Sam Altman was ousted as head of synthetic intelligence firm OpenAI on Friday, raising hypotheses about what led to the move and what Altman might do next. But claims that Altman will run for president of the United States in 2024 seem inaccurate, although there is a very clever explanation for why this rumor started.
Users of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, began pointing out Friday afternoon that an undeniable Google search for “Sam Altman” showed the tech manager’s X account as one of the most sensible results. But scrolling down to Altman’s profile shows a glimpse of the content hosted there.
As you can see from the screenshot I took below, it appears that Altman’s account tweeted, “I’m running for president as a Democrat in 2024. My crusade will be about 4 main things. Above all, it will be about economics. We have to do. . . ” before stopping.
Why did this happened? It appears to be a technical factor with Altman’s X account. The precise wording used through Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who announced his candidacy for president on October 27. Phillips, a Democrat, is challenging incumbent President Joe Biden for the nomination. even though he is thought to be a long way from securing the nomination, despite Biden’s approval gap among the American public.
But how did a Phillips tweet come to be linked to Altman? Altman appears to have written approvingly about Phillips on October 27, writing at the time: “He’s interesting, and I think he’s close to what the majority of the electorate wants: a reasonable, centrist candidate running with 1) the message of a strong economy and greater affordability, 2) focus on protection, and 3) generational change. I’m curious to see what happens.
It’s unclear why Google would index a quoted tweet as a local tweet sent through Altman, but X has struggled in some technical ways since Elon Musk bought the company and laid off many of the other people who kept it running.
Altman’s removal as CEO of OpenAI came as a surprise to most people working in the tech industry, especially since Altman had become a very public face at the company that runs ChatGPT. The OpenAI board publicly asked why Altman’s firing was because “He wasn’t always truthful,” without offering additional context about what that means.
To top it off, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman left the company after news of Altman’s firing became public. Brockman posted what was announced as a joint with Altman on Friday night, but only provided a timeline of events rather than an explanation for why Altman was fired.
The popular narrative reported through others such as technology journalist Kara Swisher is that Altman was “going too far, too fast” with a form of generation that some could harm humanity. Swisher also reported that Altman was “manipulative and stubborn,” even though that description could be compatible with any number of Silicon Valley executives and wouldn’t be the kind of thing that anyone, not even an idea, would lead to a turnaround. so drastic and unforeseen.
It looks like we’re going to have to wait for serious answers about this historical upheaval. But for now, we can say with a fair degree of certainty that it looks like Altman won’t possibly run for president. At least, not anytime soon.