Sam Altman, Anthropic's IPO, and Medical Debt

Hailing from Chicago and born in 1985, Sam Altman is best known as the leader of OpenAI—the company behind ChatGPT that is arguably the most influential organization in the AI space. Before OpenAI and after dropping out of Stanford in 2005, Altman founded the location-sharing startup Loopt, which was among famed startup accelerator Y Combinator's first batch of companies. While Loopt never became a household name, Altman eventually returned to Y Combinator as its president in 2014.

> Altman once dreamed of working for Google. (More)
> Why Altman's annual OpenAI salary is less than six figures. (More)

OpenAI was conceived when Altman invited a star-studded guest list of tech leaders (including Elon Musk) to dinner at a Silicon Valley hotel in 2015. The group discussed countering Google in the race to achieve systems with human-level cognition (also known as artificial general intelligence) and ended up committing a reported $1B to launch the effort.

> Altman has said that OpenAI's mission is to "ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity." (More, w/video)

> Why Altman believes people's tendency to stay the same has slowed AI-induced disruption. (More)

> Anthropic began with a break from OpenAI over safety concerns. (More, w/video)

OpenAI came to prominence in late 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, which would become the fastest-growing consumer app in history by February 2023. However, amid fears over how quickly the technology was advancing, OpenAI's board abruptly fired Altman in late 2023. In just four days, he returned to OpenAI as CEO and reconstituted the board, where he has remained since.

> See a timeline of everything that happened during those four days. (More)

> A merger between OpenAI and Anthropic was reportedly proposed after Altman's firing. (More)

Discover more: 

> Read the list of life advice Altman wrote when he turned 30. (More)

> Inside Altman's Hawaii compound, where he married his husband in 2024. (More)

> Watch Altman give his first-ever startup pitch. (More)

🫶 Humankind: Over $1.4B in medical debt was recently erased for nearly 700,000 people in Illinois.

 News in Context 

1440 brings you the knowledge and context behind the week's stories:

A group of senior JetBlue creditors has hired restructuring advisers—including the same law firm that represented bondholders in Spirit Airlines' recent bankruptcy filing—as the airline continues to contend with elevated oil prices. (More)

> Creditors, explained.

> Why Spirit Airlines permanently closed its doors earlier this year. 

City officials in San Francisco are preparing for the potential economic impacts of Anthropic's upcoming IPO, including increased revenue through property and sales taxes. (More)

> Dive into the financial details revealed in Anthropic's prospectus.

> Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that a company files with the SEC ahead of an IPO.

Elizabeth Holmes' partner's new blood-testing startup Haemanthus has now raised as much as $20M and holds at least one patent, with plans to initially focus on veterinary testing. (More)

> Everything you need to know about Elizabeth Holmes.

> The blood type so rare that fewer than 50 known people have it. 

Private equity firm Apollo's chief economist said last week that recent AI advancements have delivered "zero financial payoff" to American corporations outside of tech. (More)

> Why AI has yet to make most corporations more financially productive. 

> Almost 90% of companies now use AI in their hiring processes.

One Story We're Taking Stock In

Two decades ago, becoming a doctor, lawyer, or engineer felt synonymous with being on the path to financial success. But today, attending law or medical school is becoming increasingly difficult to finance, and a large portion of recent college graduates remain underemployed or struggle to find work. Perhaps that's why many workers are now aspiring to become influencers, the most successful of whom often flaunt their wealth on social media.

Whether or not becoming an influencer is today's smoothest path to the upper middle class, it seems many are being forced to aspire to influencer-style work anyway. Workers in fields like accounting are now being told to invest in their social media presence and build a "personal brand" online to compete in today's tough job market. Corporations from IBM to Starbucks are encouraging employees to become influencers via "employee-creator programs" that reward them for posting on social media.

The story below (one of my personal favorite reads of the week) further explores how "influencer creep" is impacting everyday workers and the labor market at large.

> Celebrity has become a jobs program. (Read)

> The influencers making careers out of playing claw machines. (1440 Topics)

 Etcetera 

> Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was mistakenly sent to a harsh reform school at age 9.

> Nike's slogan was inspired by a death row inmate's last words.

> How private equity ate Britain.

> The history of payday loans.

> Watch Ray Dalio explain how the economy works.

> Why the Piggly Wiggly grocery store is permanently banned from the NYSE. 

> Meet Randi Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg's sister.
 

> Why Gulf states are investing in professional sports via sovereign wealth funds.

> How Estée Lauder's son helped transform the brand into a global powerhouse.

> See how the S&P 500 is calculated.

> The best tips for negotiating a higher salary.

> One of Henry Ford's failed business ventures later became Cadillac.