Inside Sam Altman's mission to fix American democracy
Sam Altman
Sam Altman  the 32-year-old president of Y Combinator  the most prestigious startup accelerator in Silicon Valley   has laid out this utopian vision over the years  and most definitively in a job listing posted on YC's blog in June 2016.
Like many of his peers in Silicon Valley   Altman  believes technology is the way to a better future. But  his  real-world ambitions are grander than most.  He  wants to investigate ways to build new cities  give people money for nothing  rethink voter registration  keep politicians accountable  and get new  Altman-approved leaders elected â all while running YC  which famously birthed startups like Airbnb and Dropbox.
Much like one of  his  notable colleagues  Tesla CEO Elon Musk   Altman  is set on turning the ideal into the practical. Both believe they have solid ideas for reshaping society. Sometimes this means executing plans within the next few months. Other times it means roadmapping projects decades down the line  and relying on phrases like "The math should work out" to assuage a wary public.
"I have a very strong vision of where I'd like to see the world go "  Altman  said. "And I don't think it gets there by startups alone."
In 2005  at age 19   Altman  dropped out of Stanford to found the social-networking app Loopt  which  he  sold in 2012. In 2014   he  replaced Paul Graham as YC president. These days   he  says  he  spends 80% of  his  65-hour weeks helping startups sort through their growing pains and get to market as fast as possible. The remaining 20% is dedicated to outside projects.
 His  baby is OpenAI  a nonprofit he cochairs with Musk that searches for benevolent ways to use artificial intelligence in daily life.  Altman 's vision for how OpenAI could be deployed sheds light on how  he  wants to help people in real ways.
"Let's imagine we get to a world where AI gets so good that robots can mine raw materials out of the ground  refine them  and build them into a house "  he  told Business Insider. (These robots   he  clarified  are solar-powered.) "You can imagine a world where you own a small piece of land  you can say  'Hey  robot. I would like a house here ' and you come back like a month later and there's a fully constructed house built for you for free."
 Altman  sees that kind of far-future scenario as a boon for towns and cities plagued by a shortage of affordable housing.  He 's seen the plight firsthand  from  his  home state of California to middle America.
In November 2016  shortly after Donald Trump won the presidency   Altman  left YC's headquarters in Mountain View  California  in search of 100 supporters of the president-elect.  He  asked them about their political views  their fears  and their gripes with America's political landscape.  He  later published  his  findings on  his  blog for the world to see. "People don't believe they have an economic future "  he  said.
Over the past year   Altman  has expressed a deep interest in resolving those economic concerns.
"[Fifty] years from now  I think it will seem ridiculous that we used fear of not being able to eat as a way to motivate people "  he  wrote in a January 2016 blog post on YC. "I also think that it's impossible to truly have equality of opportunity without some version of guaranteed income."
 Altman 's own experiment is small  for now. It's running in Oakland  California  and involves about 100 people getting between $1 000 and $2 000 a month. The goal is to get some practice with delivering the money and collecting data. If that data come back showing basic income has left people better off  both emotionally and financially  YC will expand the project in a five-year  nationwide trial.
Society is poised to lose millions of jobs to AI  the prevailing research suggests. And it's propelled in part by Silicon Valley-types like  Altman   who himself is researching how robotics can replace human labor on a grand scale with projects like OpenAI. In recognition of that responsibility  he believes the tech world should at least be trying something.
But for all his involvement in political issues   Altman  doesn't consider himself a political person. He was raised in St. Louis to a pair of Democrat parents  with childhood memories of his time as a Boy Scout  tinkering with his Macintosh  and reading science fiction. He was interested more in computers than current events.
Elizabeth Rhodes picked up on that mind-set in her first face-to-face encounter with  Altman   earlier this February. Rhodes was wrapping up her doctorate in political science and social work at the University of Michigan and had applied to lead YC's nascent basic-income project. In May  YC announced she had been selected.
"He was definitely very passionate about people's struggles " Rhodes recalled of her first meeting with  Altman . Now more than a year into the job  she said  Altman 's interest in solving social problems through policy has come more into focus. " He 's able to see more systemic changes that we could make  and  he 's not afraid to say  'Let's try testing it out.'"
