Sam Altman on OpenAI’s next model and the AI backlash

1 Sep 2026 · 1 h 09 min

Episode Sam Altman on OpenAI’s next model and the AI backlash

0:00 1:08:39

After an unreleased OpenAI model recently escaped its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face, Sam Altman tells me why the company is slowing down frontier research. We also discuss Astra, OpenAI’s next-generation family of models, which is coming soon.

We talk about the growing backlash against AI. He explains why a faster path to recursively self-improving AI could push an OpenAI IPO further out.

And he shares more about the coming consumer hardware he’s developing with Jony Ive, including the privacy questions around an ambient AI device and the first hints at the form factors they’re building.

This conversation was recently filmed in two parts and in collaboration with TIME.

Thanks to the show's premier sponsors: Atlassian, Granola, and Mercury.

Links in the notes 1

https://sources.news/p/openais-big-slowdown

The episode on the publisher’s site (opens in a new tab)

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.