In the heart of Silicon Valley, a young tech prodigy named Sam Altman stood frozen, his eyes wide and his heart pounding. The reason? He was face-to-face with his childhood idol, the legendary Steve Jobs.
Altman, now the CEO of OpenAI, was in his early 20s at the time. He had always admired Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, from afar. But standing before him, Altman found himself frozen. It was the only time he’d ever “frozen out of nervousness in any business context,” he confessed in a resurfaced CNN interview clip from December 2015.
In the interview, Altman said, “The only time I’ve ever been nervous in my entire business career was at Apple a week before a conference. It was basically a week before an Apple conference, it was sort of an audition in front of Steve and it’s in this dark auditorium. Steve Jobs is my childhood idol. So he’s in this dark room sitting by himself. You just see his two glasses shining and not much else because the room is so dark. He’s up there giving his presentation. I was like 22-23. That’s the only time I’ve ever frozen out of nervousness.”
Fast forward to the present day, and Altman is no longer the starstruck young man he once was. Instead, he’s often compared to Jobs himself, having made a name for himself in the tech world after his company launched the viral chatbot, ChatGPT. Altman is now seen as one of the key players, if not the face of, the AI race unfolding in Silicon Valley.
His company, OpenAI, has been heavily backed by Microsoft, causing a stir among old rivals like Google and sparking what some have described as an AI arms race. Altman’s foresight into the future of AI has been uncanny. He predicted much of what would develop in the AI sector, including the job insecurity that has been triggered by the rapid development of advanced generative AI.
In another interview clip, Altman shared his views on the future of AI and its impact on human capability. “We should assume that AI is going to replace a lot of human capability, and we should figure out the things that humans are really good at,” he said.
From a starstruck young man to a leading figure in the tech world, Altman’s journey mirrors the rapid evolution of AI itself. As he continues to shape the future of AI, one can’t help but wonder what his childhood idol, Steve Jobs, would think of his achievements.
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