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Pakistani founder recalls Sam Altman’s kindness amid ‘sociopath’ claims
A Pakistani entrepreneur has spoken out in Sam Altman’s defense after the OpenAI chief was painted a “sociopath” in a new investigative piece by the New Yorker.
A Pakistani entrepreneur has spoken out in Sam Altman’s defense after the OpenAI chief was painted a “sociopath” in a new investigative piece by the New Yorker. Waqas Ali, who is based in the US, recalled Altman’s kindess when he met him for the first time in 2015.
At that time, Ali had just moved to the US from a small village in Pakistan to participate in the startup accelerator Y Combinator. Sam Altman was then the president of Y Combinator, and Ali recalled how everyone was slightly intimidated by him. Even so, Altman displayed uncommon kindness when he spoke to Ali — even inviting him to his San Francisco apartment for tea.
Ali spoke in praise of Altman and defended him against allegations of being a liar and a sociopath that appeared in a recent piece in the New Yorker.
Who is Waqas Ali?
Waqas Ali is a Pakistani entrepreneur and co-founder of Atoms, a Brooklyn-based footwear brand known for its comfortable and minimalist designs. Along with his wife, Sidra Qasim, Ali participated in the Y Combinator accelerator programme in 2015.
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Waqas Ali on Sam Altman
In a post shared on the social media platform X, Ali revealed that he first met the OpenAI chief executive in 2015, when he moved to the US from Pakistan. At that time, he was still “scared of speaking English” but excited to be part of Y Combinator.
“Sam was not my partner but I was so curious and saw how everyone around him acted a bit intimidated by him,” he recalled.
He went on to describe his first meeting with Altman, where he asked the OpenAI chief: “Are you a supernatural person or phenomena, why is everyone so scared of you?”
According to Ali, Sam Altman laughed a lot at this question, then asked Ali about his life.
An invite to tea
The tech CEO then invited the Pakistani entrepreneur to his San Francisco apartment for tea and to go through his collection of sneakers. For Ali, who was then building Atoms, the opportunity to go through Altman’s sneaker collection was a big one.
Altman did not just serve tea, he also helped Ali with his pitch deck and introduced him to Alfred Lin.
(Also read: Sam Altman shares blunt advice for youth preparing for AI era: ‘Listening to old people is biggest mistake’)
Ali also revealed that years later, when he started a new venture, he asked Altman for funding. Altman refused, but was “kind and supportive”.
Despite the refusal, the Pakistani entrepreneur had only good things to say about Altman. He even sent the AI CEO a wedding present — a painting made by his daughter Aliff when she was two.
Waqas Ali defends Sam Altman
Ali ended his post by alluding to the New Yorker piece where a number of people associated with Altman described him as sociopathic and manipulative while raising questions about his trustworthiness.
“He’s unconstrained by truth,” one board member told the New Yorker. “He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”
Ali, however, said that he did not recognise these traits in Altman. “I don’t know the man in the article everyone is reading. I never worked with him directly. I know the one who laughed at my strange question and then asked me mine. Admittedly i don’t know how to hold both and I’m not trying to,” he concluded.
(Also read: Sam Altman says he can't imagine raising his newborn without ChatGPT, internet calls it 'stunted perspective')
