OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says his experience of becoming a father earlier this year has profoundly affected his outlook and has reframed how he thinks about the far-reaching implications of his work in artificial intelligence.
“I don’t think I have anything non-cliché to say here, but it is the best, most amazing thing ever. And it totally rewired all of my priorities,” he said. “I remember in the first hour, I felt this neurochemical change and it happened so fast. I was like, oh, I get to like observe this. Like, I am being like neurochemically hacked, but I’m noticing it happening. I’m totally fine with it. That’s great. But everything is going to be different now.”
Chang pressed Altman on how, if at all, the experience of parenthood has changed his perspective on building advanced artificial intelligence. “A lot of people have said, I’m very happy you’re having a kid, because I think you’ll make better decisions for humanity as a whole,” Altman said. “I really wanted to get it right before, and do the best I could. I still really want to now.”
When asked about the scale and speed of change in the AI sector, Altman likened the experience to “watching your own kid grow day to day. You just see every change. And so it’s, like, not as striking. It does feel like it’s going very fast.”
You can watch the full interview between Sam Altman and Emily Chang below:
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
