ChatGPT爆火，37岁幕后天才推手：8岁学会编程，20岁从斯坦福辍学，母亲说他有“网络疑病症” ChatGPT explodes, 37-year-old genius behind the push: 8-year-old learned to program, 20-year-old dropped out of Stanford, his mother said he has “cyber-suspicion”
近日，聊天机器人ChatGPT爆火，在去年11月30日发布后的5天时间里，收获了100万用户；推出仅仅2个月，月活跃用户就成功过亿，成为历史上增长最快的消费者应用程序。一向高调的马斯克在使用ChatGPT后的感受则是“好到吓人”，甚至断言，“我们离强大到危险的AI不远了。”
不久前，《时代周刊》杂志的记者对ChatGPT进行了采访。对话中，ChatGPT就其工作原理、这种新技术的传播可能带来的风险以及人类应该如何应对潜在问题给出了回答，语言流畅，回答准确，让人不禁感叹于大型语言模型的快速发展。
ChatGPT的“出圈”，让对它进行开发的人工智能实验室OpenAI及其首席执行官山姆·阿尔特曼在全世界声名鹊起。如今，阿尔特曼被媒体称为ChatGPT之父。
↑山姆·阿尔特曼
8岁学会编程
20岁从斯坦福辍学
1985年4月22日，阿尔特曼出生于美国伊利诺伊州的芝加哥。他在密苏里州的圣路易斯长大，母亲是一名皮肤科医生。8岁时，阿尔特曼学会了编程。9岁生日时，阿尔特曼收到一台电脑作为生日礼物，这使他在很小的时候就对信息技术和互联网产生了兴趣。
阿尔特曼在约翰·巴勒斯学校接受高中教育，后来被著名的斯坦福大学录取，开始专心研究人工智能和计算机科学。2005年，他选择从大学辍学，同好友合作创办了社交媒体公司Loopt，该公司的估值最终达到了1.75亿美元。2012年，他以4300万美元的价格将其出售。
↑山姆·阿尔特曼
之后，阿尔特曼创立了一家风险基金，并筹集了2100万美元。他将其中75%的资金投给了风险投资公司Y Combinator，并投了Reddit的B轮融资。他曾在接受采访时表示，“可以投资于杂乱无章、有些破败的公司，然后解决这些公司的问题。由于这些问题，公司的价格才被大大低估。”
2011年，阿尔特曼任Y Combinator的合伙人，成为世界上最富有的企业家和天使投资人之一。他曾帮助许多信息技术公司成长为价值数十亿美元的公司。2014年，阿尔特曼被Y Combinator创始人选中，正式担任Y Combinator总裁，并于同年秋季在斯坦福大学教授一个名为“如何创业”的系列讲座。
阿尔特曼被《商业周刊》评为“最佳科技青年企业家”之一，被福布斯评为“30岁以下最佳投资者”。
和马斯克共同创立OpenAI：
为了确保人工智能不会消灭人类
2015年，阿尔特曼与时任特斯拉和SpaceX首席执行官的埃隆·马斯克共同创立了OpenAI。他们成立这家非营利性人工智能公司的目标是 — — 确保人工智能不会消灭人类。阿尔特曼对人工智能领域有着浓厚的兴趣，曾公开发言称，只要人工智能不出现惊人的错误，未来可能会“非常美好”。
↑埃隆·马斯克（左）和山姆·阿尔特曼（右）
工作时，阿尔特曼大胆激进。民宿品牌爱彼迎是Y Combinator孵化的公司中最大的一家。当爱彼迎的创始人兼首席执行官布莱恩·切斯基去申请融资时，还不知公司是否能生存下去。他向当时还是Y Combinator导师的阿尔特曼展示PPT的时候，预计公司的收入在300万美元，而阿尔特曼直接在后面加了个0，变成3000万，并鼓励切斯基应该更加大胆一些。
在生活上，阿尔特曼有着强烈的目标感，经常给自己列出详细的计划，而且每过一段时间都会复盘完成了多少，“我希望这能让自己开心一点。”2015年，阿尔特曼在30岁生日时曾在博客上给出建议说：“给自己清晰的目标，每天的、每年的、每十年的。”
阿尔特曼的母亲曾评价儿子称，“他脑子里装了各式各样的东西，有时候会打电话给我说自己头疼，而且喜欢在谷歌上‘看病’，有一些网络疑病症。我必须一直给他保证，他没有得脑膜炎或淋巴瘤，这只是压力而已。”
2016年，阿尔特曼曾对一家初创公司的创始人说：“我在为生存做准备。”他警告说，人类要么会面临“致命的病毒”，要么面临人工智能的攻击，要么面临核战争。
红星新闻记者 王雅林 实习记者 梁宏
责编 邓旆光 编辑 张莉
Recently, ChatGPT, the chatbot, has exploded, harvesting 1 million users in 5 days after its release on November 30 last year; in just 2 months after its launch, it has successfully passed 100 million monthly active users, making it the fastest growing consumer app in history. The always high-profile Musk’s feeling after using ChatGPT was “so good it’s scary,” even asserting, “We’re not far from powerful to dangerous AI.”
