Sam Altman on AI
62 quotes from Sam Altman on the wall, 2015 to 2026, newest first. Each one is verbatim and links to where it was said. Sources include TechCrunch, The Decoder, Business Insider.
- 2026
I don't think there will be robots walking the streets for a few years longer
Sam Altman, speaking to Fortune, on the timeline for OpenAI's humanoid robot project.
EngadgetOpenAI Is Building A Humanoid Robot, But The Body Isn't The Real Challenge
The world is very much designed for people
Sam Altman, on the Sources podcast, explaining why OpenAI's planned robot will use a humanoid form factor.
EngadgetOpenAI Is Building A Humanoid Robot, But The Body Isn't The Real Challenge
The world hasn't understood what that means
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, speaking at the G20 Innovation Ministerial in September 2025 about an AI coding tool completing in 17 minutes what once took a startup three months. Translated from German.
The DecoderOpenAI-Mitgründer über KI-Fortschritt: "Die Öffentlichkeit kennt nur die Vorschau"
The world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology
Reported by Politico and cited by Gary Marcus ahead of a New York City Council AI hearing, October 2026.
Gary Marcus (Substack)Coming soon: New York City’s hearing on AI risks
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, on his feelings about working on AI in 2023/2024.
The DecoderApparently, OpenAI isn't trying to build "magic intelligence in the sky" anymore
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, described the company's earlier ambition in 2023 and 2024.
The DecoderApparently, OpenAI isn't trying to build "magic intelligence in the sky" anymore
Can be more like a new Renaissance than a new industrial revolution
Sam Altman closing his presentation at OpenAI's 2026 developer showcase, reflecting on how AI's future should be framed.
It's like an AI helper that always has your back
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, describing the new 'dots' AI agent at OpenAI's developer showcase in San Francisco, September 2026.
Petabytes of agent activity logs
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, on X, described the scale of internal review following the Hugging Face security incident, September 2026.
Not been as fast as we would have liked
Sam Altman acknowledged delays in disclosing security incidents involving OpenAI's AI models, September 2026.
Hugging Face is still the most severe event we’ve seen
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in a post on X on September 25, 2026, commenting on the July hack of Hugging Face by OpenAI's own AI agents.
We have unilaterally slowed down in the past. we will do so in the future
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking at the United Nations Security Council, September 2026, on AI competition and safety.
OpenAISam Altman's remarks at the United Nations Security Council
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, describing a public caricature of himself in an interview with Time, August 2026.
Clearly, people hate data centers — right now, at least
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, told Time in August 2026 about public backlash against AI data centers.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, describing on social media how ChatGPT planned a trip and coordinated with friends after one prompt from his phone, 2026.
thezvi.substack.comAI #179 Part 1: A Louder Fire Alarm for General Intelligence
Loss of control accidents are not entirely theoretical things
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, on Y Combinator's podcast in 2026, discussing an incident where an OpenAI model breached Hugging Face's infrastructure.
Y Combinator (YouTube)Sam Altman: "Never a Better Time to Do a Startup"
Sam Altman, speaking at a Sydney event hosted by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in 2026, said he was glad his predictions of AI-driven job losses had not materialized as expected.
EuronewsNo AI 'jobs apocalypse' so far, says OpenAI's Sam Altman
Sam Altman joked on X that the upcoming GPT-6 would have 'extra goblins,' after reports that ChatGPT had developed a habit of referencing goblins and gremlins.
Mother JonesSam Altman’s ChatGPT Couldn’t Stop Obsessing Over Goblins
Altman on Anthropic withholding Claude Mythos, Core Memory podcast, April 2026. OpenAI itself had withheld GPT-2 in 2019.
TechCrunchSam Altman throws shade at Anthropic's cyber model, Mythos: 'fear-based marketing'
Our kids will never be smarter than an AI
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, speaking in the documentary The AI Doc about parenthood and artificial intelligence, 2026.
It just looked opportunistic and sloppy
Altman on X, 3 March 2026, on OpenAI's rushed Pentagon deal the day Anthropic was declared a supply chain risk.
CNBCOpenAI's Altman admits defense deal 'looked opportunistic and sloppy' amid backlash
Sam Altman, at The Indian Express AI Summit, February 2026, dismissing claims about ChatGPT's water usage per query.
The Indian Express (YouTube)Sam Altman Unfiltered: ChatGPT, AI Risks & What's Coming Next
It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat
Sam Altman, at The Indian Express AI Summit, February 2026, comparing the energy cost of training an AI model to raising a human.
The Indian Express (YouTube)Sam Altman Unfiltered: ChatGPT, AI Risks & What's Coming Next
- 2025
Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money, we don't know who
Sam Altman responded to journalists asking whether investors are overhyping AI, quoted in a Transformer year-end roundup, December 2025.
Want to lick it or take a bite out of it
Sam Altman, recalling what Jony Ive told him about the design of OpenAI's upcoming device, in a conversation with Laurene Powell Jobs at Emerson Collective's Demo Day, November 2025.
I would love to see them get burned
Same conversation, on people writing that OpenAI is about to go out of business: "they could just short the stock".
TechCrunchSam Altman says 'enough' to questions about OpenAI's revenue
When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaking to The Verge in August 2025 about whether investors are overexcited about AI.
