{"product_id":"the-optimist-sam-altman-openai-and-the-race-to-invent-the-future-keach-hagey-hardcover","title":"The Optimist: Sam Altman, Openai, and the Race to Invent the Future -- Keach Hagey, Hardcover","description":"\u003cstrong\u003e\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\n\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\n\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\n\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\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Keach Hagey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 5\/20\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.3 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9.1\" H x 6.1\" L x 1.4\" W\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9781324075967\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Flowerburst","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50747079000368,"sku":"9781324075967","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2712\/8368\/files\/9781324075967_65ad07b5-bc02-4782-8df5-83a249609165.jpg?v=1775208814","url":"https:\/\/flowerburst.co\/products\/the-optimist-sam-altman-openai-and-the-race-to-invent-the-future-keach-hagey-hardcover","provider":"Flowerburst","version":"1.0","type":"link"}