Sam Altman Profile picture
Sep 22, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Specific ambition and non-specific ambition look pretty similar on the surface, and it's easy to emulate the wrong one.
Specific ambition, combined with relentless execution, is extremely powerful.

Non-specific ambition leads to a lot of energy and random movement but no forward progress.
Specific ambition means having a very clear vision for where you plan to go, and perfect clarity about the next few steps.
Reading about history always seems to indicate that the cold reality of important work is about 1% glamorous plans and 99% unglamorous and very focused execution. (There are some occasional exceptions for scientists and a few other categories.)

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More from @sama

Mar 14, 2023
here is GPT-4, our most capable and aligned model yet. it is available today in our API (with a waitlist) and in ChatGPT+.

openai.com/research/gpt-4

it is still flawed, still limited, and it still seems more impressive on first use than it does after you spend more time with it.
it is more creative than previous models, it hallucinates significantly less, and it is less biased. it can pass a bar exam and score a 5 on several AP exams. there is a version with a 32k token context.
we are previewing visual input for GPT-4; we will need some time to mitigate the safety challenges.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 12, 2023
ugh fine here is my SVB thread:

TL;DR: at this point, to be certain of avoiding catastrophe, the FDIC needs to temporarily guarantee all deposits. other solutions might work, but this is the best one.
first, this really is just a liquidity issue. depositors at SVB are going to get all or most of their money back, and will have a significant fraction of it this week.
however, depositors should get *all* of their money back, and fast. equityholders in SVB and lenders should be wiped out.

but we really, really don't want depositors to start doubting their banks. the world has changed since 2008; the speed of a cascade could be very fast.
Read 11 tweets
Mar 10, 2023
dropping standardized tests while maintaining legacy admissions policies and claiming it's about advancing equality of opportunity is not a serious position.
i'd love to see data, but as imperfect as tests are, i bet they do more for equality of opportunity than most of the rest of the application process, and it's very possible to look at scores in context.

this is the echochamber gone very wrong.
how about more tests and drop the personal-essay-written-by-expensive-consultants?
Read 4 tweets
Feb 19, 2023
the adaptation to a world deeply integrated with AI tools is probably going to happen pretty quickly; the benefits (and fun!) have too much upside.
these tools will help us be more productive (can't wait to spend less time doing email!), healthier (AI medical advisors for people who can’t afford care), smarter (students using ChatGPT to learn), and more entertained (AI memes lolol).
a transition like this is mostly good, and can happen somewhat fast—the transition from the pre-smartphone world to post-smartphone world is a recent example.

but it’ll be tempting to go super quickly, which is frightening—society needs time to adapt to something so big.
Read 7 tweets
Dec 26, 2022
there will be scary moments as we move towards AGI-level systems, and significant disruptions, but the upsides can be so amazing that it’s well worth overcoming the great challenges to get there.
and we’ll see great benefits all along the way—they will make ChatGPT look like a boring toy.
in particular, there are going to be significant problems with the use of openai tech over time; we will do our best but will not successfully anticipate every issue.

we will run a very tight feedback loop for improvement, and try to make our mistakes while the stakes are low.
Read 4 tweets
Dec 3, 2022
interesting to me how many of the ChatGPT takes are either "this is AGI" (obviously not close, lol) or "this approach can't really go that much further".

trust the exponential. flat looking backwards, vertical looking forwards.
the field has a long way to go, and big ideas yet to discover. we will stumble along the way, and learn a lot from contact with reality. it will sometimes be messy; we will sometimes make really bad decisions. we will sometimes have moments of transcendent progress and value.
iterative deployment is, imo, the only safe path and the only way for people, society, and institutions to have time to update and internalize what this all means.
Read 6 tweets

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