Sam Altman says he can't go out to eat in public anymore: 'It's strangely isolating'

Sam Altman said that it is very difficult for him to even go out in public as owing to his work he has lost privacy and anonymity.

Sam Altman- CEO of Open AI and one of the best known names in artificial intelligence (AI) said that he was not prepared for how popular he would become, so much so that it would be difficult for him to even go out in public. The billionaire said that owing to his work he has lost privacy and anonymity.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks during The Wall Street Journal's WSJ Tech Live Conference in Laguna Beach, California. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)(AFP)

He said, "The inability to just be mostly anonymous in public is very, very strange. I think if I had thought about that at the time, I would've said, 'OK, this will be a weirder thing than it sounds like,' but I didn't really think about it. It's like a much weirder thing. It's a strangely isolating way to live."

He explained, "I was like, 'AI's going to be really important, OpenAI's going to be a really important company.' I didn't think I would not be able to go out to dinner in my own city."

Sam Altman also talked about his dramatic ousting from OpenAI last year and how he was living in an "adrenaline-charged state" and didn't eat or sleep much during that time.

He said, “The odd part was realising that it should've been weird to have multiple world leaders texting me during this situation — but it wasn't. My takeaway is human adaptability to almost anything is just, like, much more remarkably strong than we realise."

He added, "And you can get used to anything as the new normal, good or bad, pretty fast. I think it says something remarkable about humanity and good for us as we stare down at this, like, big transition.”