{"product_id":"the-optimist","title":"The Optimist","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a chatbot that captivated the world with its uncanny ability to hold humanlike conversations. Not even a year later, on November 17, 2023, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was summarily fired on a video call by the company's board. The firing made headlines around the globe: OpenAI is the leader in the race to build AGI-artificial general intelligence, or AI that can think like a human being-and Altman is the most prominent figure in the field. Yet it was mere days before Altman was back running the company he had co-founded, with most of the directors who voted to fire him themselves removed from the board. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe episode was a demonstration of how quickly the industry is moving, and of Altman's power to bend reality to his will. In \u003cem\u003eThe Optimist\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e reporter Keach Hagey presents the most detailed account yet of Altman's rise, from his precocious childhood in St. Louis to his first, failed startup experience; his time as legendary entrepreneur Paul Graham's protégé and successor as head of Y Combinator, the start-up accelerator where Altman became the premier power broker in Silicon Valley; the founding of OpenAI and his recruitment of a small yet superior team; and his struggle to keep his company at the cutting edge while fending off determined rivals, including Elon Musk, a former friend and now Altman's bitter opponent. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHagey conducted more than 250 interviews, with Altman's family, friends, teachers, mentors, co-founders, colleagues, investors, and portfolio companies, in addition to spending hours with Altman himself. The person who emerges in her portrait is a brilliant dealmaker with a love of risk, who believes in technological progress with an almost religious conviction-yet who sometimes moves too fast for the people around him. With both the promise and peril of AI increasing by the day, Hagey delivers a nuanced, balanced, revelatory account of the individual who is leading us into what he himself has called \"the intelligence age.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAltman is a figure out of Isaac Asimov or Neal Stephenson. Or he is the author himself: if it feels as though we have all collectively stepped into a science fiction short story, it is Altman who is writing it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Keach Hagey","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42818277605437,"sku":"9781324075967","price":47.66,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/7689\/2989\/files\/9781324075967_a33f64ba-5eeb-47a5-9cc9-ff725158df8c.jpg?v=1766918397","url":"https:\/\/www.palmleaf.com.au\/products\/the-optimist","provider":"Palmleaf","version":"1.0","type":"link"}