Sam Altman: The man behind the AI sensation across the globe, ChatGPT

OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman says that artificial intelligence might kill jobs but it is not a permanent job killer

ChatGPT created quite a stir on its release as it opened a whole new era in the tech world. Multinational companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google are also trying to make it big in the artificial intelligence (AI) race. Though AI has been in use for quite some time, ChatGPT has created a global AI revolution.

The man at the centre of a debate on AI across the world is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and creator of ChatGPT.

Born in 1985 in Chicago, Altman went to John Burroughs School in St. Louis, Missouri. Altman had a keen interest in the tech industry from the beginning. He studied computer science at Stanford University but dropped out to start Loopt, a location-based social networking company in 2005. His company was acquired by Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million in 2012. He then became the president of Y Combinator, a US-based technology startup accelerator, in 2041. He joined the company as a partner in 2013 and became its president a year later.

Even while OpenAI has a valuation of around $29 billion, Sam Altman does not have an equity stake in the artificial intelligence-powered start-up behind the popular ChatGPT tool and digital image creator DALL-E. In 2015, Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI with Tesla chief executive and Twitter owner Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

After his stint in Y Combinator, Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with a group of tech entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, Greg Brockman. OpenAI is a research and deployment organisation in artificial intelligence (AI).

Musk resigned from OpenAI in 2018 as his other companies, SpaceX and Tesla, were also working on AI technologies. In 2019, OpenAI declared itself as a ‘for profit’ company and partnered with the likes of Microsoft and other big corporations.

Since its inception, OpenAI has developed several AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL.E.

Even while OpenAI has a valuation of around $29 billion, Altman does not have an equity stake in the AI-powered start-up behind the popular ChatGPT tool and digital image creator, DALL-E.

In 2008, Businessweek magazine recognised Altman as one of the "Top Young Tech Entrepreneurs". He also received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo in 2017.

Altman believes that entrepreneurship and innovation are critical economic growth and societal progress drivers in the present times.

In one of his recent interviews, Altman said that AI is a disruptor but it is not a permanent job killer. He said that AI might kill jobs but the good part is that tech-induced paradigm shifts also create new jobs.