A very different person connected with Microsoft, one who helped turn it into the world’s most influential, powerful, and wealthy AI company, is Sam Altman, a founder and CEO of OpenAI. Microsoft has invested $13 billion in and is a close partner of OpenAI, which created the technology underlying Microsoft’s generative AI tool Copilot.
Altman has become Mr. AI, ubiquitous in the news media, in the halls of Congress, and beyond. As the public face of genAI and the technology’s most well-known booster, he’s one of the reasons AI has taken off like it has.
So far that’s been great for Microsoft; the more he pushes AI, the more Microsoft gains. But there are signs that may end. Recently Altman’s reputation has been tarnished by claims he used the actress Scarlett Johansson’s voice to be the audio interface for a personal AI assistant without her permission. Beyond that, he appears to have abandoned his promise to make sure AI doesn’t turn destructive, and he’s taking hits for it.
