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Sam Altman says AI has sparked the 'revenge of the idea guys'
By Brent D. Griffiths You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Alex Brandon/AP 2026-05-01T19:50:11.973Z OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said thanks to AI, it's finally a great time to be that guy. More specifically, "the idea guy" who was once laughed out of Silicon Valley. Thanks to generative AI coding tools, technical expertise isn't the barrier it once was, making it easier to bring ideas to life. The idea guy's time has finally come. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who previously led the famed startup incubator Y Combinator, said that before AI, people used to joke about those who had the next great idea for an amazing startup but lacked the technical expertise to translate their vision into something real."All of a sudden it's like the revenge of the idea guys," Altman told Stripe CEO Patrick Collison during an onstage appearance at Stripe Sessions.When Collison asked what has changed about startup culture, Altman said technical talent isn't as critical as it once was."For a long time, I think the most important ingredient that I looked for — YC looked for, that kind of this part of our industry looked for on a founding team — was technical talent," Altman said. "And that's still very important, but now people who just really deeply understand their users and can't code at all. I want to fund those people." Altman said "it's a big turnaround" from where even he used to be, which is when Silicon Valley used to laugh the "idea guys" out of the room."There were these people that wanted to start a company and they'd say like, 'I have the best idea. I'm not going to tell you what it is. I have the best idea. I just need a coder to build it for me and then I'm going to be in great shape,'" Altman said. "And we would make fun of these people."While ChatGPT has made Altman a household name, his early fortune is thanks to his well-timed investments in companies like Reddit, Stripe, and Airbnb. Altman has continued to be a prolific investor in startups since leaving Y Combinator, even as he runs OpenAI.AI hasn't changed everythingIt's tempting for would-be investors to want to sit on the sidelines to monitor AI advancements. Altman said it's the wrong move."I think to do anything at this point on a 10-year time horizon requires a real suspension of disbelief, and yet that's probably the right way to live your life," he said. " I don't think it works to say there's this singularity in three ye...
Musk v Altman: The court showdown that could shape the future of AI
If asked to name the tech titans who believe they’re going to have the biggest impact on humanity, there are two that immediately come to mind: Elon Musk and Sam Altman.Musk, the South African-born founder of SpaceX, who has recently rolled a number of his business interests into a single firm, has a widely reported desire to try to reverse the world’s declining birth rates, alongside setting up missions to the moon and Mars, and saving social media from collapsing into a woke echo chamber. The latter, at least, appears to have failed, with X’s popularity flopping after his October 2022 takeover of the platform for $44bn. The others are still to be determined.Altman, a Silicon Valley mover and shaker, oversees OpenAI, which upended the world when it released ChatGPT just a month after Musk took control of Twitter. It currently sits atop a firmament of highly capitalised, fast-growing firms championing AI at all costs.Elon Musk arrives at the US District Court in Oakland as the trial begins (AP)It’s that latter bit which is worrying Elon Musk. He helped establish OpenAI, a company now more than a decade old, but fell out with Altman over its future direction. The firm was meant to develop AI for the betterment of humanity, and to do so as a non-profit organisation – the “Open” within its name.Founded as a pure non-profit in 2015, OpenAI shifted and created a “capped profit” subsidiary in 2019 to attract investment from the likes of Microsoft, while legally binding returns to the mission of safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) for humanity, with investors and employees not able to earn more than 100 times their initial investment or share value. Its for-profit arm now operates as a public benefit corporation, with the non-profit parent retaining a major controlling stake.In a lawsuit, the trial for which begins this week in Oakland, California, Musk alleges that Altman has gone back on that founding principle. It’s a massively anticipated case that is expected to run for several weeks. If Musk succeeds, the court could force OpenAI to unwind its for-profit structure, alter who controls the company, and potentially reshape how charities and donors challenge mission drift in Silicon Valley. That would not only complicate OpenAI’s path to an initial public offering (IPO) but also raise fresh questions for investors and regulators about how much freedom a non-profit-backed AI lab has to become a commercial giant. For everyone else, the outcome could help d...
The revenge of the idea guy: Sam Altman and Patrick Collison's ...
Sam Altman discusses how AI models have rapidly improved, especially in coding, reaching a threshold where every week feels different. This evolution is dr.
Sam Altman talks about “the revenge of the idea guy” and how AI ...
3000 Likes, 121 Comments. TikTok video from Business Blurb (@businessblurb): “Sam Altman talks about “the revenge of the idea guy” and how AI could effect ...
