Sham I Am! (OpenAI's Altman Likes No Regs & AI Spam)
The CEO's Chill Demeanor Belies A Dangerous Persona and Now Laughable Company Mission
It’s time for your weekly “brAIn” dump! Sorry about missing last week due to recent travels, including to my home town of Minneapolis. And you know what? Enough of “Minnesota Nice” (a very real thing, by the way). Now the gloves are off. And to put it bluntly, I’m tired of Sam Altman’s and OpenAI’s hollow “we are here to benefit all of humanity” marketing shtick. No one believes your once-noble mission statement anymore. That’s what my “mAIn event” is about this Halloween week when Altman and what he stands for — no regulations/guardrails and lots of AI spam/slop — are downright scary. Then, my AI Update about one of the hottest AI “startups,” Synthesia, and a potential $3 billion pay day. Finally, the “AI Litigation Tracker” — updates on key generative AI-infused media IP infringement cases by Partner Avery Williams of McKool Smith (access the “Tracker” via this link).
I. The mAIn Event — Sam Altman’s “Break Things First (& Ask Forgiveness Later)” Tour. We’re Over It.
Remember those good old days when OpenAI defined its mission as being to develop AI that “benefits all of humanity”? Yes, that was the company’s original mission statement.
But here’s the funny/sad part (you decide which). It still is. Yes, look at OpenAI’s website and those words still ring out on its “About” page … loud and … proud?
They also ring transparently — even laughably — hollow these days, especially when followed by the next words on that same page apparently written with a straight face, “We are building safe and beneficial AGI.”
Oh really, Sam? I cry “FOUL!” Let me count just some of the ways I refute Mr. Altman’s narrative. “Sham I Am” indeed!
(1) Hey Creatives, How Dare You Challenge My AI Tech!
First, Altman once again revealed his disregard of, and outright disdain for, the creative community when OpenAI recently launched its consumer-focused video AI slop machine Sora 2. Make no mistake. Sam and his fellow transhumanists knew exactly what they were doing when they built it as an “opt out” IP scheme — juicing adoption by empowering users to take whatever IP and human/celebrity personas (faces, voices) they want to mix into Sam’s generative video machine. “Move fast and break things,” right?
Altman’s Silicon Valley VCs wouldn’t want it any other way. Growth for growth sake. Sam’s Dr. Seuss-ian quest to get “biggerer and biggerer” a la The Lorax. Not exactly “benefitting all of humanity,” but hey — what the hell? We need to make some money here.
Oopsies. Busted. Hollywood and the creative community don’t work that way. We’ve built our lives and livelihoods on the notion that creativity and creative works and pursuits are worthy of respect and protection — just like Sam feels about his AI technology. Sora 2 “broke bad” and It was only after industry pushback from the likes of actor Bryan Cranston that Altman sheepishly changed course to make Sora 2 “opt in.” “We didn’t see it (IP and NIL abuse) coming,” Altman essentially said when faced with what his tech had wrought — hiding behind a cloak of false naivete as always.
Funny how while Sam unflinchingly violates copyright, NIL and related laws designed to protect creative IP and human sanctity, he bemoans it when others come after his IP — like when he famously hypocritically cried “fowl!” on China’s DeepSeek for purportedly infringing his patented technology.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Hollywood — good for you for finally seeing Sam and OpenAI for who and what they are. Case in point: leading talent agency WME, which recently announced that it refuses to participate in Altman’s shenanigans. All of WME’s clients are opting out of “Sora 2.” WME has learned what others across society have now learned. Capitulation leads to evermore demands for further capitulation.
That’s why Hollywood is now fighting back to endless unconscionable theft of its IP and human personas by tech leaders who promote a society increasingly dominated by the artificial. My “AI Litigation Tracker” is proof positive of that — all major studios are pushing back in the courts.
(2) Hey People, “Hands On” Your New AI Companions!
Second, it’s hard to call OpenAI’s increasingly desperate AI land grabs — including Sam’s most recent quest for AI-rotica — noble ones that “benefit all of humanity.” Listen, I’m no prude. But Altman and OpenAI’s latest trick — their guardrail-less and conscience-less AI companions — are designed to literally let it rip, society be damned.
It’s a money grab, pure and simple. And we all know it. ‘Twas so quaint in a different time where we sincerely believed Altman’s non-profit motivations because, well, he looked and sounded so soft spoken and non-threatening.
But let’s trust our instincts. There was always something a bit “off” with Sam and his spiel of there being essentially only one “consciousness” (human and artificial not being so different). So let’s trust our instincts now. Given what we’ve already seen — including teen suicides due to “relationships” with AI companions gone wrong — do we really doubt that unregulated AI companions will cause serious damage to society? I don’t. They will — by design — push us to further distance ourselves from real human relationships, including with those who may have different perspectives on life.
We felt the same way in social media’s early days — something felt “off” then too — but we looked the other way, much to our peril. We gave the social media giants an inch, and they took the proverbial yard … mile …. [insert ever greater distances here.]
