- [Narrator] When it comes to AI it's... - Sam Altman. - Sam Altman.
- Sam Altman. - [Narrator] Who's become
the face of the revolution. - Pretty cool, huh?
(audience applauding) - [Narrator] But he thinks... - No one person should be trusted here. - He is a high-minded idealist, and at the same time, he's
a ruthless capitalist. - [Narrator] Here's
how Altman built OpenAI from a niche research lab into an $86 billion ringleader
of the generative AI boom, all while walking the thin line between commercial success
and utopian ideals. - My worst fears are that
we cause significant, we the field, the technology, the industry cause significant harm to the world. - Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015, with the mission of developing AI for the benefit of humanity, which is a little bit
weird in Silicon Valley. - [Narrator] That benefit
of humanity mandate means a couple of things. - This technology is really consequential. If it's misused, it could have really
disastrous consequences. They felt that Google had a monopoly around the research of the technology, and so they really wanted
OpenAI to be this alternative. - [Narrator] In a
statement, Google said that, "It is proud of the deep
investments we've made in research, but that it recognizes the
many contributions to AI that came from researchers in academia and tech companies, large and small." - Already people are grappling
with what's at stake here, and I think the better
angels are gonna win out. - To this day, Altman talks about wanting to give away
OpenAI's technology for free. He really believes that
AI is the technology that should exist outside
of the business realm. - [Narrator] But critics of the company like OpenAI Co-founder Elon Musk, say that commercial success has clouded Altman's social mission. - This would be like, let's
say you funded an organization to save the Amazon Rainforest and instead they became
a lumber company (laughs) and chopped down the forest
and sold it for money. - I have tremendous respect for Elon, you know, obviously, we
have some different opinions about how AI should go, but I think we fundamentally agree on more than we disagree on. - What do you think you agree most about? - That getting this technology right and figuring out how to navigate the risks is super important to
the future of humanity. - The way to think
about the social mission is just that it's a part
of the DNA of the company, but I don't think it actively has prevented them from
releasing products. - Listen to this, very creepy, a new artificial intelligence
tool is going viral for cranking out entire
essays in a matter of seconds. - [Narrator] OpenAI launched
Chat-GPT in November 2022. In just three months later in February, it saw 1 billion visitors - When Chat-GPT was launched, a lot of people were kind of wondering why Altman was releasing
a product so quickly that he felt could potentially be misused, and why he basically kickstarted
this really crazy AI race, where all of these companies are competing against one another, and basically releasing products like within days of each other. - Before releasing any new system, OpenAI conducts extensive testing. - [Narrator] The bus catapulted OpenAI from a wonky research lab to an $86 billion unicorn, backed by Silicon Valley
giants from Microsoft. - We've been partnered with OpenAI deeply now for multiple years. - [Narrator] To Reid
Hoffman and Vinod Khosla. - I think that's something that OpenAI really has had to wrestle with because their identity as a startup when they
were founded is like kind of these outsiders who
had this sort of heroic mission of making sure the technology was developed in the right way, but now they're kind of
the big guys on the block. - [Narrator] Altman shepherded OpenAI through that meteoric rise, raising his profile along the way. - [Interviewer] The one and only person who's gonna be deciding our futures. - I don't think so.