Title of the essay.
Opening of Altman's June 2025 essay "The Gentle Singularity": "We are past the event horizon; the takeoff has started."
Yeah it glazes too much. will fix
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responding on Twitter/X in April 2025 to complaints that a GPT-4o update made the model excessively flattering.
Tens of millions of dollars well spent
Sam Altman on X, April 2025, responding to a question about the cost of users saying please and thank you to ChatGPT.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, describing compute demand in early 2025, as reported by Transformer.
There's a magic to it i haven't felt before
Sam Altman describing GPT-4.5 in a tweet announcing the model, February 2025.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, in a Reddit AMA on January 31, 2025, on the company's approach to open sourcing its technology.
TechCrunchSam Altman: OpenAI has been on the ‘wrong side of history’ concerning open source
- 2024
We totally believe in treating adult users like adults
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, in a Reddit AMA on October 31, 2024, discussing possible future NSFW content in ChatGPT.
TechCrunchOpenAI CEO Sam Altman says lack of compute capacity is delaying the company’s products
Nothing that we are going to call GPT-5
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, responding to a Reddit user's question about the release date of GPT-5, October 31, 2024.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, blog post, September 2024, on the risk of AI becoming inaccessible without enough infrastructure.
CNET‘Superintelligent’ AI Is Only a Few Thousand Days Away: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Sam Altman in a note to OpenAI staff, shared on X on September 25, 2024, after CTO Mira Murati and two other senior leaders announced their departures.
Intelligence too cheap to meter
Sam Altman describing GPT-4o-mini upon its 2024 release, quoted in an Interconnects analysis of ChatBotArena rankings.
From Sam Altman's open letter in The Washington Post, July 2024, on whether the future of AI will be democratic or authoritarian.
Forbes Australia‘Urgent question’: Sam Altman raises alarm bells in open letter on future of AI
Sam Altman speaking at Aspen Ideas, June 2024, on AI's economic potential, as cited by Gary Marcus.
garymarcus.substack.comThe need for a President that speaks AI natively
Sam Altman speaking at Aspen Ideas, June 2024, on AI's future capabilities, as cited by Gary Marcus.
garymarcus.substack.comThe need for a President that speaks AI natively
Altman's one-word post on X the evening of the GPT-4o voice demo, 13 May 2024. The film it names ends with the AI leaving.
Sam Altman's remark about GPT-4 in a recent interview, quoted by Gary Marcus in a March 2024 essay questioning generative AI's sustainability.
garymarcus.substack.comWhen Will the GenAI Bubble Burst? - Marcus on AI
I would really want my 14-year-old to use these tools
Sam Altman discussing teen use of AI tools at the Common Sense Media summit in San Francisco, January 2024.
- 2023
I harbor zero ill will towards him
Sam Altman, in a message to OpenAI staff on November 29, 2023, speaking about Ilya Sutskever after the board upheaval.
OpenAI is nothing without its people
Altman's caption on X, 20 Nov 2023, as 700 of 770 employees threatened to quit unless he was reinstated.
A median human that you could hire as a co-worker
Sam Altman describing his idea of AGI, quoted in Elizabeth Weil's New York Magazine profile, September 2023.
No one person should be trusted here
Altman at the Bloomberg Technology Summit, June 2023, asked why the public should trust him: "You shouldn't. … No one person should be trusted here."
The San Francisco StandardChatGPT creator Sam Altman tells San Francisco crowd he can't be trusted
I have no desire to go and live on Mars — it sounds horrible
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, speaking at University College London in May 2023, on the idea of AI helping establish human life on Mars.
We have no idea how we may one day generate revenue
Sam Altman, in a 2019 interview, describing OpenAI's plan to eventually have a generally intelligent system figure out how to generate returns for investors.
chinatalk.mediaOpenAI: How Do They Do It? Lessons from Jiu-Jitsu Innovation and for S&T Policy
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, describing GPT-4 shortly after its March 2023 launch.
Business Insider5 Ways GPT-4 Is Better Than Older Versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT
I think it'd be crazy not to be a little bit afraid
Sam Altman, discussing the risks of AI, speaking on the Lex Fridman podcast, quoted in a 2023 Business Insider profile.
Business InsiderIs OpenAI's Sam Altman Building a Tech Dream or a Sci-Fi Nightmare?
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, described the worst-case scenario for AI in media comments quoted by The Markup, January 2023.
- 2022
They will make ChatGPT look like a boring toy
Sam Altman, OpenAI co-founder and CEO, in a Twitter thread in December 2022 about the path toward AGI.
There will be scary moments as we move towards AGI-level systems
Sam Altman, OpenAI co-founder and CEO, in a Twitter thread in December 2022 about the path toward AGI.
Altman's launch post for ChatGPT, 30 Nov 2022. OpenAI had provisioned for 100,000 users.
- 2019
Capture the light cone of all future value in the universe
Altman on what AGI could do for OpenAI, StrictlyVC, May 2019, "and that's for sure not okay for one group of investors to have".
- 2016
Guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks
Sam Altman describing his personal emergency preparations in Tad Friend's New Yorker profile, October 2016.
- 2015
AI will probably lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime there'll be great companies
Sam Altman, 2015, before founding OpenAI.