Chesky was almost always right, Altman explains, noting that “I always learned to stick it out and follow his advice.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. [Photo: Shutterstock]
Going in “blind” when building ChatGPT's growth strategy in its early stages, looking for advice. Many offered to help when the software increased in popularity in late 2022, but to no avail.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed in a recent interview that he relied heavily on the advice of his friend Brian Chesky, the CEO and co-founder of Airbnb.
Chesky became Altman's close adviser and confidant. , as the Microsoft-backed AI firm has driven its rapid rise.
Altman stated that everything around him 'went crazy'. “Brian was the guy who would sit down with me, for three hours every other week, and give me a list saying, 'These are the five things you need to do right now. Here's where you're behind, here's what you're doing wrong, here's what you should do proactively, here's what you should think about.”
Chesky was almost always right, Altman explains, citing “ I learned to always plug it and follow his advice.”
The mentoring hours influenced key areas of the OpenAI business, according to Altman: Chesky gave him direction on who to hire and how to “map » the company's strategy.
Chesky recently told him that he probably wasn't thinking enough about the political implications of the company's genetic AI technology, as Altman revealed.
The OpenAI Empire
Five days after ChatGPT went live to the general public, the app surpassed 1 million users. Two months later, in January 2023, the platform counted 100 million monthly active users, making it the fastest growing app in history.
This growth has come with a host of challenges that Altman and the rest of OpenAI's leadership have had to deal with. The company announced multiple updates to ChatGPT – each aimed at making the chatbot more sophisticated – along with the DALL-E image generator and the upcoming Sora video generator.
OpenAI also faced bigger issues around money, security and the future of Artificial Intelligence.
The company is currently structured in a complicated way, with a for-profit arm controlled by OpenAI's non-profit board. It has reportedly received $13 billion in funding from Microsoft and was valued at more than $80 billion earlier this year.
It is noted that Altman was unexpectedly fired from the company last year and returned as CEO less than a week later.
Last month, former OpenAI board member Helen Toner detailed a series of issues that she said precipitated the decision to fire Altman in a podcast episode of “The TED AI Show.” Among other concerns, Altman made it difficult for the board to ensure the company prioritized AI safety over profit.
'Painful' Criticism
The Altman has written about the importance of being open to feedback. “I used to hate criticism of any kind and actively avoided it,” he wrote in a blog post in 2019. “Now I always try to listen to it under the assumption that it's true and then decide if I want to act on it or not “, he notes.
“The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion,” Altman emphasizes. His advice is to be open to harsh and often painful criticism, as it can help moderate overconfidence and harmful self-confidence.
