Tag: News

• Ukraine may have launched its biggest drone attack ever, per the Kyiv Independent.
• Russia shot down a total of 102 aerial and six naval sea drones overnight, it said.
• Two of its major ports, Sevastopol and Novorossiysk, were affected, per reports.

Ukraine appears to have launched its biggest drone attack ever, with reports of explosions at two major Russian ports.

In a Telegram post, Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 51 drones over Crimea, 44 drones over the Krasnodar region, and six drones over the Kursk region on Thursday night.

It also said its naval aviation and Black Sea Fleet patrol boats destroyed six uncrewed surface vessels, or USVs, in the Black Sea.

This would amount to a total of 102 aerial and six naval drones shot down in just one night, and if true, would be Ukraine's largest drone attack since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Business Insider couldn't independently verify these numbers.

The independent Russian media outlet Astra, citing its own sources and footage, reported drones hit at least two oil depots and two terminals in the port city of Novorossiysk and neighboring villages on Thursday night.

Novorossiysk residents told the outlet that more than 35 explosions occurred in the city, causing power outages. The outlet shared multiple videos of what appeared to be the blasts.

The outlet also shared a photo of a refinery on fire in Tuapse, east of Novorossiysk.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the regional governor, said Russian air defense forces shot down more than 10 drones over Novorossiysk on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Russian forces shot down dozens of drones and more than five sea drones in the port of Sevastopol last night, with drone debris hitting the city's substation and causing power outages, Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-installed regional governor, said in a Telegram post.

A video shared by Astra appears to show blasts in Sevastopol. BI could not independently verify the footage in the reports.

The Security Service of Ukraine SBU and Ukraine's intelligence agency GUR launched a joint operation to strike Russian military and logistics facilities in Novorossiysk and occupied Sevastopol, the Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed Ukrainian intelligence official.

Ukraine has ramped up attacks on Russian warships in occupied Crimea, inflicting significant losses on Russia's Black Sea Fleet and forcing it to relocate some maritime activities to Novorossiysk.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the UK Armed Forces, said in February that 25% of Russia's Black Sea boats had been sunk or damaged.

The fleet was "functionally inactive" after Ukraine claimed to have struck two of its ships in March, the UK's Ministry of Defence said at the time.

Satellite images from April shared by the UK's MoD showed Russia upgrading the defenses of its Black Sea Fleet naval base in Novorossiysk, confirming that most of its ships and submarines have been relocated further eastwards.

Ukraine's GUR did not immediately reply to a request for comment by BI.

• An Arizona woman is accused of aiding North Koreans in securing US remote-work jobs.
• They gained employment at Fortune 500 companies, including a TV network and a Silicon Valley firm.
• Prosecutors say the scheme involved 300+ companies and led to $7 million being sent to North Korea.

An Arizona woman has been accused of aiding North Koreans in securing remote-work jobs in the US and funneling their wages back to North Korea, which is subject to US sanctions, according to federal prosecutors.

The US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced in a press release on Thursday that Christina Marie Chapman, 49, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with nine counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US.

According to prosecutors, the scheme began sometime in 2020 and used the stolen identities of about 60 US citizens.

They said it impacted more than 300 companies and generated more than $6.8 million in revenue, which was sent back to North Korea.

In the charging document, prosecutors allege that Chapman facilitated overseas IT workers posing as Americans using the stolen or borrowed identities of US citizens.

Chapman was first approached in March 2020 by an unknown individual asking her if she wanted to be the "US face" of their company, according to a recently unsealed indictment against Chapman and three North Korean citizens.

According to prosecutors, the scheme saw overseas workers apply for remote jobs at well-known US companies, including Fortune 500 companies.

These included a major television network, a leading Silicon Valley tech company, an aerospace manufacturer, and an American carmaker, the indictment said.

According to the indictment, the workers used IP addresses to make it appear that they were operating from Chapman's house and within the US.

Prosecutors said that Chapman received and forged payroll checks and that the wages of the foreign workers were paid into her bank account.

