Here are the actionable tasks, commitments, and decisions requiring follow-up mentioned in the interview:
Product Development & Rollout
- OpenAI: Continue developing and improving AI models, specifically mentioning GPT-5 and GPT-6, with a focus on AI performing new science.
- OpenAI: Work towards an AI-driven version of office productivity suites that integrates seamlessly with AI agents, rather than tacking on features.
- This is a long-term goal, and OpenAI is currently far from achieving it internally.
- OpenAI: Continue development and eventual wider rollout of Pulse.
- OpenAI: Expand Pulse availability beyond pro users to Plus users.
- OpenAI: Increase the daily allocation of Pulse to users.
- OpenAI: Explore and potentially develop new types of AI agents for tasks like travel booking, building on the spirit of their recent commerce initiatives.
Hiring & Team Management
- Sam Altman: Continue to delegate effectively to capable hires to manage increasing demands and opportunities.
- Sam Altman: Prioritize hiring individuals who seriously consider how their day-to-day work will look in the next three years in the context of AI advancements.
- Individuals who only use AI for "better Google search" are a yellow flag.
- Individuals seriously considering their future with AI are a green flag.
- Sam Altman: Continue to hire good hardware people, understanding that hardware development has longer cycle times and higher capital intensity.
- The theory for hiring hardware people is the same as AI: find effective, fast-moving people, clarify goals, and let them execute.
- Sam Altman: Focus on finding people with lateral thinking skills and the ability to phrase observations in useful ways, like Rune.
Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships
- OpenAI: Continue to explore partnerships with countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE for data center development, investment, or commercial services.
- OpenAI: Understand the operational model for data centers (who will run them, what workloads, security guarantees).
- OpenAI: Bring in experts and consult with the US government when dealing with international collaborations.
- OpenAI: Continue to explore collaborations with institutions of higher education, running diverse experiments to find the most effective models.
- The ideal partnership will involve trying 20 different experimental approaches.
- OpenAI: Consider the potential for a Y Combinator-like entity in St. Louis focused on AI startups, if Sam Altman had the capacity.
Research & Development
- OpenAI: Continue research into AI's ability to perform new science, moving beyond passing a "spiritual Turing test."
- OpenAI: Investigate the potential for AI to assist in discovering new scientific breakthroughs, similar to how GPT-6 is envisioned to advance science beyond GPT-5's glimmers.
- OpenAI: Develop methods for evaluating AI capabilities, including those related to intangible knowledge and cultural understanding.
- OpenAI: Currently has evaluations in the works for these types of capabilities.
Policy & Regulation
- OpenAI: Prepare for potential government involvement as an insurer of last resort for AI, while aiming to avoid government being the insurer of first resort.
- OpenAI: Engage with the government on issues of privacy, particularly concerning AI interactions.
- OpenAI: Advocate for AI interactions to have at least as much protection as conversations with human doctors or lawyers (e.g., regarding subpoena power).
- OpenAI: Continue to refine policies on AI content generation, balancing freedom of expression with user safety and mental health considerations.
- OpenAI: Will continue to allow more freedom of expression for adult users in creative modes.
- OpenAI: Has implemented mental health mitigations to address potential negative impacts of AI on users in vulnerable states.
Future Vision & Technology
- OpenAI: Continue to invest in and develop the underlying infrastructure for AI, including chips, energy, and a new computing paradigm with a new interface.
- OpenAI: Explore the development of a "new kind of computer with a completely new kind of interface" designed for AI, potentially with Johnny Ive.
- OpenAI: Investigate the potential for AI to revolutionize various industries beyond programming, such as driving significant software development.
- OpenAI: Consider how to teach people to use AI effectively, acknowledging the rapid adoption and increasing sophistication of AI tool usage.
Personal & Philosophical
- Sam Altman: Continue to delegate and trust capable individuals to handle tasks he is no longer the best at (e.g., product strategy).
- Sam Altman: Re-evaluate personal health habits and become more disciplined in that area.
- Sam Altman: Continue to consider the implications of AI on the social contract and how society will adapt.
- Sam Altman: Continue to use AI as a thought experiment for designing organizational structures and identifying future challenges.
- Sam Altman: Continue to monitor and be interested in the development of AI schools and their different approaches.
- Sam Altman: Continue to prioritize enabling individuals to use AI super well, believing this will be widely distributed.
- Sam Altman: Consider the implications of AI on the future of work, learning, and cultural habits.
- Sam Altman: Re-evaluate the initial assumption that sharing ChatGPT queries would be a valuable social media component.
- Sam Altman: Engage with the possibility of AI agents subtly influencing human beliefs over time, beyond overt propaganda or psychosis.
- Sam Altman: Have a tentative answer for the prompt to give to a safety-tested superintelligence before its first major action, but is not ready to share it publicly.
- Sam Altman: Investigate the "Why don't we just make more GPUs?" question to understand the ultimate binding constraints on compute.
- Sam Altman: Continue to believe in the long-term potential of fusion and solar energy for abundant and cheap energy.
- Sam Altman: Continue to believe that AI will make healthcare cheaper.