Ronan Farrow on Sam Altman’s ‘unconstrained’ relationship with the truth
TL;DR
Today on Decoder, I’m talking with Ronan Farrow, one of the biggest stars of investigative reporting working today. He broke the Harvey Weinstein story, among many, many others. And just last week, he and co-author Andrew Marantz published an incredible deep-dive feature in The New Yorker about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, his trustworthiness, and the rise of OpenAI itself. One note before we go any further here —The New Yorker published that story and Ronan and I had this conversation before we knew the full extent of the attacks on Altman’s home, so you won’t hear us talk about that directly. But just to say it, I think violence of any kind is unacceptable, these attacks on Sam were unacceptable, and that the kind of helplessness that people feel, which leads to this kind of violence, is itself unacceptable, and it’s worth a lot more scrutiny from both the industry and our political leaders.
Nauti's Take
Having an investigative journalist of Ronan Farrow's caliber examine OpenAI's rise is genuinely valuable — that level of reporting is rare in a sector dominated by press releases. The podcast adds conversational depth to the New Yorker piece, making the accountability framing more accessible.
Whether or not you agree with every conclusion, the questions it raises about trust and power in AI leadership are worth engaging with.
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