Sam Altman – OpenAI Founder Reveals His Writing System - part 1/9
September 25, 2024 • 47m 19s
David Perell (Host)
00:00.070
you
ever
wonder
how
sam
altman
takes
notes
thinks
about
annual
planning
thinks
about
sabbaticals
what
he's
going
to
actually
work
on
how
he
chose
to
focus
on
AGI
well
those
are
the
things
that
we
talk
about
in
this
episode
and
we
get
answers
David Perell (Host)
00:12.590
let's
get
into
the
conversation
with
sam
altman
David Perell (Host)
00:16.360
all
right
sam
i
want
to
begin
with
how
is
knowledge
of
l
lms
changed
how
you
think
about
writing
and
communication
Sam Altman (CEO)
00:26.950
i
mean
i
think
we
are
going
to
all
now
all
of
us
i
think
many
of
us
are
going
to
write
in
a
different
way
in
the
future
i
don't
mean
like
people
are
just
going
to
use
LLMS
to
like
write
stuff
for
them
because
one
of
the
strangest
things
that
i
think
happens
is
when
people
put
a
Sam Altman (CEO)
00:40.910
few
bullet
points
into
an
LLM
have
it
generate
a
nice
email
send
it
to
somebody
else
and
then
they
summarize
it
on
the
other
end
because
we
can't
we
just
can't
agree
that
you
know
we
just
want
the
bullet
points
back
and
forth
and
there's
still
this
societal
nicety
but
Sam Altman (CEO)
00:55.810
someone
is
going
to
build
probably
somebody
already
has
built
a
first
version
of
this
like
a
great
tool
to
write
in
a
new
way
where
you
have
this
thing
that
is
not
you
know
expanding
your
bullet
points
but
is
helping
you
discover
new
things
in
the
idea
space
and
that's
awesome
Sam Altman (CEO)
01:15.830
like
that's
what
computers
do
at
their
best
right
is
they
help
they
are
a
tool
that
help
you
do
things
you
otherwise
couldn't
do
David Perell (Host)
01:22.510
i've
always
thought
it
was
strange
how
we've
had
this
tools
for
thought
idea
for
decades
and
yet
the
vast
majority
of
the
way
people
write
is
they
open
up
microsoft
word
and
they
have
no
aid
from
a
computer
really
it's
just
like
a
typewriter
Sam Altman (CEO)
01:38.710
i
mean
it
turns
out
that
like
writing
is
pretty
good
i
don't
we
can
for
sure
make
it
better
but
i
understand
why
that's
where
we
are
David Perell (Host)
01:47.870
tell
me
if
this
is
baseless
or
accurate
or
where
on
the
spectrum
it
is
but
i
find
it
interesting
that
there's
a
juxtaposition
between
words
being
more
important
on
the
input
and
then
moving
away
from
words
with
the
output
so
dall
E
Sam Altman (CEO)
02:02.310
i
think
words
are
going
to
be
a
huge
part
of
how
we
communicate
with
computers
how
we
program
computers
and
natural
language
is
kind
of
the
interface
to
computers
that
people
want
i
think
i
think
that's
been
you
know
sci-fi
predicted
that
for
a
long
time
but
i
think
a
big
part
Sam Altman (CEO)
02:23.590
of
the
revolution
of
chatgpt
was
you
could
just
talk
to
a
computer
in
plain
english
and
you
get
it
to
do
all
these
things
Sam Altman (CEO)
02:31.910
it
won't
be
the
only
way
we
want
to
interact
with
computers
of
course
and
you'll
have
multimodal
input
as
well
as
output
but
we
are
very
finely
evolved
to
use
language
David Perell (Host)
02:43.990
there's
also
something
special
about
text
Sam Altman (CEO)
02:46.670
yeah
for
David Perell (Host)
02:47.110
sure
searchable
malleable
there
is
a
reason
that
this
has
been
such
a
part
of
like
to
imagine
humanity
and
human
culture
without
language
it's
like
oh
it
seems
impossible
i
can't
do
it
David Perell (Host)
03:03.030
and
even
text
itself
the
there's
a
rigor
to
text
Sam Altman (CEO)
03:07.750
there's
a
rigor
to
thinking
in
text
for
sure
yes
i
get
David Perell (Host)
03:10.230
i
get
it
because
you
can
point
to
specific
words
and
sentences
that
you
disagree
with
rather
than
just
the
overall
vibe
so
if
we're
having
a
conversation
i
can't
remember
the
exact
word
that
you
said
but
if
there's
a
transcription
i
can
say
i
was
this
that
i
really
liked
this
Sam Altman (CEO)
03:26.150
that
i
think
we
can
make
some
minor
changes
to
David Perell (Host)
03:29.310
how
should
chatgpt
be
changing
how
we
teach
our
kids
how
to
write
Sam Altman (CEO)
03:34.170
i
don't
think
we
know
yet
what
the
writing
of
the
future
the
process
is
going
to
look
like
i
would
bet
it's
just
like
a
safe
baseline
that
it's
not
going
to
change
all
that
much
i
think
we
will
have
new
tools
that
let
people
write
in
different
ways
and
hopefully
get
more
sort
of
Sam Altman (CEO)
03:50.520
idea
refinement
and
generation
out
of
the
process
but
Sam Altman (CEO)
03:54.320
uh
you
know
this
thing
that
people
say
of
like
no
one
's
ever
going
to
learn
to
write
anymore
because
now
it's
just
like
that
that's
not
why
people
really
write
in
the
first
place
like
the
kind
of
writing
that
you
can
just
the
kind
of
thing
you
would
do
by
having
chat
GPT
go
Sam Altman (CEO)
04:06.590
write
your
your
kind
of
you
know
essay
for
english
class
that's
not
real
that's
not
what
this
is
Sam Altman (CEO)
04:12.110
about
anyway
and
if
chatgpt
can
help
people
do
do
a
writing
like
activity
and
get
higher
quality
thinking
out
of
it
that's
wonderful
David Perell (Host)
04:23.230
tell
me
about
that
Sam Altman (CEO)
04:24.550
literally
if
we
believe
that
part
of
the
value
a
big
part
of
the
value
of
writing
is
to
clarify
your
own
thinking
and
we
can
have
new
tools
that
help
you
do
that
better
than
before
that'll
be
a
big
win
David Perell (Host)
04:39.240
what
i
think
of
chatgpt
as
raising
the
returns
to
is
the
initial
seed
the
big
bang
moment
of
an
idea
and
this
is
a
way
that
i
like
using
chatgpt
is
i
know
that
i
have
a
distinct
idea
of
chatgpt
disagree
with
me
and
then
once
i
have
that
idea
if
i
can
clarify
in
some
sort
of
way
David Perell (Host)
04:56.920
then
chatgpt
can
help
me
find
examples
and
stories
things
that
amplify
and
help
to
grow
the
initial
seed
that
i've
planted
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