Transcript
0:03 At this moment in time, why should we trust you? >> >> you shouldn't. >> As the CEO of OpenAI and the driving force behind ChatGPT, Sam Altman is widely seen as the architect of our AI future and potentially the future of humanity itself. But after spending over a year investigating, obtaining leaked emails, police body cam footage, and unsealed court filings, I've uncovered a paper trail that goes far beyond silly Silicon Valley corporate drama. The evidence that I've documented raises, I think, significant questions of potential criminal exposure. The kind that, if fully investigated by law enforcement, could put Big Tech's most powerful oligarch behind bars. Yeah, you heard that right, behind bars.
0:56 For years, Sam Altman has carefully constructed an image as a boy wonder, a modern-day saint. >> I traveled around a lot. I kind of like really got a feel for a much more of a feel for like what the rest of the world is like. I met people that were working on all sorts of different things who were nice enough to talk to me. I got badly needed time to reconnect with my friends and family. I just got caught up on life.
1:21 And I just sort of like helped people that seemed I had unlimited time, right? Yeah. So, if I met someone interesting and it seemed good and needed help, I would just help them. >> He's the soft-spoken CEO who launched OpenAI as a nonprofit, went before Congress asking himself to be regulated, and repeatedly touted that he holds no stock options and takes no direct financial payout from OpenAI. To the public, he presented himself as this, quote-unquote, benevolent steward building AI for the, quote-unquote, benefit of all humanity. But inside Silicon Valley, the cracks in that facade have been showing for years. When OpenAI's own board briefly fired him in 2023, they issued a stark warning to the world, stating that he was quote not consistently candid in his communications, aka a liar. But today, I'm here to share with you what they missed, and perhaps what the public was never meant to see.
2:14 Starting with a lie at the very foundation of his empire, the money. >> You make a lot of money, do you? >> I make no. I'm paid enough for health insurance. I have no equity in OpenAI. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> Interesting. You need a lawyer. >> I need a what? >> You need a lawyer or an agent. >> I I'm doing this cuz I love it. >> In 2023, Sam Altman testified under oath before Congress that he had no financial stake in OpenAI, stating that he had already had {quote} enough money. But off camera, his actual financial footprint tells, I think, a very different story. An intricate financial web of deception, shall we say? Allegedly. At the center of this web sits Hydrazine Capital, a venture fund Sam Altman launched in 2012 with $21 million in backing, largely funded by another Silicon Valley titan, Peter Thiel. Today, the fund commands over $2 billion in assets. On paper, Hydrazine operates as this early stage venture fund meant to invest in tech companies, and for years, Altman has used this structure to claim that he has zero equity in OpenAI. But buried deep inside a sworn filing from a family trust dispute is a direct, unambiguous claim.
3:24 {quote} Upon information and belief, Hydrazine owned shares of OpenAI, a company founded by Sam Altman. So in plain English, if true, if proven that Hydrazine owns equity in OpenAI while Sam Altman testified under oath to Congress that he had zero financial stake, that is perjury, a federal felony carrying up to five years in prison. Then there's the issue of financial embezzlement, a penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison. Speaking of theft, recently 153 million driver's licenses were illegally leaked to the dark web.