They added that much of the income, though to be at least $6.8 million, was falsely reported to the IRS and Social Security Administration under the names of US citizens whose identities were stolen or borrowed.

In exchange, prosecutors said in the indictment that Chapman charged the workers monthly fees for her services.

An attorney for Chapman was not listed in court documents.

In a separate criminal complaint, unsealed on Thursday, a Ukrainian man, Oleksandr Didenko, was also accused of operating "laptop farms."

In the press release, Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said that these charges should serve as a "wake-up call" for American companies employing remote IT workers.

In 2016, the US passed the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act, which aimed to improve the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea.

It cut North Korea from the US financial system, which led to various schemes to try to circumvent it.

The assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, Kevin Vorndran, said in the press release that although the allegations may seem like "typical white-collar" crime, they represent a broader trend.

He described it as a "new high-tech campaign to evade US sanctions, victimize US businesses, and steal US identities."

• The US is in a white-collar recession with new $100,000 job openings being the lowest since 2014. 
• Data shows women are more likely to land these coveted roles, even if they are less likely to apply.
• Experts say this could be a sign of DEI efforts balancing the gender disparity in senior roles.

While women are less likely than their male peers to apply for six-figure jobs, they're more likely to be hired for high-paying roles.

This is according to new data from global recruiting software firm iCIMS. In an analysis of roughly 550 million applications, shared exclusively with Business Insider, the company found that the pattern goes back at least as far as 2020.

Fewer women apply for 6-figure positions

According to iCIMS's analysis, women have made up 41% to 44% of applicants for six-figure jobs across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and the US since 2020. However, they represent between 49% and 52% of hires for those roles.

In other words, though they constitute less than half of applications for six-figure jobs, they are often hired for more than half of those jobs.

In the US, fewer people are getting hired for six-figure roles. Despite the lowest unemployment rate in decades, hiring rates for high-earners have dropped significantly since 2022 compared to lower-paying roles, according to recently published data by Vanguard. This has been dubbed a white-collar recession.

There are several reasons women are less likely to apply for these increasingly rare high-paying roles, but more likely to get them once they do.

An internal study from Hewlett Packard in 2014 indicated that while most men will apply for a job if they meet just 60% of the requirements listed, most women will apply only if they believe they meet all of them. This helps explain why fewer women apply but also hints at why female candidates are more successful: If women are more likely to rule themselves out, those who will apply will be higher-quality candidates.

Jemimah Njuki, the chief of the women's economic empowerment program at UN Women, told BI she's not surprised by the figures found by iCIMS analysts. She believes it could be a result of the way men and women apply for jobs differently: "We know that women are less likely than men to apply for a job when they feel that they don't meet all the listed requirements."

This means that the women applying for high-paying roles are likely more qualified than their male competition and, therefore, have a higher chance of landing the role.

Higher rates of successful female applicants signal that DEI is working

It could also indicate that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are working.

Yana Rodgers, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, told BI she considers it a supply and demand issue. Female applicants for high-paying jobs are in short supply because they self-select out of applying, while employers are actively trying to hire women for powerful positions.

As for why women are more likely to be hired over men in six-figure roles, "We believe it's diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at work," said Rodgers. The director also polled her peers at the university. They agreed: the data could indicate that efforts to correct gaps in gender representation at the top of businesses are working.

Njuki feels the same way. "We know that a lot of companies, because of historical imbalances in the gender composition of senior management teams, are aiming to increase those numbers," she said. "It is not surprising that companies would be looking for more female talent to fill those higher positions because they are currently underrepresented."

In the United States, DEI professionals have been early victims of layoffs, and some employers have been putting the brakes on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives after public and legal challenges from people and organizations who consider DEI practices to be a form of discrimination.

But plenty of companies have not abandoned their equity plans. In January, Morning Consult found that more than 80% of executives say DEI is critical to their business strategies, and more than 60% say they anticipate such strategies only becoming more important.

Beware of the 'glass cliff'

Some women hired into high-ranking roles may find it untenable to stay.

