Relentless
00:18:10 · Ty Morse, Sam Altman
[00:18:10] S0: What do think the biggest impacts are on getting this part of the curve right? [00:18:14] S1: I think, like, there are still major AI alignment issues to solve and safety issues, and there are still major economic issues, future of jobs, all that kind of stuff. But I think the fight of the current moment is Are we going to head to a world of AI authoritarianism or liberty? Are we going to decide that because of the very real safety issues and economic issues that we want one single model to be the machine god or the company associated to do that? Or are we going to say like, you know what? It may be a little messy, but every time that humanity has traded off its liberty for safety, it's been a long term net loss. And so we are going to put this in the hands of people. We're going to empower them. We are going to let society express its ideas and use this technology in the way they want. Of course, according to some guardrails... With some guardrails, but, you know, with a lot of power and potential. I really care that we do it that way. [00:19:24] S0: When you were talking with Patrick Halston on stage, must have been, like, a couple of months ago, there was this fascinating thing that you said, which is basically, like, you will talk or text with three to 400 people a day internally. [00:19:36] S1: I text more people than anybody else I know. I don't think this is, like, a good thing. I think this is actually, like, a bad habit. Why? Because it takes up, like, most of my time, and I get, like, into... I have a very short attention span now. Interesting.
00:19:36 · Sam Altman, Ty Morse
[00:19:36] S1: I text more people than anybody else I know. I don't think this is, like, a good thing. I think this is actually, like, a bad habit. Why? Because it takes up, like, most of my time, and I get, like, into... I have a very short attention span now. Interesting. [00:19:50] S0: What does that enable you to do that, like, otherwise couldn't? Huge amount [00:19:53] S1: of context. I mean, I'm like a AI model that's not that smart, but just has, a huge amount, like, a short [00:19:57] S0: term context on, like, whatever's happening right now and then forget. That enable you to make decisions that other people wouldn't have? Like, what company decisions are they making? [00:20:05] S1: I don't know. I mean, it lets me make different decisions that other people would. [00:20:08] S0: What different decisions would you... Have you made in the last, like, twelve months that you wouldn't have made if you didn't have so much context? [00:20:14] S1: I don't know if I have, like, a specific one I can share publicly, but there's, like, a lot of things where, you know, because I I know about some random research breakthrough impending that is gonna, like, affect some customer or some supplier or whatever, I can make a slightly different decision in the moment. And if I hadn't known it that morning, I would have made a different decision. It would have been worse.
00:20:14 · Sam Altman, Ty Morse
[00:20:14] S1: I don't know if I have, like, a specific one I can share publicly, but there's, like, a lot of things where, you know, because I I know about some random research breakthrough impending that is gonna, like, affect some customer or some supplier or whatever, I can make a slightly different decision in the moment. And if I hadn't known it that morning, I would have made a different decision. It would have been worse. [00:20:32] S0: One of the things that I think you are the best at is kind of, like, long term thinking. And yet, it also seems like things are moving so quickly and the world is changing so fast that planning twenty years out and then, like, looking backwards, I don't even know if that makes sense. How do you think about this? How is... Like, is your time horizon shortening?
00:20:32 · Ty Morse, Sam Altman
[00:20:32] S0: One of the things that I think you are the best at is kind of, like, long term thinking. And yet, it also seems like things are moving so quickly and the world is changing so fast that planning twenty years out and then, like, looking backwards, I don't even know if that makes sense. How do you think about this? How is... Like, is your time horizon shortening? [00:20:51] S1: I I actually don't try to plan backwards. I try to have, like, a a small number of strongly held convictions about the future that are, like, directions to head towards. But then I try to, like, plan forwards from the current state about, like, what can we do now? What can we do this year? And sometimes you do have to, like, plan a few things on a, you know, five or ten year horizon. But I try to plan forward guided to a small number of beliefs about the future. I think there are a lot of people who have way too many beliefs about the future and a kind of rigid worldview that they try to fit. But what happens is they end up chasing, you you see space companies turn into AI companies or whatever. Having just a small number of things that you deeply believe about the future and being very flexible on the rest and staying very true to the core is helpful.
00:20:51 · Sam Altman, Ty Morse
[00:20:51] S1: I I actually don't try to plan backwards. I try to have, like, a a small number of strongly held convictions about the future that are, like, directions to head towards. But then I try to, like, plan forwards from the current state about, like, what can we do now? What can we do this year? And sometimes you do have to, like, plan a few things on a, you know, five or ten year horizon. But I try to plan forward guided to a small number of beliefs about the future. I think there are a lot of people who have way too many beliefs about the future and a kind of rigid worldview that they try to fit. But what happens is they end up chasing, you you see space companies turn into AI companies or whatever. Having just a small number of things that you deeply believe about the future and being very flexible on the rest and staying very true to the core is helpful. [00:21:41] S0: One of the people that I know the best, his top company core values, just critical path and just focusing on the critical path and staying focused on the key drivers of whatever the biggest roadblock is, just unfuck that and then go to the next one and do that again. How do you think about critical path in your own life when you're kind of, like, trying to make these decisions?
00:21:41 · Ty Morse, Sam Altman
[00:21:41] S0: One of the people that I know the best, his top company core values, just critical path and just focusing on the critical path and staying focused on the key drivers of whatever the biggest roadblock is, just unfuck that and then go to the next one and do that again. How do you think about critical path in your own life when you're kind of, like, trying to make these decisions? [00:21:59] S1: I mean, for so long now, I have felt focused on this singular goal of abundant intelligence and a belief that incredible human prosperity will come from that as long as we don't have a weird power concentration and a new kind of authoritarianism. It has been fairly clear to me at any given time what's on the critical path to get there, And I have not been tempted by, know, should I reconsider the goal or should I think about these other things? I have been thinking about that a little bit more recently of like, Okay, if we really are close to superintelligence, what's next? But it's this... That's kind of how I subjectively feel we are close. This is the first time in, like, more than a decade I've thought about what is the next thing. [00:22:41] S0: And is it the ranch? [00:22:43] S1: I mean, eventually. Might be a few more things on the way. But that is... Yes. That is the eventual plan. [00:22:47] S0: If you had to, like, try to guess what else does Sam want to accomplish before he ranches?