Summary

Gruber investigates Y Combinator's financial stake in OpenAI, arguing it represents a major undisclosed conflict of interest when Paul Graham is quoted as a character reference for Sam Altman. He traces how OpenAI was seeded by YC Research in 2016 under Altman's leadership, and reports from a source that YC owns approximately 0.6% of OpenAI — worth over $5 billion at current valuation. He criticizes The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow piece for failing to disclose this financial entanglement when quoting Graham on Altman's trustworthiness.

Key Insight

When journalists quote Paul Graham on Sam Altman's character without disclosing that Graham's YC stake in OpenAI is worth billions, they're failing a basic journalistic obligation to reveal financial conflicts of interest.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 4

  Does Y Combinator own a stake in OpenAI? And if they do, given OpenAI's sky-high valuation, isn't that stake worth billions of dollars?

• 7

  A billion dollars here, a billion there — that adds up to the sort of money that might skew a fellow's opinion.

• 6

  The fact that Paul Graham personally has billions of dollars at stake with OpenAI doesn't mean that his public opinion on Sam Altman's trustworthiness and leadership is invalid. But it certainly seems like the sort of thing that ought to be disclosed when quoting Graham as an Altman character reference.

• 7

  'We didn't remove Sam Altman' and 'We didn't want him to leave' are not the same things as saying, say, 'I think Sam Altman is honest and trustworthy' or 'Sam Altman is a man of integrity'.

• 7

  If Paul Graham were to say such things, clearly and unambiguously, those remarks would carry tremendous weight. But — rather conspicuously to my eyes — he's not saying such things.

• 5

  While Altman to my knowledge holds no direct equity in OpenAI, he does have an indirect stake in OpenAI, and that fact should have been disclosed.

Tone

investigative