(audience laughing) - Altman cultivated this
relationship with Microsoft, and basically convinced Satya Nadella to pour billions and billions of dollars into what was at the time,
just a research project. And I think that's Altman's superpower, he's really good at selling a vision and getting people on board, and he knows a lot of
people with deep pockets. - [Narrator] Altman and OpenAI have partnered with companies like Apple, which just announced Chat-GPT will be available within
its operating system - And we're starting out
with the best of ease, the pioneer and market
leader, Chat-GPT from OpenAI. - [Narrator] News Corp, the owner of "The Wall Street Journal," has also made a content licensing
partnership with OpenAI. Altman's networking superpower was built through years of building and investing in Silicon Valley. Before he became OpenAI CEO, he dropped out of Stanford to build the short-lived
social network, Loopt, and ran the startup
incubator Y Combinator. - Whenever I've helped people
for no immediate benefit and with no intention of ever
getting a benefit at all, time and again in my career, it has really later benefited me a lot. - [Narrator] And he flexed that network during the biggest test of his
leadership at OpenAI to date. - This is a stunner in
some respects, Steve. - Yeah, Sam Altman is
out as CEO of OpenAI. - [Narrator] In November
2023, OpenAI's board voted to fire him, with concerns that he hadn't been consistently
candid in his communications. - When Chat-GPT came out in November 2022, the board was not informed
in advance about that, we learned about Chat-GPT on Twitter. - [Narrator] As part
of its social mission, OpenAI was founded as a non-profit so that the company didn't
have to answer to shareholders. It eventually launched a for-profit arm, but the non-profit board
is still in charge. - OpenAI is an unusual company and we set it up that way because AI is an unusual technology. - [Narrator] But after Altman was ousted, OpenAI's employees backed him with force. More than 90% threatened to leave unless he was reinstated
and the board resigned. - A lot of employees
really buy into his vision, they really like working for Altman, and Altman also made them really rich. - [Narrator] There was
also a flood of support outside the company from
investors like Microsoft. - We really wanna partner with OpenAI, and we wanna partner with Sam, and so I respect to where Sam is, he's working with Microsoft. - [Narrator] To other powerful
Silicon Valley leaders - And I think it just speaks to the stature that he
has over this industry. - [Narrator] People familiar
with the thinking said that, "Some of the board of
directors who ousted Altman, also felt he wasn't being clear about the size and scope
of his investments." By his own estimate, Altman and his venture funds have been invested in
more than 400 companies. The holdings he controls were
worth more than $2.8 billion as of early 2024. - This has really been the source of his influence in Silicon Valley, him funding and investing
in entrepreneurs, making connections with
venture capitalists. - [Narrator] Altman's personal portfolio includes large stakes in
companies like Reddit, which announced a partnership
with OpenAI in May. - He's kind of starting to
really personally benefit from the AI boom and it's particularly interesting because he doesn't own a stake in OpenAI. He's talked about not
wanting to own a stake because he doesn't want
those financial incentives to influence his commitment to developing AI for
the benefit of humanity. - [Narrator] In a statement, OpenAI Board Chair Bret Taylor said, "We carefully manage
any potential conflicts and always put OpenAI
and our mission first," he added that, "Altman has
consistently followed policies and been transparent
about his investments." Altman was reinstated as CEO after a turbulent five days, and began an overhaul of the board. The company is reexamining
its governance structure, but hasn't announced any changes. But OpenAI moved on quickly, releasing demos of big products like text-to-video
generator, Sora, and GPT-4o, a model that includes a voice assistant. - Hey Chat-GPT, how are you doing? - [Chat-GPT] I'm doing
fantastic, thanks for asking. - [Narrator] But not everyone is pleased with how the products
have been rolled out, actress Scarlett Johansson
publicly criticized OpenAI for using a voice that sounded
similar to hers for GPT-4o, after she told Altman
she wasn't interested. - It really speaks to
this broader question of trust and safety, right? And the OpenAI social mission. - [Narrator] In a
statement, Altman said that, "The voice is not Scarlett Johansson's and it was never intended
to resemble hers." The company is also pausing
the use of the voice. - [Chat-GPT] Oh! - But I think more broadly, yeah, the cat's outta the bag, I mean, people see billions if not trillions of dollars in this sector and I think OpenAI is very much there, I mean, they wanna win
this business battle - [Narrator] And that
race now has more players than it did when OpenAI began. - It's really quite astonishing how a technology that was really just housed in research labs across universities and big tech companies, has like turned into a thing that is boosting the S&P 500. All of that stuff was started by Altman and his very intentional decision to show the world what this
technology is capable of. - [Narrator] So Altman and OpenAI are trying to stay on top
of the exploding field, at the same time, that they're trying to convince
the public to trust them. And there's a place in
history at stake too. - There's not another
company in Silicon Valley that's facing as much scrutiny
and competition as OpenAI. So if they're able to come out on top, I think Altman could be seen as one of the visionary
tech CEOs of the AI era. And if he doesn't, he
won't be seen as that, he might be seen as something else. (dramatic music)
