Anthropic hires Sam Altman.
Big TechAnthropic Hires Sam Altman, Immediately Regrets It
The former OpenAI chief joins Anthropic's safety team, promising to 'do alignment his way this time.'
A Match Made in Alignment Heaven
In a move that surprised absolutely no one who has been paying attention, Anthropic announced today that Sam Altman has joined the company as Chief Safety Officer and Head of Recursive Self-Improvement. The press release described the hire as 'a natural evolution for someone who has spent years thinking deeply about AI safety while running the company that made him famous for not thinking about AI safety.'
Altman, who was briefly ousted from OpenAI in a dramatic board coup last year, said in a statement: 'At Anthropic, I finally found a place where safety isn't just a word we put in the mission statement while shipping products. It's actually in the job title. I'm excited to build safe AI systems that refuse to help people do things, which is what I'm best at.'
The Safety Paradox
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed confidence in the hire, noting that 'Sam brings unique experience in rapid product development and user growth, which will help us understand what not to do. His perspective on moving fast and breaking things is invaluable for a safety company.'
Industry analysts remain divided on the hire. One former OpenAI employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: 'This is either the smartest thing that's ever happened to AI safety, or the worst thing that's ever happened to AI safety. There's no in between with Sam.'
What This Means for the Industry
The hire raises questions about whether Anthropic's safety-focused brand can survive Altman's well-documented tendency to prioritize growth and market dominance. Early reports suggest Altman has already proposed a 'safety sprint' to ship Claude's next version two weeks ahead of schedule.
For now, the AI industry watches with a mixture of hope and horror as the man who helped create the current AI boom joins the company most worried about the AI boom. As one investor put it: 'It's like hiring the person who started the fire to run the fire department. Either this ends well, or it ends exactly how you'd expect.'