
Sam Altman Is Lying. That's the Job.
From They Might Be Self-Aware by Daniel Bishop, Hunter Powers
April 21, 2026 · 43 min · Episode 175
About this episode
The episode discusses the implications of Sam Altman's actions as a startup CEO and various ethical concerns surrounding AI.
Hunter Powers and Daniel Bishop break down Ronan Farrow's 912-page New Yorker profile of Sam Altman and argue that lying about the OpenAI roadmap isn't a defect of being a startup CEO — it is the job. Plus: Anthropic flies fifteen pastors to San Francisco to debate whether Claude has a soul, the Pentagon worries Claude's morals could contaminate warfighter supply chains, and OpenAI's rumored next model "Spud" is allegedly too expensive to turn on.
People in this episode
Hosts: Hunter Powers, Daniel Bishop
Topics covered
- AI ethics
- startup culture
- media analysis
- technology
- morality in AI
Keywords
- Sam Altman
- OpenAI
- Claude
- AI ethics
- startup CEO
- Ronan Farrow
- Anthropic
- Pentagon
- Spud
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: OpenAI, Anthropic, Pentagon
Products: Claude, Spud
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- The Pope's 40,000-Word AI Verdict: Not Human. · June 5, 2026 · 40 min
- Claude Just Cracked 11 Years of Lost Bitcoin · June 2, 2026 · 34 min
- AI Voice Cloning Replaced The Hosts. And Worse. · May 29, 2026 · 31 min
- I'm Addicted To Claude. Richard Dawkins Named His Claudia. · May 26, 2026 · 32 min
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