In 2017, Altman straight up lied to US officials that China had launched an "AGI Manhattan Project". He claimed he needed billions in government funding to keep pace. An intelligence official concluded: "It was just being used as a sales pitch."
Sam Altman allegedly told officials China had an AGI Manhattan Project to secure billions in funding.
A major investigative report by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz in The New Yorker reveals a contentious 2017 episode where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman allegedly presented U.S. officials with a stark narrative of an AI arms race. According to the report, Altman claimed that China had launched an 'AGI Manhattan Project'—a coordinated, national effort to achieve artificial general intelligence—and argued that the U.S. needed to provide OpenAI with billions in government funding to keep pace. The implication was a direct, existential competition for technological supremacy.
However, the investigation found that this alarming characterization was met with skepticism from within the U.S. government. An intelligence official who reviewed the claims concluded, 'It was just being used as a sales pitch.' This suggests Altman's portrayal was seen as a strategic exaggeration designed to secure critical public investment and policy support for OpenAI during its formative years, highlighting the intense lobbying and narrative competition that has underpinned the modern AI boom.
- In 2017, Sam Altman told U.S. officials China had an 'AGI Manhattan Project,' a claim an intelligence official called a 'sales pitch.'
- The alleged narrative was used to argue for billions in U.S. government funding for OpenAI to compete.
- The findings come from a new investigative report by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz in The New Yorker.
Why It Matters
Reveals the strategic narratives and potential exaggeration used to shape early AI policy and secure monumental funding.