The funniest, most bizarre, and just plain weird moments from Kevin Roose's new book about OpenAI and Anthropic
A new book by Kevin Roose details the eccentric culture and early history of AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic. The narrative covers bizarre company retreats and the high-stakes negotiations that led to Microsoft's massive investment in OpenAI.
Why it matters
Understanding the internal culture and origins of these AI companies provides context for the rapid, often opaque development of technologies that are reshaping the global economy.
A new book recounts how OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever led a bizarre ceremony during a 2022 company retreat. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once helped burn a demonic statue while wearing a bathrobe. The moment occurred during a 2022 OpenAI retreat outside Yosemite. The episode is one of the wild stories tech journalist Kevin Roose recounted in his new book. AI is the inescapable story. In "AGI Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence ," tech journalist and podcaster Kevin Roose recounts how the breakthroughs and beefs of a band of researchers, academics, and entrepreneurs have set the stage for the future of … well, everything. The book's title comes from Artificial General Intelligence , the at-times loosely defined theory that AI may one day match or surpass humans across a wide range of capabilities.
Also covering this story
One other newsroom covered this event. We read that version too.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in