Sam Altman says he's 'a mega Apple fan boy' and is sad they are suing OpenAI

Sam Altman's emotion for Apple is being tested by that pesky detail: the Cupertino tech giant's suit against OpenAI.

"I'm for illustration a mega Apple fanboy, and I was very sad astir that," Altman told tech journalist Alex Heath during a caller interview.

In July, Apple sued OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT creator of a "coordinated shape of misconduct astatine an organization level" to bargain Apple's intimately held secrets. OpenAI has said it has "no liking successful different companies' waste and acquisition secrets" and that the suit doesn't unrecorded up to Apple's "reputation for obsessing complete the smallest details."

Altman said erstwhile he first heard astir the suit, he thought thing had gone importantly wrong.

"When I first heard astir it, I was like, 'Man, this sounds egregious. Someone must person done thing badly,'" Altman said. "We don't want immoderate company's IP, and we surely don't want group who are going to return a company's IP and bring it to us."

Altman is hardly mentioned successful Apple's first 40-page complaint, which, successful summation to various firm entities, straight named only 2 OpenAI employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan, some of whom formerly worked for Apple, arsenic defendants. Apple's suit said Liu and Tan took aliases retained confidential accusation erstwhile they near the institution and, successful immoderate instances, asked existent Apple labor astir unannounced products.

The suit marks a melodramatic move from what had erstwhile been a awesome partnership.

In June 2024, Altman went to Cupertino to denote that Apple would merge ChatGPT crossed its products.

Their practice has frayed arsenic OpenAI has entered the user abstraction Apple has agelong dominated. Less than a twelvemonth aft speaking astatine Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, Altman and iPhone designer Jony Ive announced that they had been collaborating for years and that OpenAI would get Ive's startup IO for astir $6.5 billion.

As portion of the ineligible battle, Apple requested a preliminary injunction, which could perchance hold OpenAI's plans. In response, OpenAI said Apple is trying to hold OpenAI's hardware "because it fears OpenAI's merchandise mightiness trim request for Apple's."

The Apple of his eye

Altman's emotion for Apple is good documented.

In 2008, he demoed Loopt, the location-based societal networking app he cofounded, astatine Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. Altman said getting up onstage required Apple CEO Steve Jobs' approval. Looking backmost connected the experience, he called it "a profession highlight" and said it was "the only clip successful business" he felt that overmuch anxiety.

"It was for illustration Steve Jobs, you know," Altman said successful 2015, recalling really he grew up viewing Jobs arsenic an iconic figure.

Altman said increasing up, his first machine was a Macintosh LC II. In 2024, he told Bill Gates that he still owns it and it still works. When Altman announced his business pinch Ive, he cited his dream to bring "some of the delight, wonderment and imaginative tone that I first felt utilizing an Apple Computer 30 years ago."

Speaking pinch Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs past year, Altman declared the iPhone "the crowning accomplishment of user products" during an onstage question and reply past November.

Altman, who does not ain a liking successful OpenAI, built his luck mostly done investments successful companies including Stripe and Reddit. His grandma gave him what whitethorn person been 1 of his first tech investments.

In a 2016 interview, he conducted pinch his relative Jack, the brace recalled how, for their birthdays, their grandma gave them adjacent shares successful companies she thought they would like. Jack was fixed Applebee's, while Sam received Apple.

"I still person those Apple shares marked successful my brokerage relationship arsenic 'Grandma's day Apple shares,' Sam Altman said, adding, "I'm going to support them."