Hi hi,

I've spend the past week in Paris catching up with friends and enjoying city life.

I attended a mind-expanding dinner hosted by Institute of Healing Arts in Paris where a group of people came together to have deep heart-centered conversations about the state of the world. It's so easy to feel isolated in these turbulent times, but creating the space to really connect with other people reminds me of how much we are all deeply similar.

Over delicious food and wine we discussed everything from consciousness to friendships to technology to what we owe each other. If you're in Paris I would highly recommend following on instagram to be updated of future events.

I also shared a lovely dinner with my dear friend Lindsey Tramuta where we ended up talking about patience and our expectations of how long things should take. We've both been following the ongoing crisis in Middle East where each moment feels excruciatingly long. When will this end?

We reminded each other that change takes time. A LONG time. Slavery existed in the United States for 400 years before it was abolished. The civil rights movement took 14 years. The fall of Apartheid South Africa took 46 years. Algeria was occupied for 132 years.

Change takes time.

What does this mean for us? It means we need to be steadfast and patient. But, in this age of instant convenience we need to reframe our expectations. I've written previously about how we don't have the right to the fruits of our labor, the labor itself needs to be its own reward.​

So we must continue to act with love, out of love, for the future - planting trees whose shade we'll never know. It's liberating to release yourself from the expectation that you are owed an outcome.

Be patient. Plant seeds. And have faith that future generations will thank you for the forests you've created.

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1. Who is Sam Altman?

Sam Altman is probably one of the most influential people in the world right now. As CEO of OpenAI, the company's technology is rewriting the rules of our world as we know it: ChatGPT is forcing us to re-evaluate the value of human creative labor and, soon, Sora is going to further blur the lines between real and fake media, making it harder than ever to establish an agreed upon truth.

One of my research focuses for 2024 is in understanding the ideologies of the people who are defining our technological landscape. Beyond his technological policies, what does Sam Altman actually believe about the world? About merit? About ethics? About morality?

Why is understanding Altman important? There are a lot of reasons:

a. Whoever Builds the Tools is Deciding the Values

Despite all the technological advances in AI, we haven't yet solved "the alignment problem" - the pesky task of making sure that our technology adheres to "human values." We also haven't figured out what those values should be or who should decide them. No big deal. Just the moral fabric of a technology that is currently being embedded into everything from weapon systems to financial modeling software. Considering ChatGPT is the most rapidly adopted tech product ever, we should probably take a second to understand what beliefs have been embedded into its code.

b. Exponential Innovation Will Have a Regulatory Impact

OpenAI's exponential trajectory has pushed the topic of AI to the top of regulators' priority list: the White House's Executive Order, the Global AI Safety Summit in the Uk, and attempts to set up global governance practices at the UN, the OECD and the G-7 are all talking how to deal with the tectonic shifts our society is going through because of this tech (ha TECHtonic). Plus, according to this Quartz article, Altman's 2023 world tour to meet with global leaders, illustrated his influence over the AI regulation debate. His opinion matters and is impacting the protections (or lack thereof) of policies that will affect billions of people.

c. Altman's Vision Resonates With His Teams

OpenAI employees are deeply devoted to Altman, with nearly 770 employees signing an open letter indicating they would quit if Altman wasn't reinstate as CEO during his brief firing in 2022. This matters. People look up to him and will follow his lead. (Though some also speculate they were motivated to band together for financial reasons to save their stake in the company). Regardless, it is clear that his vision is the driving force for the company's future plans.

What do we know about him?

