1. Sam Altman

CEO

OpenAI

OpenAI posted a blog on Nov. 30, 2022, with the headline “Introducing ChatGPT.” In the eight months since, a wave of innovation has disrupted the industry, with companies racing to capitalize on the potential of generative AI technology sparked by OpenAI.

At the nexus of all this is Altman, a 38-year-old programmer, entrepreneur, investor, Stanford University dropout and co-founder of mobile app developer Loopt.

Altman cofounded OpenAI in December 2015 with backing from technology startup accelerator Y Combinator (where Altman was president) and—starting in 2019— billions of dollars in Microsoft investments.

Altman has to some degree become the human face for AI technology. Testifying before Congress on May 16, he touted AI’s potential benefits but acknowledged his “worst fears” are that the AI industry could “cause significant harm to the world.”

OpenAI sees its mission as ensuring that AI benefits all of humanity, he said. “It’s why we started the company.”