Name: Sam Altman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #599
Uploaded: 2025-07-23T17:19:20.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Sam Altman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #599' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-07-23. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Sam Altman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #599' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-07-23. Transcript available.

Sam Altman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #599

Today's guest is, well, dude's a straight-up tech lord, let's be honest.
He's one of the leaders, the world leaders, in the development of AI.
He started OpenAI, which is known for having chat GPT.
We had a fascinating chat about the pros and cons, the fears and hopes,
everything I could learn about artificial intelligence and where we're headed.
TBD, baby.
Today's guest is Mr. Sam Altman, and I'm very thankful for his time.
You know, we had a residential architect do this office.
We wanted it to feel like someone's, like, really comfortable, like, country
house or something like that.
Yeah.
Not, like, the big corporate, like, sci-fi castle.
Yeah, that's what I was, I was, like, a little bit like, oh, is it going to be,
you know, will there be a drawbridge?
Will we be uploaded into a suite?
Like, what will happen to us?
Yeah, we don't want that.
We're going for, like, residential.
Yeah, I was like, how do we even get through the firewall?
How many, like, hit points will we need to get through?
You know, it got very Dungeons and Dragons in some of my, like, imagination
sometimes.
Yeah, we want people to feel, like, super comfortable and try to get pretty far
in that direction.
It feels like it.
Your staff's very sweet, nice people.
You have, thanks for hanging out, man.
Absolutely.
Thanks for having me to do this.
Really appreciate it.
Yeah, I haven't seen you since I fell out of my chair.
You fell out of the chair at the inauguration.
That was really, like, quite a way to meet you.
Yeah.
I felt so embarrassed.
And you were one of the faces that I looked up and saw, and I was like, God.
And that was my first moment, like, AI built us a better chair, to be honest
with you.
And you did nothing, right?
You were just sitting there, and it just collapsed.
Nothing.
I remember that.
And it was just so embarrassing.
I was like, oh, of all people, me, and here I am in this place.
And I think it was perfect because everybody's got to have some story.
When people are like, oh, what was the inauguration?
Like, everybody's got to have some story to tell.
Yeah.
And that was an incredible story for us all to tell.
That's a good point.
I do remember looking at people for help, though.
And oddly, your eyes, I was like, oh, my God.
He could help.
You did look like a beacon of help in the distance.
I tried to help.
You have a baby.
You have a new child?
It is.
There have been, like, a lot of experiences in life where everyone tells you
something's
going to be great, and then it's like, okay, the people are right.
The consensus is right.
It's, like, even better than I thought it was going to be.
But this has been the strongest example of that ever.
Like, I knew it was going to be great, and it's, like, way, way better.
It's impossible to describe.
There's nothing I can say that's not, like, very cliche.
And it's totally amazing.
What is, like, one of your—and it's a—you have a young boy?
Yeah.
And what's something, like, that you think is, like, neat or, like, what's
one thing that kind of, like, is bringing you joy with it?
Watching the speed with which he, like, learns new things or gains new
capabilities is just
unbelievable.
It's, like, every day, it's like, oh, man, he just couldn't do that before.
And now he's, like, grabbing stuff and passing it between his hands.
And getting to, like, watch it day to day is just an amazing rate of change.
And then I don't, like—again, I realize it's, like—you know, I realize that,
like, everything
about babies are very finely tuned over a long period of evolution to make us,
like, love
them and be fascinated by them.
And it's, like, a neurochemical hack.
But I love it.
It's great.
It's so strong.
It's so intense.
So it's really, like, almost like a coffee for your heart or something, kind of?
I don't even know how to find—I've tried to, like, come up with an analogy to
tell—because
now I'm, like, telling everybody, you've got to have a lot of kids.
It's really important.
Yeah.
And I've been looking for an analogy of what to explain.
And then I always just say, like, I don't know how to explain this.
It's just—it is the best thing I've ever done by far.
I feel like a completely changed person.
And I was, like, thinking the other day, like, there used to be all these other—like,
at this point, all I do is work and hang out with my family.
Like, I don't, like, really get to do a lot of hobbies anymore.
It's a busy time at work.
I don't get to hang out with my friends that much.
And I don't—you know, there were, like, all these things that people tell you,
like,
oh, you've got a baby coming.
You've got to go, you know, take that spontaneous international trip because
you're not going
to be doing that again for a long time.
And I was like, oh, that is kind of sad.
In practice, you don't do it that often.
I at least didn't do it that often, and I don't miss it at all.
I, like, remember that that used to be a possibility.
Now I can see that's not going to be a possibility for a long time, and I'm
thrilled with the trade.
You moved on.
I'm so happy.
How old is your child?
Four months.
Oh, that's a funny—like, at five or six months, they start to get, like, fun,
and you
can, like—they're still, like, they can't go anywhere, you know?
But they're, like, intrigued and stuff.
They start to, like, smile or process more.
I don't know how you guys say it.
But—
Yeah, he's totally, like, turned on now.
Yeah.
Like, really aware, understands things.
It's super cool.
I have a thought sometimes that this will be one of the last, like, maybe 40
years that
we conceive children in the body.
Did you have any thoughts about that?
I've definitely heard a lot of people say that.
I haven't thought about it hard myself, but, yeah, I guess it does make sense.
