs today in Washington, DC, USA, on May 14, 2024, at the Rose Garden/White House.
Lenin Nolly/Reuters

President Joe Bidenannounced earlier this week that the United States will quadruple the tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China to 100% of their value while also imposing higher duties on metals and other clean energy products.

Mourners react next to the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Al-Aqsa hospital, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, May 12, 2024.
REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

The UN is now playing cleanup, maintaining that the overall death toll has not changed and is roughly 35,000.

Putin visits Xi to continue "no-limit" relationship with China | Ian Bremmer | World In :60

Does Putin's upcoming visit with Xi Jinping signal a continuing “no-limits” partnership between China and Russia? Why is Europe alarmed with Georgia's “foreign agents” law? How will Biden respond if Israel continues to push into Rafah? Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.

Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Al Yamamah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 29, 2024.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Saudi Arabia is reportedly showing fresh interest in a roadmap to peace in Yemen that was iced late last year in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.