ChatGPT founder Sam Altman is one of the most exciting names at the WEF: he learned more at the poker table than he did at university

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (45), Chinese Premier Li Qiang (64), 60 other heads of state and a technology freak in the middle. At 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sam Altman (38) will participate in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum (WEF). On the same stage with global political giants at Davos GR. Because he’s probably the person who will change our lives the most in the next few years.

The inventor of chatbot ChatGPT is the face of artificial intelligence (AI). In other words, technology that is expected to revolutionize our healthcare system, helping with faster and more accurate diagnoses. Or technology that aims to reduce traffic accidents with driverless vehicles. Sam Altman and his company OpenAI are at the forefront of this discovery. Developments will also be reflected in our working lives and homes.

Programming at age eight

No matter how great the American’s responsibility, his career started very early. Altman got his first Mac when he was eight years old, and from then on he began programming and taking apart the computer. The American is out at 16. “Growing up gay in the Midwest wasn’t great,” he once told the New Yorker magazine. However, it has already become clear what kind of person the technology visionary is.

«It’s incredibly accessible. And he always tried to structure the company in a way that everyone felt they had the right to express themselves. This is what close (former) employees say about him. The boss of about 800 employees is always working in different places in the office, from the couch to the kitchen. This gives people the opportunity to approach him and ask questions.

quitting studies

After high school, Altman studied computer science at Stanford University in California. He later said that he learned to play poker with other students rather than attending classes. Two years later, he left his studies to run Loopt, a company he co-founded.

In 2012, the founders sold the app for $43.4 million (40.8 million Swiss francs). During this time, Altman met his two greatest mentors. Paypal’s German-American co-founder Peter Thiel (56) has invested double-digit million in the new venture capital fund. Those close to him say Thiel’s approach shaped the ChatGPT founder.

The same can be said for Paul Graham (59). Altman started working part-time at Y Combinator, an incubator that supports startups with money and advice. He became president of the company in 2014. “He could throw him on an island full of cannibals and come back five years later and he would be king,” Graham writes of his friend.

Unbridled ambitions as an obstacle

Let’s forget about the island. Sam’s current world is OpenAI. She founded it in 2015 and left Y Combinator in 2019 to focus entirely on her baby. Altman believes that, above all, artificial intelligence can help humanity. No wonder he wrote in a blog post three years ago: “The technological advances we make in the next 100 years will be far greater than anything we have made since we controlled fire and invented the wheel.”

Altman sees things bigger and longer term, is incredibly ambitious, and works determinedly towards these ideas. However, their ambitions sometimes overtake technology enthusiasts.

The sports car enthusiast, who also enjoys survival training, sometimes seems impatient, harsh and superior to other IT giants. These are not uncommon traits among CEOs of Silicon Valley start-ups. Close partner and financier Microsoft is expected to feel this the most.

Davos instead of San Francisco

Still, Altman is quite popular in his circles. When OpenAI’s board removed him as CEO a month and a half ago, 700 employees threatened to resign if Sam Altman wasn’t rehired. He was announced as the new old CEO five days later.

This week the world stage is not in San Francisco (USA), but in snow-covered Grisons. It’s quite possible that the ChatGPT founder will meet one or two important political figures during his first public appearance in Switzerland. How he will do this is not yet known.

Source :Blick