Like, I guess that does make sense.
Like, God, you were in your mom's—that's crazy, you know?
It is crazy.
You pervert or whatever.
Like, I think in the future, people will be—it'll be kind of done, like, in a—
In a vat or something.
Yes.
In, like, a nice vat.
You can go see it on the weekends or whatever and, like—
Doesn't that just feel, like, off to you?
Like, I can totally intellectually, like, understand that that may be the
better way to do it.
Oh, yeah, it feels way off to me.
I was trying to—I thought you would like it.
You know?
I thought—
I thought—
I mean—
Like, or I thought that would be, like, a thought.
Like, I guess, like, that—for me, that's one of, like, my futuristic thoughts,
you know?
Like, I can totally accept that that will be what everybody does and that it's,
you know,
easier and we can, like, make it healthier for the child and the mother.
Yes.
You know, the mother doesn't take the health risk, but—but man.
So intellectually, I can say that, and then, like, emotionally, it feels like,
uh, something
is off of me.
Feels off.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, because then the family, like, on the weekends, the parents would come
and, like,
tinker on the glass or whatever, or their dad would put, like, a, you know,
like,
a Go Falcon sticker on the thing.
You know what I'm saying?
People would, like, decorate it all up or write little messages on there.
You know, I think there's another, like, another take I have on all of this is
that
in this world that we're heading to of, like, crazy sci-fi technology becoming
reality,
the sort of, like, the deeply human things will become the most precious,
sacred, valued
things.
And they will really care about, like, the human experience more than ever, and
maybe it won't
go that way.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Do you, uh, no, and that's some of the stuff we want to talk about, and thanks,
thanks so
much, man, for sitting down.
Um, do you think your child will go to college?
Do you think, like, what do you kind of think that looks like?
Probably not.
Um, if I had to guess, like, I think, well, I only went to half of college.
You, you dropped, did you drop out?
Yeah.
Dude, you guys all, I fricking dropped out, I didn't get shit.
You dropped out, Wang dropped out, Zuckerberg dropped out, and probably a lot
of other people.
And you.
Yeah.
Okay, yeah, okay.
Well, hey, we're both here, so.
Oh, it worked out fine.
Yeah, you're right.
You know?
You're right.
Never mind.
I'm sorry.
I'm being self-defeating.
Um, yeah, what does that look like when you think about that?
Like, yeah, with AI, with so much new information coming online, right?
And so much, like, data being collected and, like, um, information being, uh,
carpooled
and, and maybe, which is a term.
So, you and I never grew up in a world that didn't have computers.
Right.
Like, and, and our parents were like, oh, this, there weren't computers.
And then there were, and it was this big, crazy adjustment.
It took them a long time to figure it out.
But to us, like, computers just always existed.
They were just, I mean, maybe they were kind of new, but they were always
around.
And, and then like, you know, a kid that is like, there was, there was this
video on YouTube.
I saw like maybe 12 years ago, something like that, that 14 years ago that has
really stuck
with me.
It was like a little baby in a dentist waiting room or something, picking up on
those old
glossy magazines and going like this.
Oh, I remember that.
And to that kid, it was just like a broken iPad.
Cause that kid had just like grown up in a world where like there were touchscreens
everywhere.
And my kid will never grow up, will never ever be smarter than an AI.
That will never happen.
You know, kid born a few years ago, they had a brief period of time.
My kid never will be smarter, but also they'll never, they'll never know a
world where like
products and services aren't way smarter than them and, and super capable.
They can just do whatever you need.
And in that world, I think education is going to feel very different.
I already think college is like maybe not working great for most people, but
yeah, I think fast
forward 18 years, it's going to look like a very, very different thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you think there will, Oh, here's that video right here.
This kid.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
I was wrong about the dentist.
It was, or maybe there's a few of these.
He's like, somebody charged this magazine.
He's yelling.
How would you recommend to a parent right now to prepare their children for
like an AI future?
Kind of like, are there certain curtails that you would start to put in now?
Are there certain like, um, you know, adjustments where you like get them in a
certain training
or have them start to watch certain models of things online?
Like what does that, you know, I actually think the kids will be fine.
I'm worried about the parents.
If you look at the history of the world here, when there's a new technology,
like people that
grow up with it, they're always fluent.
They always figure out what to do.
They always learn the new kind of jobs.
But if you're like a 50 year old and you have to like, kind of learn to do
things in a very
different way, that doesn't always work.
So I think the kids are going to be fine.
I mean, I do have worry, like I do have worries about kids and technology.
Like I think this scrolling, the kind of like, you know, short video feed
dopamine hit, it
feels like it's probably messing with kids' brain development in a super deep
way.
So it's not that I have no worries.
I have like extremely deep worries about what technology is doing to kids.
But in terms of kids' ability to like be prepared for the future and use a new
technology,
they seem really good at that.
Yeah.
Always through history.
That's a good point, actually.
Yeah.
It's like if you just grow up with it, it's just like having, it's just totally
normal.
It's like having kneecaps or whatever.
You're just kind of used to it.
You can't imagine the world where it doesn't exist.
You just, yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
I remember when I was in school, in like junior high and Google first came out
and all the
teachers like freaked out and they're like, this is the end.
The end o