Sam Altman and the Lamplighters
How a billionaire misleads the public and gets the world entirely wrong
Many of the jobs we do today would have looked like trifling wastes of time to people a few hundred years ago, but nobody is looking back at the past, wishing they were a lamplighter. If a lamplighter could see the world today, he would think the prosperity all around him was unimaginable. And if we could fast-forward a hundred years from today, the prosperity all around us would feel just as unimaginable.
I’m choosing to focus this article on the final paragraph of Sam Altman’s latest unhinged billionaire manifesto because of how aptly it explains, in a nutshell, his disconnect from humanity, his ignorance of the past, and his propensity for misleading the public. And no, the title of this post is not a band name, though I really think it should be.
Did you ever wake before daybreak, rub the dusty dreams out of your eyes, glance at your moon-shorn reflection in a mirror while you brush your teeth, then step out into the brisk, pre-dawn glow to start your daily work? Imagine the lonely but peaceful trek of the Victorian-era lamplighter, whose job it was to walk around a section of the city at this magical hour to snuff out all the kerosene lamps that he’d lit the night before using a lighted wick on a long pole. You had to carry the pole, a ladder, as well as some fuel for the wick, and you had to do this in all kinds of weather. It must have been a hard job but a worthwhile one: lamplighters in some districts were considered nightwatchmen who would keep a lookout for crime and act as a deterrent for burglars when bringing forth light onto lonely streets. It was a profession handed down through generations and well respected.
Sam Altman, on the other hand, has, to my knowledge, never done a day’s work in his life that could be compared to the work of the lamplighter. It’s true that “Many of the jobs we do today would have looked like trifling wastes of time to people a few hundred years ago”, such as the job of Venture Capital fund manager, say, or CEO of a company that doesn’t even live up to its own mission. Indeed, as the late David Graeber pointed out, there’s an argument to be made that many jobs today are actually bullshit jobs. But somehow, I don’t think that is the point Sam is trying to make. He must be confused. He came from a wealthy family, went to a private school, attended Stanford but dropped out after only a few months, was lifted up by YCombinator CEO Paul Graham, and has been on the grift ever since. In the three organizations Sam headed up before starting OpenAI, he was neither considered successful nor impressive as a leader. But business is apparently no meritocracy, so his lack of charisma or leadership ability has not prevented him from acquiring obscene wealth and then flaunting it on purchases like a $20M car and a $27M mansion.
Another name for the lamplighter was gaslighter and that is something Sam Altman is good at
Another name for the lamplighter was gaslighter and that is something Sam Altman is good at. In this FastCompany article published June 2023 he is quoted as saying:
You shouldn’t [trust me]. No one person should be trusted here. I don’t have super voting shares. The board can fire me. I think that’s important.
Sam constantly warns the media that OpenAI’s mission of creating AGI is like poking a hornet’s nest, but makes it sound like it’s something we all want and something that is entirely inevitable in our lifetime. Sam has repeatedly joked or has been quoted as saying that there is a legitimate chance that the thing he is trying to create might destroy humanity, even as he tries to raise insane amounts of funding to prop up his company that is burning through cash quicker than a gangster rapper filming a music video. At least we got to witness the world’s weakest but best insult when the nice folks at Taiwan Semiconductor called him a mere “podcast bro”. I’ll be laughing about that one for a good long time, thank you.
Of course, just a few months later, in November 2023, Sam was indeed fired by the board, but then he summoned the gods of finance and had himself reinstated and the board fired instead. Like a magician, Sam tells us one thing but means another. He’ll say whatever it takes to keep himself on top and holding all the cards. And like a true gaslighter, he’ll do his best to keep us guessing in terms of whether or not he’s a hero or a villain. If we believe in his vision and it turns out to be the worst thing we ever did, it’ll be our own fault, because he already warned us.
Despite the utopian and seemingly altruistic message of Altman’s latest manifesto, he is working behind the scenes to accumulate more toy cars and mansions. OpenAI, which stated its mission as “building safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity” is now on the path to becoming a for-profit company, and Altman stands to benefit the most.
No surprises, really: the original mission statement warned that any investment in OpenAI should be considered a “donation” with the caveat that it would be “difficult to know what role money will play in a post-AGI world”. Call me cynical, but isn’t that a perfect way to ask corporations for money while offering zero ROI, knowing that you can always just tell them “I told you so” when the business goes bankrupt? There’s got to be an “Emperor’s new clothes” metaphor somewhere around here.
It’s true that if a Victorian lamplighter were to be transported to the present day, he may “think the prosperity all around him was unimaginable” at first glance. Perhaps he’d stare in amazement at the pristine megastructures of the Manhattan skyline, or marvel as Sam Altman speeds past in a life-size toy car made entirely of plastic. But he’d have to be willfully ignorant not to eventually come to realize that privilege and class have a lot to do with how much of that prosperity pie you ever get to taste. Sam speaks of prosperity as only someone who has never known poverty can. But the reality is that the wealth gap continues to widen, and many Americans are still living paycheck-to-paycheck and have even less job security than the humble lamplighter of the past.
Altman is even wrong about how we think about the past. Contrary to his belief that “nobody is looking back at the past, wishing they were a lamplighter,” we actually do look backward all the time. It’s called nostalgia, Sam. In fact, in some cities around the world, including the capital of Croatia and London, the profession is alive and well because whether it’s for the attraction of tourists or the benefit of local residents, most people who are not disconnected from reality or being carried along by extreme privilege actually feel some sentimental attachment to the past, and I’d argue that it’s such respect and admiration for previous generations and the sacrifices they made that will help us navigate the pitfalls of the future and avoid becoming too enamored by the gaslighting screeds of people like Sam Altman.
"Sam speaks of prosperity as only someone who has never known poverty can." So true and could be said for the entire club of tech feudal barons of today. Good article.
Altman might well be insane, but what about the people who are giving him the money. They can't all be crackers, so they must be semi-criminal conmen like Musk.