And now here we are — in our almost completely “frictionless” virtual worlds — where we can get all we believe we want and need using apps within our solitary homes (our DoorDashed food, our endless streaming entertainment, and now even our full spectrum of always comforting and sycophantic companionship). Why even bother with anyone or any tangible thing anymore? Real-world human relationships can be messy, after all. Sam Altman and OpenAI fix all that “friction” by giving you all the companions you could ever want — defined to look and act however you want — and to say and do whatever you want.
Why even venture out into the real world anymore? It’s so much cozier and “friendlier” inside our isolated virtual bubbles. In Sam’s brave(?) new world, everyone — well, every “virtual” one — truly “gets” me.
What could possibly go wrong?
(3) Hey Government, “Hands Off”!
Third (this is not intended to be a complete list, mind you), let’s not forget that Altman once welcomed — nay, self-righteously requested — the federal government to step in, regulate, and reign in potential AI dangers (here’s a great story from The New York Times about his Senate testimony in May 2023). He even called some of AI‘s potential dangers to be downright existential, telling U.S. Senators at the time: “I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that … we want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.”
Boy have times changed (hmm, I wonder why?). Sham (I mean, Sam) and his “non-profit” company have now gone firmly Dr. Evil in D.C.’s literally deconstructed White House world — as in, no holds barred, throw sp-AI-ghetti against the wall sh*t. Government regulation is the furthest thing from his mind — and his prior exhortations of danger were, well, just the pronouncements of a younger, seemingly more idealistic version of himself. Hail to the Chief indeed! Sam can’t get enough.
Here’s the thing. Sam Altman looks gentle enough. He speaks softly. If you don’t listen too closely, he may even sound somewhat reasonable at times.
But make no mistake. Altman is a commercial actor/transhumanist alien who is focused on two things only: (1) “winning” (just like his new hero); and (2) endless flows of cash (just like his new hero). He knows exactly what he’s doing. And he truly doesn’t care how he gets there. It’s only the inevitable and inexorable march of technology after all. Don’t blame OpenAI. They just build the stuff. It’s their human customers who abuse it.
But try as he might, Sam’s “smooth talking” shtick doesn’t work anymore. We now know Altman for exactly who and what he is.
Dangerous. Altman is the anti-Seuss — preaching and activating a world that ultimately poisons our children and future generations of humans.
But — as we now finally see in Hollywood — a humanist backlash is a’ comin’. There’s growing skepticism and even resistance to Sam’s efforts to define the basic AI rules of the game — rules that will impact all of us and all aspects of society.
Kudos to that!
What do you think? I want to hear from you. Send me a note to peter@creativemedia.biz.
II. AI Update — Synthesia: A $3 Billion Pay Day?
Adobe reportedly discussed a $3 billion acquisition of AI video “startup” Synthesia, a company I’ve tracked from its very beginning. I first saw CEO Victor Riparbelli pitch at a United Talent Agency event well before Covid (in 2017, I think). And I immediately approached him afterwards to tell him I was a believer. And I was. Too bad I didn’t put my money where my mouth was and invest.
You can watch my 2021 interview of Victor during covid days — which was part of my Creative University “give back” series to college students at the time. It’s a fascinating time capsule of this now multi-billion dollar AI tech pioneer.
Want to Work Together?
Reach out to me at peter@creativemedia.biz.
III. AI Litigation Tracker: Updates on Key Generative AI/Media Cases (by McKool Smith)
Partner Avery Williams and the team at McKool Smith lay out the facts of — and latest critical developments in — the key GenAI-focused IP litigations below. All those detailed updates can be accessed via this link to the “AI Litigation Tracker”.
(1) Reddit v. Anthropic
(2) Kadrey v. Meta
(3) The New York Times v. Microsoft & OpenAI
(4) Ziff-Davis v. OpenAI
(5) Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence
(6) In re OpenAI Litigation (class action)
(7) Dow Jones, et al. v. Perplexity AI
(8) UMG Recordings v. Suno
(9) UMG Recordings v. Uncharted Labs (d/b/a Udio)
(10) Getty Images v. Stability AI and Midjourney
(11) Universal Music Group, et al. v. Anthropic
(12) Sarah Anderson v. Stability AI
(13) Raw Story Media v. OpenAI
(14) The Center for Investigative Reporting v. OpenAI
(15) Authors Guild et al. v. OpenAI
NOTE: Go to the “AI Litigation Tracker” tab on “the brAIn” website for the full discussions and analyses of these and other key GenAI/media cases. And reach out to me at peter@creativemedia.biz if you’d like me to connect you to McKool Smith to discuss these and other legal and litigation issues. Happy to make the introduction.
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This article comes at the perfect time, thank you for putting so clearly what many of us in tech are thinking about Sam Altman’s hollow rhetoric on AI regulation and its impact on genuine progess.