ClaimsSam Altman

“One of the most important cultural values PG and Jessica put in place was to do the right thing for founders, even when it is not in our own short-term interest.”

Sam Altman, President of YC Group, in YC annual letter 1 January 2017 2017 YC Annual Letter (Sam Altman's blog) archived copy

Factual Their own work or organisation

Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston put in place a YC cultural value of doing the right thing for founders even when not in YC's short-term interest.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

Reasoning

Concerns the founders' private intent and cultural values, which no public record can settle.

Cite this claim

Sam Altman, “Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston put in place a YC cultural value of doing the right thing for founders even when not in YC's short-term interest.” (said 1 January 2017). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_d0c016116f01, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_d0c016116f01

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Sam Altman, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Sam Altman

  1. Mostly true Factual 4 September 2026
    “The very end of 2015, we announced it, and then the first day of work was like January of 2016.”

    Altman said OpenAI was announced at the very end of 2015 and that its first day of work was around January 2016.

  2. Resolved true Factual 4 September 2026
    “I was always an AI nerd. I was a real sci-fi nerd as a kid.”

    Sam Altman was a sci-fi and AI enthusiast as a child.

  3. Mostly true Factual 11 September 2025
    “he later decided that we weren’t on a trajectory to be successful and he didn’t want to.”

    Elon Musk later decided OpenAI was not on a trajectory to succeed, told its founders it had a zero percent chance of success, and stopped participating.

  4. Resolved true Factual 11 September 2025
    “He helped us start OpenAI.”

    Elon Musk helped start OpenAI.

  5. Resolved true Factual 14 August 2025
    “When we started, it was four and a half years before we had our first product and it was very uncertain.”

    When OpenAI started, it took four and a half years before it had its first product.

All of them

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