# Sam Altman: The Future of OpenAI, ChatGPT's Origins, and Building AI Hardware

**Author:** Y Combinator
**Type:** Video
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/MY-sam-altman-the-future-of-openai-chatgpt-s-origins-and-building-ai-hardware
**YouTube ID:** V979Wd1gmTU

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*A fireside with Sam Altman at AI Startup School in San Francisco.*  
  
Sam Altman grew up obsessed with technology, broke into the Stanford mainframe as a kid, and dropped out to start his
first company before turning 20.  
  
He joined us for a fireside this week at AI Startup School in San Francisco, where he traced the path from early startup
struggles to building OpenAI—sharing what he’s learned about ambition, the weight of responsibility, and how to keep
building when the whole world is watching.  
  
He opens up about the hardest moments of his career, the limits of personal productivity, and why, in the end, it's all
still about finding people you like working with and doing something that matters.

