Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Subscribe to The NonZero Newsletter at: nonzero.org
Exclusive Overtime discussion at: nonzero.org/p/the-truth-about-sam-altman-robert

0:00 Teaser
0:36 The dueling Sam Altman biographies
4:44 Who is the real Sam Altman?
16:14 OpenAI’s origin—did Sam scam Elon?
20:57 Why the OpenAI board coup failed
35:40 Good and bad critiques of OpenAI
47:21 Heading to Overtime

Discussed in Overtime:
A (kinda) kind word for Altman.
How AI safety lost out at OpenAI.
OpenAI vs Anthropic.
Lee: AI’s recent advances have surprised me.
What’s Meta up to?
The Annie Altman question.
Altman as singular AI singularitarian.

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy B. Lee (Full Stack Economics, Understanding AI, AI Summer). Recorded June 16, 2025.

Tim's Understanding AI newsletter on Substack: understandingai.org

Twitter: twitter.com/NonzeroPods