"They sometimes stack the odds against them before they even start the job," said Njuki, referring to the "glass cliff." The term was coined by researchers who studied the phenomenon whereby a person from an underrepresented background is promoted to a senior leadership position during a difficult time for a company and the risk of failure is high. It disproportionately impacts women. They are put in leadership roles when a company is in decline, which provides a justification when they are asked to leave a job.

Njuki added that while hiring women is important, "it is even more important that they be hired in companies that are doing well."

According to the 2023 Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey and LeanIn.org, gender representation in leadership remains imbalanced. Men hold roughly 52% of entry-level positions, and women about 47%. At the senior manager level, men constitute 60% of the workforce, while women make up 33%. With each jump in rank, the gap grows. Only 28% of executives are women.

More women in 6-figure jobs doesn't necessarily mean the pay gap is closing

Though equal representation in leadership may lag, could the data from iCIMS signal a change in the gender pay gap?

A six-figure salary doesn't mean a woman is paid equitably against her male peers. "The fact that they are applying for these six-figure jobs does not imply that the gender pay gap is narrowing," says Njuki. "This would require a comparison between the women in those six-figure jobs and the men in those six-figure jobs."

Rodgers is hopeful and believes the trend is a positive signal. "A big reason for the gender pay gap is not enough women in the higher-paid managerial and leadership positions. It's not going to eliminate the pay gap, but it should help to close it."

• Big Tech firms are reknowned for their unique and often large office spaces.
• Google's headquarters, Googleplex, is a top tourist attraction with state-of-the-art buildings.
• Take a look at some of the coolest tech firm offices. 

Big Tech firms are often commended for their striking offices, some of which have entire campuses.

Take, for example, Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The Googleplex campus is even counted as a top tourist attraction thanks to its state-of-the-art buildings.

The entrance to the main building has a T-Rex sculpture, which reminds employees not to become dinosaurs, CNBC reported.

Major tech companies use their office spaces to represent their corporate identity visually, and it's yet another way they can attract top talent, the Californian design-build firm Ingenuity says.

"If the goal is to appear cool and future-facing, which is the case with most tech companies, a drab and outdated office space will not do much to support this," the firm said in a website post.

A good office design has also been said to contribute to employee satisfaction and boost productivity.

Take a look at some of the coolest Big Tech offices.

Nvidia's 'Voyager' headquarters in Santa Clara.

The futuristic headquarters comprises a 500,000-square-foot building called Endeavor and a 750,000-square-foot building called Voyager. Both are "Star Trek" references.

Nvidia paid just over $374 million in May for the land, which includes eight buildings and two parking facilities where its headquarters is based, but it already owned the Endeavor and Voyager buildings, The San Francisco Standard reported.

The shape of the roof was designed to bounce sound without reverberation.

The project's design principal, Hao Ko, previously told Business Insider that its design concept is "rooted in that idea that people do their best work when they are provided with a choice."

Ko told BI the ceiling material was selected to help absorb noise. An expansive "four-acre workspace" also incorporates lush parks and "treehouses" designed for communal gatherings.

The interior looks like a future spaceship.

Ko also said Nvidia challenged the Gensler team to create spaces that are inspired by the surrounding nature.

There's plenty of greenery and outdoor space to work.

According to Ko, "By refining the design of the workplace based on how people use it, we will continue to drive more innovation and a more resilient future."

Spotify's office in New York.

The music and audio streaming platform occupies several floors of the World Trade Centre in New York.

There's even a space to listen to some records.

It has some fun features including a "that's so 90's" gaming room, a separate arcade games room, and an artist listening room.

The New York Business Journal reported that the office has several statues of cats around it called "The Podcats."

Mattias Stålhammar, Spotify's senior director and global head of workplace, told the publication that the statues are placed around the building as a nod to its pet playlist and its many podcast categories.

The building has several podcast recording booths.

There's also an arts and crafts room and a separate events space for new product launches.

The campus is spread out over 2 million square feet.

It's Google's second-largest square footage assemblage of the company's buildings after its 111 Eighth Avenue building in New York City, which is 2.9 million square feet.

Googleplex's architect Clive Wilkinson designed it after winning a competition in 2004, KQED reported.

