From Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey comes the first biography of Sam Altman: tech entrepreneur, CEO of OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), and all-around enigmatic leader of the artificial intelligence revolution. Hagey, an Irvington resident, will launch her book at the Irvington Theater on May 20 at 7pm. The event will include a discussion with New York Times editor and Dobbs Ferry resident, David Enrich, along with a Q&A, book signing, and wine reception.
In her book, Hagey charts Altman’s ascent within the tech world as well as his ambitions for this powerful new technology. She conducted more than 250 interviews with Altman’s family, friends, teachers, mentors, co-founders, colleagues, investors, and portfolio companies, in addition to spending hours with Altman himself. The person who emerges in her portrait is a brilliant dealmaker with a love of risk, who believes in technological progress with an almost religious conviction—yet who sometimes moves too fast for the people around him. Hagey delivers a nuanced, balanced, revelatory account of the individual who is leading us into what he himself has called “the intelligence age.”
“The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future” has been hailed by Kirkus in a starred review as “an exemplary blend of biography, financial technology reportage, and futurology.” Pre-order your copy from our local bookselling partner, Transom Bookshop, and pick it up at the May 20 event: https://www.transombookshop.com/the-optimist
Hagey is a reporter at the Wall Street Journal and the author of “The King of Content: Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire”.
Enrich is Deputy Investigations Editor at The New York Times. He is the bestselling author of four books, most recently “Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful.” Before joining The Times in 2017, he spent a decade at the Wall Street Journal in New York and London.
Tickets start at $10 (plus fees) and are available for purchase at https://www.irvingtontheater.com/events/optimist.
