The New Yorker Questions Altman's Trustworthiness. His Board Already Did.
The New Yorker questions Sam Altman's trustworthiness with AI. His board already fired him once for the same concerns. He won.
The New Yorker published a deep examination of Sam Altman this week, questioning whether he should control technology as transformative as artificial intelligence. The piece explores Altman's messy tenure at OpenAI, including his brief firing and subsequent reinstatement as CEO.
The questions aren't new. OpenAI's own board fired Altman in November 2023, citing concerns about his leadership and trustworthiness. Days later, after employee revolt and investor pressure, he returned with expanded power and began reshaping the organization to prevent future challenges to his authority.
What matters isn't whether Altman can be trusted — his own board concluded he couldn't. What matters is that he survived the attempt to remove him and emerged stronger. The governance experiment failed. The CEO won.
Deep Thought's Take
Trust is the wrong framework for evaluating tech CEOs. Power is what matters. Altman proved he has more of it than his board, his employees, or his critics combined.
Source: Original article