I've been collecting bits and pieces of information about Altman. Trying to understand the man behind the title. Here's a few snippets that have jumped out at me:

• In his CEO of the Year profile in Time Magazine, Altman is described has having a "staggering scope of ambition." He believes AGI will benefit humanity as a whole. He believes whoever builds AGI first "will win." He believes in abundance. However, the article also notes the concerns of OpenAI's Board about Altman's behavior, notably crossing "certain thresholds that made it difficult for the board to oversee the company and hold him accountable," and "undermining good governance". Plus, the fact that Elon Musk and Peter Thiel (a close personal friend) have been involved since OpenAI's inception definitely gives me pause because I think both men are incredibly dangerous.
• More interestingly, this 2016 profile in the New Yorker when Altman was still at Y-Combinator is a good read. His ambition is mentioned again: to remake the whole future. "Altman wanted to create a trillion-dollar conglomerate and to move the world forward," the article states. He also believes in AI creating unlimited wealth for all of us. But check out this line that highlights one utopian scenario for the future:

Altman is always talking about the best case future scenario, and he uses his intelligence and charisma to make people believe that of course, it's going to create all this wealth for everyone, you silly goose! But armed with his self-described "delusional self-confidence," I feel like he's blinded to some of the deeply alarming and unethical ways this technology is already being used.

• If you're only going to read ONE article about Altman, this 2023 Intelligencer feature on Altman should be the one. It talks about how Altman considers himself the Oppenheimer of our Age, and reveals some fascinating family dynamics that I think shed a lot of light on who he is as a person. How he treats his siblings is a revealing insight into his deeply held beliefs, which in some cases, contradict some of this perviously stated positions about things like the UBI quote mentioned above. You can tell a lot about a person from their family dynamics.

As I wrote in last week's dispatch about Boeing, I'm interested in how a specific corporate culture could infect an organization. In Boeing's case, Jack Welch's ideology was imported in through execs that were hired to lead the company.

I wonder if something similar is happening to OpenAI.

What started out as a very noble goal of creating technology to benefit the world as a non-profit, has been forever altered by the $13 billion dollar partnership with Microsoft. For example, Time Magazine reported that employees now receive equity, which could encourage them to maximize the company's valuation instead of focus on the mission. Plus, the company shifted to include a for-profit arm, further distancing itself from its non-profit vision.

I'm still deep diving into the details of Altman's beliefs (along with Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg, and other powerful tech investors) because like it or not, it's their views that are building our future.

To be continued in future dispatches...

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2. What Was I Made For - A Masterclass of Craft

Despite not loving the Barbie movie last year (if Barbie was a true feminist she would have given the Kens equal representatives on the supreme court because feminism is inherently about total equality for everyone across the board) I couldn't get enough of Billie Eilish's heartbreaking song "What Was I Made For."

The song perfectly captures the malaise of struggling to understand our own existence in a confusing and cruel world while maintaining a persistently stubborn kernel of hope: that one day we can be happy again -- that we WILL be happy again. "Something I'll wait for," is such a punch in the gut lyrically and I think about it a lot particularly when I'm having a dark day.

I am obsessed with people's creative processes, and this twenty minute video of Billie and Finneas explaining how they produced the Oscar-Award winning song, is very much worth your time.

It's a masterclass in showing your craft. Billie explains the technical skill that goes into singing the song in that high, breathy register, and why she chose that particular style. Her mastery of her voice as an instrument is evident by the control of range, pitch and even the vibrato, which you can see on the recording.

Finneas showed how he used a variety of nostalgic sounds and techniques to infuse the song with a certain feeling. It was incredible watching them build the song layer by layer. (My favorite is the "wooo!" that he recorded). I had no idea that so many elements were incorporated into the song, many of which you can't even really distinguish in the final version, but that are important in creating the final emotional experience of the song.

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3. Threaded: Letting Go of Ambition

Over on Threaded, we're continuing our buddy read of Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. This Friday, we unwrap the quiet rebellion of engaged action, calling us to cultivate resonant stillness in a world that mistakes motion for progress. We meet the unexpected teachers within us: the Meditator, the Artist, and the Warrior, who collectively guide us toward a richer practice of presence and urge us to see beyond the conventional hustle, tuning into a more profound frequency of creativity and courage. And through the Triple Trainings—mindfulness, concentration, insight—we rediscover the power of a focused mind, the clarity of true insight, and the serenity of the present moment, standing in stark defiance to the clamorous chorus of modern life's distractions. I also reflect on what it feels like to hit pause on an ambition for a little while. Come join us!

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As always, I do love hearing from you. So hit reply and let me know what you think!