He worked directly with Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to develop the plans.

The Googleplex campus is located in Mountain View, California.

The company set up bee hives around its headquarters in 2010 to support the local bee population.

Googlers also get access to fresh local honey and some of them even help with beekeeping and collecting honey.

It has a sand volleyball court.

Wilkinson told KQED in a 2022 interview that some of the cool on-site features have made Googlers overly dependent on the firm, which he said was "dangerous."

There's a small pool where Googlers can take a dip.

The Googleplex designer reportedly said, "This notion that you can provide everything that would support a worker's life on campus might appear to be extremely generous and supportive … but it also has a whole range of potentially negative impacts."

Apple's headquarters is referred to as the 'spaceship campus.'

Another tech giant that has an eye-catching office space is Apple. Its
Cupertino headquarters, Apple Park, is a marvel of modern architecture and design. With its sleek and circular design, it's no wonder people liken it to a spaceship.

There's an auditorium named after the late cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs.

The complex, designed by architecture firm Foster and Partners, debuted in 2017 when the iPhone X came out. It's place on a hill and the highest point of Apple Park.

Arup, a structural engineering company that worked on the HQ, made headlines this year after reportedly being targeted in a deepfake scam.

"Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised," Arup told the FT.

• Tesla is facing an uphill battle to get Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package approved, Tesla's chair said.
• Robyn Denholm told the Financial Times getting the necessary votes was like climbing "Mount Everest."
• A Delaware judge previously struck down the package, citing Musk's influence over the board.

Robyn Denholm says Tesla is facing an uphill battle to get Elon Musk's record $56 billion pay package approved.

The chair told the Financial Times that getting the votes needed to approve Musk's salary and move its legal entity to Texas was like climbing "Mount Everest."

"It's a huge hill to climb because getting 50% of the shareholders to vote, let alone what they vote for, is quite tough," Denholm said.

Tesla has been seeking shareholder approval for Musk's $56 billion planned pay package, which was struck down by a Delaware judge earlier this year. The judge claimed that Musk's undue influence over Tesla's board resulted in an "unfair price" because of his close ties to several directors.

After the package was struck down, Musk vowed to take Tesla out of Delaware. He announced he was relocating SpaceX to Texas and said in a social media post: "If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible."

Denholm has previously called Musk's planned pay package "critical to the future success of Tesla."

When asked if Musk would leave Tesla if the planned compensation were not approved, she said: "There is always a risk, but he's not holding a gun to anybody's head."

She added he hadn't said "one way or another."

Tesla's board has been trying to appeal the judge's decision and get the package over the line, even paying for ads calling for investors to vote in favor of the compensation plan.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tesla showed that it had paid for some ads on Google and on Musk's social-media site, X. The EV maker has traditionally avoided advertising.

The task has been made more difficult by the slide in Tesla's share price this year. It's down almost 30% at about $175 at Thursday's close, but has been as low as $142.

The company is still worth close to $550 billion, but it was worth about twice as much in late 2021.

Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

• Joe Biden signed into law the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024.
• It stops airlines charging families to sit together, as well as other pro-consumer initiatives. 
• Safety measures include upping the cockpit voice recorder time, following criticism after January's blowout.

On Thursday, Joe Biden signed an extensive bipartisan bill that hopes to reform aviation.

The $105 billion legislation reauthorizes the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board until 2028.

It brings a range of improvements for travelers, mostly related to consumer protection.

The maximum civil penalty for airline consumer violations has been raised from $25,000 to $75,000, plus the bill makes it easier for passengers to file complaints.

It also says that within six months, a rule will be made making it easier for families to sit together on planes. That would include prohibiting airlines from charging passengers to seat a child under 14 next to an accompanying adult.

The bill says the FAA Administrator will decide within 60 days whether to mandate minimum seat dimensions on planes for safety reasons.

Safety is a prime focus of the bill, with an increased scrutiny of aircraft production.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell said: "Plane manufacturers will see more safety inspectors on factory floors and tougher safety standards from the FAA."

Notably, the bill also has new rules about cockpit voice recorders — which comes after criticism from the chair of the NTSB over January's Alaska Airlines blowout.

