On April 7, 2026, The New Yorker released an investigation into Sam Altman's leadership of OpenAI. Written by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz, the American magazine claims to have spoken to more than 100 people and viewed previously undisclosed internal documents—including secret memos compiled by OpenAI's former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, and extensive notes from Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei, who used to work at OpenAI.

Hours after the investigation went live, OpenAI announced its new Safety Fellowship programme. Farrow immediately noted on X that his investigation detailed how OpenAI "dissolved its superalignment and AGI-readiness teams and dropped safety from the list of its most significant activities on its IRS filings."

Farrow added that when his team asked to interview researchers working on existential safety, an OpenAI representative responded, 'What do you mean by 'existential safety'? That's not, like, a thing."

The investigation follows Altman's early days at Loopt to last month's OpenAI deal with the Department of War (or the Pentagon).

Here are eight (8) allegations made against OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, in the New Yorker investigation:

1. He Was Called Out for "Lying" in Secret Memos

The report claims Ilya Sutskever spent weeks in fall 2023 compiling roughly 70 pages of Slack messages, HR documents, and analysis about Altman's behaviour. One memo claims, "Sam exhibits a consistent pattern of lying."

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