Sam Altman's Big Little Lies

About this episode

Andrew Marantz joins Jon Favreau to discuss his investigation into Sam Altman and the narratives surrounding OpenAI.

New Yorker journalist Andrew Marantz joins Offline to break down his new investigation into Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Over the course of hundreds of interviews, including over a dozen with Altman himself, Andrew and his coauthor Ronan Farrow unveiled a leader who tells people exactly what they want to hear, whether or not it’s true. Just like the AI model he created! Jon and Andrew discuss the contradictory narratives coming out of OpenAI, whether they could build portals that summon aliens, and how Altman’s resolve to go “founder mode” means he may be headed down the same well-traveled path as many tech oligarchs before him. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

People in this episode

Host: Jon Favreau

Guest: Andrew Marantz

Topics covered

• Sam Altman
• OpenAI
• investigation
• AI ethics
• tech oligarchs
• media

Keywords

• Sam Altman
• OpenAI
• ChatGPT
• Andrew Marantz
• investigation
• tech oligarchs
• AI

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: OpenAI

Products: ChatGPT

More episodes of Offline with Jon Favreau

• Is Masculinism Holding MAGA Together? · June 6, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Chatbots, MDMA, and Finding Love in the Digital Era · May 30, 2026 · 55 min
• Breaking the Cycle of Political Violence · May 23, 2026 · 57 min
• This Candidacy Is a Test Case for AI Regulation · May 16, 2026 · 54 min
• Healing Our Broken Brains · May 9, 2026 · 52 min
• How Screens Have Warped Morality · May 2, 2026 · 56 min