3:59 Almost all of them are Americans, so there's a good chance your information might be compromised. What makes this even scarier is that the leak includes your photo, full name, date of birth, address, and even the infrared and ultraviolet layers of the card itself, allowing criminals to build a carbon copy of your ID that scans as the real thing. And that is why I rely on today's sponsor, Aura, to monitor my personal data and to keep my identity safe. Aura actively monitors the dark web, including forums, Telegram channels, and peer-to-peer networks, tracking 41% more dark web categories than their top competitors. Also, if a criminal attempts to use your identity, Aura sends fraud alerts 650 times faster, sometimes in under a second, before a fraudulent transaction can even be completed. And beyond dark web monitoring, Aura automatically opts you out of data brokerage sites, provides built-in antivirus and password management, and even if the worst does happen, they back you with up to $5 million in identity theft insurance. And you can start protecting yourself today by using my link, aura.com/5149, to claim your 14-day free trial. How awesome is that? Which gives Aura enough time to scan the dark web and alert you immediately if your driver's license has already been exposed. Again, that is aura.com/5149, or you can click on the link in the description or pinned comment below. So, just how did this hidden web of venture funds and family trusts actually come to light? Well, it came from his own sister, Annie Altman. You see, when their father passed away, Sam and his family allegedly hid their father's estate and trust from Annie, keeping her completely in the dark about her inheritance, while her mother, Connie, and the rest of the family managed the assets. That is pretty screwed up. But, that estate dispute was just the opening salvo in a larger, much more disturbing story. Some of you may have already heard whispers about this, but the core civil allegations from Annie are horrifying. That for the better part of a decade, starting at age three, Sam did some unspeakable, unimaginable, horrific things to his sister. Quote, "I'm not 4 years old with a 13-year-old brother climbing into my bed non-consensually anymore.
6:09 You're welcome for helping you figure out your sexuality. I've finally accepted that you've always been and always will be more scared of me than I've been of you." For the record, Sam Altman has vehemently denied these allegations, but what isn't speculation, what's fact, regardless of whether or not you believe Annie, is the sheer overwhelming force Sam has used to shut down conversation and suppress this story entirely. For the longest time, ChatGPT straight-up denied that Sam Altman even had a sister. And when her lawsuit was filed, Sam's PR apparatus moved aggressively to paint his sister as mentally unstable to discredit her claims. And in major exposés and profiles written about Sam over the years, his team has consistently pressured publications to omit any mention of her existence. In fact, as of today, the only legacy media profile on Sam Altman that prominently acknowledges the existence of Annie >> >> is Elizabeth Weil's piece in New York Magazine, where she is mentioned 27 times. And I've obtained a copy of an email exchange between Annie and David Haskell, the editor-in-chief of New York Magazine. The email reveals that Hannah Wong, the then head of PR at OpenAI, aggressively pressured the magazine to remove all references to Annie before publication, with David writing back, quote, "Liz was so determined to get your story right and so careful, it was an easy conversation to have with Hannah." And that right there is a rare glimpse into how mainstream media actually works, which is basically a constant battle between journalism and access. In this case, one publication did what I believe, in my opinion, to be the absolute bare minimum required of a journalist, and still they face immense corporate pushback. More recently, Sam's legal team moved aggressively to block Annie's deposition from being publicly released, with only 40 minutes of her 8-hour deposition being publicly available. Ask yourself, what exactly is Sam Altman hiding?
8:03 Why is the CEO of OpenAI spending millions of dollars in legal fees to hide primary source evidence? And if Sam Altman is willing to spend millions of dollars to quiet his own sister, imagine what happens when an outsider threatens his multi-billion dollar company. >> A vigil tonight for the whistleblower researcher of OpenAI who died last month. It was held in Milpitas for 26-year-old Suchir Balaji. There are a lot of questions about his death. Balaji's parents hired a private investigator just yesterday. They don't believe their son would have died by suicide.
8:38 >> On November 26, 2024, 26-year-old ex-OpenAI researcher turned whistleblower Suchir Balaji was found dead inside his San Francisco apartment. They tell us that he died of an apparent suicide, but when you examine the actual autopsy reports and forensics, the official narrative immediately falls apart. The apartment was visibly ransacked. Blood trails leading through multiple rooms. The bullets recovered from the scene didn't match the forensics. Speaking of which, multiple metallic objects were found in a skull, indicating potential multiple gunshots.
9:11 Like, how does a person shoot themselves twice? Seems rather impossible. But, to understand why Suchir's death raises so many alarming questions, you first have to understand how he was fundamentally different than every other OpenAI whistleblower in the news. Over the past few years, certainly in the last few months, you might have heard from former OpenAI employees warning that artificial intelligence might become rogue and destroy all of humanity. >> OpenAI's chief scientist arguing for a slowdown in AI research. It comes just as this company has been widely praised for its newest AI model. In an essay over the weekend titled an alien mind, Jacob Pachocki says and argues that these systems will see jumps in capability with consequences that quote no one is prepared for.
