Sam Altman on ‘insane, superjammed’ return to OpenAI: ‘World leaders texted me’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted from the company he co-founded before quickly returning to his position. Reflecting on the same, the CEO highlighted the four-day period surrounding his ousting from OpenAI and the unusual series of events that followed.

Saying that the period was “insane, superjammed” during which he was in an “adrenaline-charged state”, he said that following his exit from the company, he received 10 to 20 messages from presidents and prime ministers around the world. This felt “very normal” and he responded to the messages without much thought, he said.

“It was just, like, weird”, he recounted saying that he did not sleep much, barely ate and had a hard time doing normal things.

After being reinstated as CEO, Sam Altman said that he had a moment of realisation when he stopped at a diner on the way to Napa. At the time, he ordered four entrées and two milkshakes as he realised that he hadn’t eaten in days. The celebratory meal was “very satisfying”, he said.

“The odd part was realising that it should’ve been weird to have multiple world leaders texting me during this situation — but it wasn’t,” he said.

“My takeaway is human adaptability to almost anything is just, like, much more remarkably strong than we realise. And you can get used to anything as the new normal, good or bad, pretty fast”, he explained, adding, “I think it says something remarkable about humanity and good for us as we stare down at this, like, big transition.”