Not long ago, a reporter from Time magazine conducted an interview with ChatGPT. In the conversation, ChatGPT gave answers about how it works, the possible risks associated with the spread of this new technology, and how humans should respond to potential problems, with a fluency and accuracy that makes one marvel at the rapid development of large-scale language models.
ChatGPT’s “breakout” has made OpenAI, the artificial intelligence lab that developed it, and its CEO Sam Alterman famous around the world. Today, Alterman is known as the father of ChatGPT in the media.
↑Sam Altman
Learned to program at the age of 8
Dropped out of Stanford at age 20
Altman was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA on April 22, 1985. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where his mother was a dermatologist, and learned to program at the age of 8. For his 9th birthday, Altman received a computer as a birthday gift, which led to his interest in information technology and the Internet at an early age.
Altman received his high school education at the John Burroughs School and was later accepted to the prestigious Stanford University, where he began to focus on artificial intelligence and computer science. in 2005, he chose to drop out of college and co-founded Loopt, a social media company with a close friend, which was eventually valued at $175 million. in 2012, he sold it for $43 million.
↑Sam Altman
Later, Altman founded a venture fund and raised $21 million. He invested 75% of that money in the venture capital firm Y Combinator and in Reddit’s Series B funding. He has said in interviews that “it’s possible to invest in companies that are disorganized and somewhat broken and then solve the problems of those companies. It’s because of those problems that the companies are greatly undervalued.”
In 2011, Altman became a partner at Y Combinator, making him one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs and angel investors. In 2014, Altman was selected by Y Combinator’s founders to serve as president of Y Combinator and taught a lecture series called “How to Start a Business” at Stanford University in the fall of that year.
Altman was named one of the “Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs” by Business Week and one of the “Best Investors Under 30” by Forbes.
Co-founded OpenAI with Musk.
To ensure that artificial intelligence does not wipe out humanity
In 2015, Altman co-founded OpenAI with Elon Musk, then CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, a nonprofit artificial intelligence company with the goal of ensuring that artificial intelligence does not wipe out humanity. Alterman has a keen interest in AI and has spoken publicly that the future could be “very bright” as long as AI doesn’t go spectacularly wrong.
↑ Elon Musk (left) and Sam Altman (right)
At work, Altman is bold and radical. B&B brand Audemars Piguet is one of the largest companies incubated by Y Combinator. When Brian Chesky, founder and CEO of Audemars Piguet, went to apply for financing, he didn’t know if the company would survive. When he presented a PowerPoint to Altman, who was then a Y Combinator mentor, he projected the company’s revenue at $3 million, while Altman added a zero directly after it to make it $30 million and encouraged Chesky that he should be bolder.
In life, Altman has a strong sense of purpose, often listing detailed plans for himself and reviewing how much he’s accomplished every once in a while, “I hope that makes me happy.” In 2015, on his 30th birthday, Altman had given advice on his blog saying, “Give yourself clear goals, daily, yearly, and decade-by-decade.”
Altman’s mother has commented on her son saying, “He has all kinds of stuff in his head, sometimes calls me with headaches and likes to ‘look’ on Google and has some internet hypochondria. I had to keep reassuring him that he didn’t have meningitis or lymphoma, that it was just stress.”
In 2016, Altmann told the founder of a startup, “I’m preparing for survival.” He warned that humanity would either face a “deadly virus,” an attack by artificial intelligence or nuclear war.
Red Star News reporter Wang Yalin, intern reporter Liang Hong
Editor Deng Pennant Editor Zhang Li
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