9:56 >> But in a twisted sort of way, those sci-fi warnings actually help companies like Open AI by hyping their products as all-powerful, almighty, god-like, thereby driving valuations even higher. >> But Sutcher didn't do that. Before leaving the company, he documented evidence showing that Open AI systematically violated copyright laws to build ChatGPT, illegally scraping vast troves of protected data without authorization, credit, or compensation. In other words, he was proving that Open AI's entire business model was fundamentally illegal. On top of that, he was just a few weeks from testifying against his former employer at the time of his death. And when Sam Altman was asked directly about Sutcher's death on Tucker Carlson's show, his reaction was, I would say, deeply unsettling.
10:41 >> You had complaints from one programmer who said you guys were basically stealing people's stuff and not paying them, and then he wound up murdered. What was that? >> Also a great tragedy. he committed suicide. >> Do you think he committed suicide? >> I really do. I saw the and I will totally say, when I first heard about this, it sounded very suspicious. >> Yes. >> Like look, I and I immediately called a member of Congress from California, Ro Khanna, and said, "This is crazy. You got to look into this."
11:07 >> >> And nothing ever happened. And I'm like, "What is that?" >> Again, I think this is I I feel strange and sad debating this and having to defend myself seems totally crazy. And you are a little bit accusing me, but the This was like a wonderful person and a family that is clearly struggling. >> Yes. >> >> And I think you can totally take the point that you're just trying to get to the truth of what happened, and I respect that.
11:44 but I think his memory and his family deserve to be treated with a level of respect and grief that I don't quite feel here. >> I'm asking at the behest of his family. >> >> So, I'm definitely showing them respect. and I'm not accusing you of any involvement in this at all. What I am saying is that the evidence does not suggest suicide. And for the authorities in your city to a light past that and ignore the evidence that any reasonable person would say adds up to a murder, I think it's very weird, and it shakes the faith that one has in >> >> our system's ability to respond to the facts.
12:27 >> So, what I was going to say is after the first set of information that came out, I was really like, man, this doesn't look like a suicide. I'm confused. This looks like >> So, I'm not reaching that I'm not being crazy here at all. >> Well, but then after the second thing came out and the more detail, I was like, okay. >> I mean, what evidence was Sam looking at exactly? Because every piece of physical evidence that I saw coming from the crime scene points everywhere but suicide. In fact, a review of police body cam footage shows that the officers who first walked into Suchi's apartment didn't believe it was a suicide either.
12:59 Specifically in regards to the trajectory of the bullet. >> I think it was an accident. >> You think it was an accident? >> Mhm. The way I could be wrong, but I think it was like an accident. >> Just the head? >> Yeah. >> How do you accidentally do that? >> Take a walk. >> I was thinking maybe not actually a walk. >> That's a pain. >> It's Most people they don't want this for it. All the I had like two of them or one of >> Like right in the center?
13:36 >> Yes. >> Like he was looking down the barrel. >> Cuz if they want to lock his unloading all his cabinets and all his >> Cuz if he's not then he would have been facing most likely cuz >> and we're sitting in a chair. What if the video camera is looking in the mirror today? >> No. >> Yet almost overnight the SFPD rubber stamped the case as a suicide and quietly closed the investigation. But that wasn't the only lie that Sam told about Suchi here. In his interview with Tucker Carlson, Sam Altman referred to Suchi here as a quote-unquote close friend.
14:05 >> this is like gruesome to talk about but I read the whole medical record does it not look like one to you? >> No, he was definitely murdered I think. there was signs of a struggle of course the surveillance camera the wires had been cut. He had just ordered takeout food come back from a vacation with his friends on Catalina Island no indication at all that he was suicidal no note and no behavior he had just spoken to a family member on the phone and then >> >> he's found dead with blood in multiple rooms. So that's impossible. Seems really obvious he was murdered. Have you talked to the authorities about it?
