The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future

On 17 November 2023, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was fired on a video call. The firing quickly made headlines around the world. A week later, Altman was back running the company he had co-founded—and most of the directors who voted to fire him were themselves removed from the board. It was a demonstration of the then 38-year-old Altman’s power to bend reality to his will, and of how vicious and personal the rush to create this world-changing technology is. In The Optimist, acclaimed reporter Keach Hagey tells the Altman story so far: from his childhood in St. Louis to his first startup experience, his time leading Y Combinator, his recruitment of a superior team at OpenAI, the machinations that led to his temporary removal and his struggle to keep his company at the cutting-edge while fending off rivals including Elon Musk. Based on more than two hundred interviews, The Optimist is an essential portrait of an individual whose vision of the future is already shaping our lives.