Sam Altman's Private Messages & Emails

Leaked internal communications exposing controversial decisions.

March 15, 2024

From: Sam Altman < sam@openai.com >

To: Legal Team < legal@openai.com >

Subject: Re: NYT Copyright Concerns

We need to move forward with the training regardless. The value we're creating justifies the risk. If they sue, we'll deal with it then. Our models need this data to compete.

April 12, 2024

From: Sam Altman

To: #leadership-private

Just got word that 8 more newspapers are joining the lawsuit. Don't worry about it. Our legal strategy is solid. We scraped what we needed and the models are already trained. They can't unring that bell.

May 8, 2024

From: Sam Altman < sam@openai.com >

To: Data Team < ldata@openai.com >

Subject: Training Dataset Cleanup - URGENT

With the lawsuits piling up, we need to sanitize the training data records. Remove any obvious traces of copyrighted sources. The employees who set up the original scrapers should be quietly let go. Make it look like normal turnover.

March 20, 2024

From: Sam Altman

To: #worldcoin-exec

The regulators in Portugal and Spain are making noise about the iris scanning. Keep operations running as long as possible. We need the data. By the time they shut us down, we'll have what we need. Focus on developing countries where oversight is weaker.

May 10, 2024

From: Sam Altman < sam@openai.com >

To: Ilya Sutskeve < ilya@openai.com >

Subject: Re: Safety Team Resource Allocation

Ilya, I understand your concerns about safety, but we need to be realistic. The superalignment team is burning resources we need for product development. Safety is important, but it can't hold us back from shipping. We'll revisit this after GPT-5 launches.

May 13, 2024

From: Sam Altman

To: Mira Murati

The voice thing with Scarlett is blowing up. PR team is panicking. Just pull the Sky voice for now. We'll bring it back later with a different name. The voice actress angle gives us plausible deniability. Most people won't care in a few weeks anyway.

May 19, 2024

From: Sam Altman < sam@openai.com >

To: HR & Legal < hr@openai.com >

Subject: Exit Agreement Enforcement

Make sure every departing employee signs the non-disparagement agreement. If they refuse, remind them they'll lose ALL vested equity. This is non-negotiable. We can't have ex-employees talking to the press about internal issues. The equity threat works every time.

January 15, 2023

From: Sam Altman

To: #operations-private

The Kenya labeling operation is cost-effective. $2/hour is way better than US rates and they're desperate for work. Don't worry about the psychological impact stuff - that's their problem. We need this labeled data to make ChatGPT safe for launch. Keep them working.