
The Optimist
Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future
20 May 2025
Territory Rights — Worldwide.
Description
The first biography of the enigmatic leader of the AI revolution, charting his ascent within the tech world as well as his ambitions for this powerful new technology
Reviews
"The Optimist serves to remind us that however unprecedented the consequences of AI models might be, the story of their development is a profoundly human one." — James Ball, The Guardian
"Compelling..." — Ben Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker
"Hagey’s book, written with Altman’s cooperation [is] critical, but no hagiography. “The Optimist” lets the reader see how thoroughly Altman outfoxed his patron, leveraging Musk’s paranoia into enormous sums of money while slowly making OpenAI his own ... [An] excellent and deeply reported book." — Tim Wu, The New York Times Book Review
"[An] excellent new book… [Altman’s] personality is vivid and complicated enough that her story never flags. It is no hagiography." — The Economist
"A brisk, compelling account of Sam Altman’s rise… If you want to understand the forces behind Altman and OpenAI, this is the book to read." — Shakeel Hashim, Transformer
"Timely and myth-busting" — Richard Waters, Financial Times