Canadian AI researcher asks, 'What's Sam Altman trying to get', OpenAI CEO gives long reply: 'If I were a sports star..'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has clarified his motivation after a Canadian AI researcher questioned what drives the billionaire executive who still owns zero shares in the company he leads even as it prepares for a potential initial public offering that could value OpenAI at $500 billion.

The exchange came after Microsoft and OpenAI announced a major restructuring deal this week that frees the ChatGPT maker to move away from its nonprofit roots and likely go public.The Canadian researcher's question, posted on X (formerly Twitter), sought to clarify confusion about Altman's motivations.“I honestly can't figure out what Sammy boy actually wants. With Elon it's really clear. He wants to go to Mars and will kill many villages to make it happen with no remorse.

But what's Sam trying to get? My best guess is 'become a legend.'”The question came in response to a tweet in which it is said that “Sam Altman still owns zero OpenAI shares. Even if OpenAI goes public, he basically earns nothing.”"Maybe we shouldn't laugh at that 'I'm doing this because I love it' meme anymore," the post added.

Read OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's lengthy response

Altman offered a candid and personal reply, comparing his dedication to OpenAI to an athlete's commitment to their craft:If I were like, a sports star or an artist or something, and just really cared about doing a great job at my thing, and was up at 5 am practicing free throws or whatever, that would seem pretty normal right?The first part of OpenAI was unbelievably fun; we did what I believe is the most important scientific work of this generation or possibly a much greater time period than that.This current part is less fun but still rewarding. It is extremely painful as you say and often tempting to nope out on any given day, but the chance to really "make a dent in the universe" is more than worth it; most people don't get that chance to such an extent, and I am very grateful. I genuinely believe the work we are doing will be a transformatively positive thing, and if we didn't exist, the world would have gone in a slightly different and probably worse direction.(working hard was always an extremely easy trade until I had a kid, and now an extremely hard trade.) i do wish i had taken equity a long time ago and i think it would have led to far fewer conspiracy theories; people seem very able to understand "ok that dude is doing it because he wants more money" but less so "he just thinks technology is cool and he likes having some ability to influence the evolution of technology and society". It was a crazy tone-deaf thing to try to make the point "I already have enough money".I believe that AGI will be the most important technology humanity has yet built. I am very grateful to get to play an important role in that and work with such great colleagues, and I like having an interesting life.