14:39 >> I've not talked to the authorities about it. >> Have you This was like a friend of mine. >> Except the facts don't seem to comport. I've obtained a copy of a never-before-seen internal email sent from OpenAI HR to Suchi here's parents and in this email HR explicitly acknowledges that Sam knew of Suchi here but not personally. So why lie and pretend you were close friends with a deceased whistleblower? But then it gets even stranger. In my interview with Suchi here's parents they revealed to me something that I can only describe as extremely bizarre.
15:10 >> Quick question for you in in terms of like the the reaction to Sam Altman speaking to Tucker Carlson. In it he said that he tried to reach out to you guys but you guys didn't want to talk to him. Is there a reason why you or is that true? And if if so, is there a reason why you didn't want to meet with Sam Altman? >> We doubted we doubted open AI is responsible from the beginning. When we are when our heart is bleeding, why would we want to talk to them? And also it was very suspicious for us because HR sent an email saying that we want to you know, grant you stock options. We want to get you on the zoom call immediately. And then we said we have a problem with attorney talk to her.
15:51 >> Second, wait, so he offered he offered you guys stock options? >> Yes. >> Wait, what? Why would Sam Altman be offering stock options to the grieving parents of a deceased former employee he didn't even know? Was it hush money? We don't know. And for the record, we also don't know for certain whether Annie's allegations against Sam are fully accurate. But what we do know for sure with absolute certainty, documented across hundreds of testimonies, is how Sam's closest colleagues, mentors, and board members all felt about him.
16:23 >> Ultimately, a few years after the founding of Open AI, this was in late 2023, was fired by board members and executives who simply felt he was lying too much. This is an extraordinary thing, Katie. Silicon Valley is built on hype, empty promises, right? Valuations that skyrocket long before there's a product that actually works for anyone. This is on such a scale that even with that baseline expectation, where frankly I think we've entered an era where people just embrace as a cost of doing business a degree of dissembling.
17:00 Sam Altman appears to have been doing it so much that it was almost all anyone could talk about after dealing with him. And we interviewed more than 100 people and we uncover hundreds of pages of internal records. A majority of those people really did say some variation on the theme of he's a pathological liar. Actually, multiple people unprompted by us used the term sociopath. >> In a scathing exposé published earlier this year, investigative journalist Ronan Farrow revealed that throughout Sam Altman's career, everyone from executives to colleagues to friends to even mentors consistently described him as manipulative, a liar, and a sociopath.
17:36 Now, whether we like it or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay. It is already shaping or reshaping our economy, our labor force, our media, and our daily lives. And as with every technological revolution in human history, the true danger, I think, isn't in the technology itself, but rather who controls this technology. And right now, we're actively handing the most powerful transformative technology in human history to an individual who has built an empire on a foundation of documented deception, financial manipulation, and legal warfare. So, it is time, right now, for federal regulators to subpoena Hydrazine's financial records, it is time for law enforcement to reopen the investigation into the death of Sushil Balaji, and it is time for the courts to unseal the remaining 7 hours of Annie Altman's sworn testimony. Because, at the end of the day, the truth should fear no scrutiny.
18:47 >> >> And that is it for me today. What are your thoughts about Sam Altman? And if not Sam, is there a tech oligarch you would trust more? Sound off in the comment section below. I also want to thank everybody for their support, especially on pieces like this that has taken me months, actually over a year to put together. So, if you want to help fund my journalism, you can go to my website 5149jameslee.com, sign up to become a member. There's also an option to give a one-time donation, no subscription necessary, or you can also buy some merch as well, or sign up for a free trial with today's sponsor, aura.com/5149.
19:40 But, if not, no worries at all. Please do me a big favor, hype this video, give it a thumbs up, share it, subscribe to the channel, turn on that notification bell so you can be the first to know when my next video drops. As always, thank you so much for your time, and I will see you in the next one. >> You know, I think AI will probably, like most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there will be great companies created with serious machine learning.
20:03 >> Probably AI will kill us all, but until then, we're going to turn out a lot of great students. >> >> Yeah.