“There are many, many, many examples of him saying that OpenAI — or AI more broadly — will do something it can’t and likely won’t, and it being meekly accepted by the Fourth Estate without any real pushback.”
Our reading:
Altman has often claimed OpenAI or AI will do things it cannot and likely will not do, and the media has accepted these claims without real pushback.
Assessment: Can’t be checked
What happened
Not graded on evidence
Outcome: Can’t be checked
An opinion, a recommendation, or too vague to test. Listed, not scored.
Evidence up to . Checked .
Why
The claim, published 2024-06-11, has two parts. First, Altman has often said AI will do things it 'can't and likely won't' do. Second, the press accepted those statements 'without any real pushback.' The 'likely won't' part is a hedged judgment about the future, so it cannot be scored as true or false. The 'can't' part is a claim about what is impossible, and present evidence cannot settle that. 'Meekly accepted' and 'without any real pushback' describe the tone of press coverage, and the claim gives no measure for either. The evidence packet has no evidence items. Its stated gaps say there is no defined set of Altman predictions to check and no standard for what counts as pushback. The claim is therefore recorded as not adjudicable, not as true or false.
Caveats
- The packet has no evidence items about Altman's capability statements or about press coverage of them.
- The passage around the quote mentions some Altman remarks, such as calling hallucinations a feature and the $7tn chip plan. These were not checked as a test set, and they do not define what 'many, many, many examples' covers.
- A narrower claim that named specific Altman predictions with deadlines, plus a standard for media pushback, could be checked. That would be a different claim.
Evidence (0 items)
Claims like this aren’t scored, so there is no evidence to show.
How we judged it
- Kind of claim
- Observation
- Deadline
- None given. We don’t add one.
Where we had to interpret
- The claim has two parts. First, Altman often predicted things AI 'can't and likely won't' do. Second, the press accepted those predictions without real pushback.
- 'Likely won't' is a probability judgment about the future, not a fact that can be checked as of June 2024. 'Can't' is a claim about what is impossible, which present-day evidence cannot settle.
- 'Meekly accepted' and 'without any real pushback' have no measure. They would need a sample of media coverage and a standard for what counts as pushback, and he gives neither.
- He names no specific statements, period, or outlets, so there is no fixed set of examples to test.
We don’t grade claims like this. We only check the quote and who said it.
We found 15 claims in this post. See them all.
Full record
Source and dates
Where's Your Ed At, Silicon Valley's False Prophet, paragraph 7.
- Said
- We read the source
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence up to
- Checked
We read this wording on 2026-10-28. The post may have been edited after 2024-06-11.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the posts we read.
: Where's Your Ed At, Silicon Valley's False Prophet
There are many, many, many examples of him saying that OpenAI — or AI more broadly — will do something it can’t and likely won’t, and it being meekly accepted by the Fourth Estate without any real pushback.
- Where
- paragraph 7
- Published
- 2024-06-11
- We read it
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Versions
- Current: Can’t be checked. Evidence up to 2026-10-28.
What happened to this record
PublishedBy us
Published after both AI reviews and the final check passed.
Held backBy us
A reviewer said our test wasn’t fair to what was actually said.