[TGT] has laid out this utopian vision over the years  and most definitively in a job listing posted on YC's blog in June 2016.
Like many of  [TGT]  peers in Silicon Valley   Altman  believes technology is the way to a better future. But   [TGT]   real-world ambitions are grander than most.   [TGT]   wants to investigate ways to build new cities  give people money for nothing  rethink voter registration  keep politicians accountable  and get new  Altman-approved leaders elected â all while running YC  which famously birthed startups like Airbnb and Dropbox.
Much like one of  his  notable colleagues  Tesla CEO Elon Musk   Altman  is set on turning the ideal into the practical. Both believe they have solid ideas for reshaping society. Sometimes this means executing plans within the next few months. Other times it means roadmapping projects decades down the line  and relying on phrases like "The math should work out" to assuage a wary public.
"I have a very strong vision of where I'd like to see the world go "  Altman  said. "And I don't think it gets there by startups alone."
In 2005  at age 19   Altman  dropped out of Stanford to found the social-networking app Loopt  which  he  sold in 2012. In 2014   he  replaced Paul Graham as YC president. These days   he  says  he  spends 80% of  his  65-hour weeks helping startups sort through their growing pains and get to market as fast as possible. The remaining 20% is dedicated to outside projects.
 His  baby is OpenAI  a nonprofit he cochairs with Musk that searches for benevolent ways to use artificial intelligence in daily life.  Altman 's vision for how OpenAI could be deployed sheds light on how  he  wants to help people in real ways.
"Let's imagine we get to a world where AI gets so good that robots can mine raw materials out of the ground  refine them  and build them into a house "  he  told Business Insider. (These robots   he  clarified  are solar-powered.) "You can imagine a world where you own a small piece of land  you can say  'Hey  robot. I would like a house here ' and you come back like a month later and there's a fully constructed house built for you for free."
 Altman  sees that kind of far-future scenario as a boon for towns and cities plagued by a shortage of affordable housing.  He 's seen the plight firsthand  from  his  home state of California to middle America.
In November 2016  shortly after Donald Trump won the presidency   Altman  left YC's headquarters in Mountain View  California  in search of 100 supporters of the president-elect.  He  asked them about their political views  their fears  and their gripes with America's political landscape.  He  later published  his  findings on  his  blog for the world to see. "People don't believe they have an economic future "  he  said.
Over the past year   Altman  has expressed a deep interest in resolving those economic concerns.
"[Fifty] years from now  I think it will seem ridiculous that we used fear of not being able to eat as a way to motivate people "  he  wrote in a January 2016 blog post on YC. "I also think that it's impossible to truly have equality of opportunity without some version of guaranteed income."
 Altman 's own experiment is small  for now. It's running in Oakland  California  and involves about 100 people getting between $1 000 and $2 000 a month. The goal is to get some practice with delivering the money and collecting data. If that data come back showing basic income has left people better off  both emotionally and financially  YC will expand the project in a five-year  nationwide trial.
Society is poised to lose millions of jobs to AI  the prevailing research suggests. And it's propelled in part by Silicon Valley-types like  Altman   who himself is researching how robotics can replace human labor on a grand scale with projects like OpenAI. In recognition of that responsibility  he believes the tech world should at least be trying something.
But for all his involvement in political issues   Altman  doesn't consider himself a political person. He was raised in St. Louis to a pair of Democrat parents  with childhood memories of his time as a Boy Scout  tinkering with his Macintosh  and reading science fiction. He was interested more in computers than current events.
Elizabeth Rhodes picked up on that mind-set in her first face-to-face encounter with  Altman   earlier this February. Rhodes was wrapping up her doctorate in political science and social work at the University of Michigan and had applied to lead YC's nascent basic-income project. In May  YC announced she had been selected.
"He was definitely very passionate about people's struggles " Rhodes recalled of her first meeting with  [TGT]  . Now more than a year into the job  she said   [TGT]  's interest in solving social problems through policy has come more into focus. " He 's able to see more systemic changes that we could make  and  he 's not afraid to say  'Let's try testing it out.'"