Sam Altman, the openly gay CEO of OpenAI, is leading the way in artificial intelligence, revolutionizing the world with his latest creation, ChatGPT. This advanced chatbot can answer almost any question through its conversational model, from helping to draft a professional email to suggesting ideas for the next plot point in a novel.
Altman’s career began in 2005 when he dropped out of Stanford University to co-found Loopt, a location-based social network. After running Loopt through its acquisition in 2012, he worked at startup accelerator Y Combinator and became its president in 2014. Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 while still running Y Combinator, and by 2020 left to focus solely on OpenAI as its CEO.
Altman has been passionate about technology since discovering the magic of the internet as a child, an experience he shares with many LGBTQ+ people. He first came out as gay online at 12, finding a community that made a significant impact on his life. Altman did come out again as a senior in high school and was instrumental in changing the school’s culture to create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students.
Altman acknowledges that he was never going to let his sexuality define him or hold him back as he climbed his way up the tech world’s ranks. That’s a mindset that’s hard to have every time you feel a setback,” he said, “but easy to have when you step back and look at your career as a whole.
As we celebrate Pride50, certain members of our community, like Sam Altman, are responsible for inspiring and extraordinary moments for the LGBTQ+ community over the last year.
