On 17 November, 2023, Sam Altman (38), the enigmatic leader of the AI revolution and the head of OpenAI, buoyed by release of his company’s ChatGPT, was fired on a video call which quickly made headlines around the world. A week later, Altman was back running the company he had cofounded – and most of the directors who voted to fire him were themselves removed from the board, demonstrating his power to bend reality to his will and of how vicious and personal the rush to create this world-changing technology. He set out on a world tour that brought audiences with leaders in countries like France, the UK and India. His inspiring message: without proper controls, advanced intelligence might spell doom – but if you trust OpenAI to build it first, the technology will rebound to the good of humanity.  The tour was a brilliant pre-emptive strike suggested by his friend Brian Chesky, head of Airbnb, whose own company failed to win over politicians early enough.

Karen Hao in Empire of AI point out, Altman got a valuable lesson from hearing Elon Musk talk about sending rockets to Mars: even the most far-fetched claims, made with enough conviction, can attract an army of believers. Altman pointed out his company was under the control of a non-profit board that could sack him if he deviated from the mission to benefit humanity, and as he had no financial stake in the company, it was all ab out doing what’s right.

The myth Altman built around his company leaving an unavoidable conclusion: behind all do-gooder rhetoric, driven by the pursuit of power and wealth and spiked with hubris.

Keach Hagey, a Wall Street Journal reporter, describes, how after Graham put him in charge of Y Combinator, Altman’s almost uncanny ability to weave alluring stories about the power of Technology to transform the world made him one of the industry’s most effective networkers and money-raisers. Tech investor Peter Thiel said he was at “the absolute epicentre ….of a Silicon Valley Zeitgeist”.  This month OpenAI abandoned its attempt to shift ultimate control from its non-profit board.  Regulators were not happy about the attempt to sideline its philanthropic commitments.

The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to invent the Future by Keach Hagey, WW Norton £25. $13.99, 352 pages.