The data from the voice recorder in that incident was lost because it wasn't retrieved within two hours, so the NTSB called for increasing the holding time to 25 hours, in line with European requirements.

The bill says that all newly manufactured aircraft must have cockpit voice recorders that retain the last 25 hours of information, which will apply to all planes within six years.

"The bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization is a big win for travelers, the aviation workforce, and our economy. It will expand critical protections for air travelers, strengthen safety standards, and support pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers," Biden said in a statement.

He added: "Passengers shouldn't have to jump through endless hoops just to get the refunds that they are owed, and corporations shouldn't rip off hardworking Americans through hidden junk fees."

The bill comes days after several US airlines sued the Department of Transportation over rules requiring upfront fee disclosures. The DOT said in late April this could save consumers over $500 million a year.

• Elon Musk said Neuralink is accepting applications for the second person to get a brain implant. 
• Noland Arbaugh became the first person to have the device implanted earlier this year. 
• Neuralink reportedly wants to have thousands of people using its device by the end of the decade. 

Elon Musk's Neuralink is ready to put its chip in another person's head.

He said that the brain implant startup wa now searching for the second person to receive Neuralink's "Telepathy" implant, after the device was successfully implanted into its first patient earlier this year.

"Neuralink is accepting applications for the second participant. This is our Telepathy cybernetic brain implant that allows you to control your phone and computer just by thinking," Musk posted on X.

"No one better than Noland (Arbaugh) himself to tell you about the first," he added.

Neuralink, which received permission last year to begin human trials, unveiled the first recipient of its brain implant in March.

30-year-old Noland Arbaugh, who was paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident, described the neural interface at the time as "life-changing," allowing him to surf the web, post on social media, and play video games using thought alone.

However, Neuralink's first human trial didn't go completely smoothly. The company said last week that some of the tiny threads the device uses to interface with the brain, each thinner than a human hair, moved out of position a few weeks after the surgery.

The malfunction rendered the implant less effective, and the company reportedly considered removing it completely.

Arbaugh told Bloomberg he "cried a little bit" when he began noticing a delay between his thoughts and the computer cursor.

Neuralink said in a blog post that it made tweaks to Arbaugh's implant, enabling it to work effectively again.

The startup may not struggle to attract applicants for its latest human trial. Thousands of people reportedly expressed interest in having part of their skull removed and a brain chip inserted when Neuralink began recruiting last September.

It's reportedly planning to operate on 11 people this year and is targeting more than 22,000 users by 2030, Bloomberg reported.

Neuralink did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

• Scammers used deepfakes to trick an employee at engineering firm Arup into handing over $25 million.
• The Hong Kong office employee believed that they were on a video call with the company's CFO.
• Deepfake scams are becoming more prevalent with advancements made in AI.

Scammers used deepfakes to trick an employee in the Hong Kong office of a major international corporation earlier this year, costing the firm $25 million.

News of the scam was first reported in February, but the company involved was not named.

However, on Friday the Financial Times reported that Arup, the engineering company behind buildings like the Sydney Opera House and Apple's California headquarters, was the victim of the scam.

Back in January, an employee in the finance department of the company's Hong Kong office attended a video call with what they believed to be the company's CFO and other staff members.

But everyone else on the call was actually an AI-generated deepfake made using publicly available video and audio recordings, Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK reported, citing police.

Acting senior superintendent Baron Chan told RTHK that on the video call, the employee was instructed to transfer HK$200 million ($25.6 million), split over 15 transactions, to five local bank accounts.

After around a week, the employee realized it was a scam when they contacted the company's headquarters.

The investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made so far, the Financial Times reported.

Arup did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider but told the FT in a statement that it had "notified the police about an incident of fraud in Hong Kong," adding that the incident involved "fake voices and images."

"Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised," Arup said.

Deepfakes are becoming more prevalent as advancements in AI open up new ways for malicious actors to target companies and individuals.

Hong Kong authorities have also warned people about a deepfake scam going around of Elon Musk, where fraudsters are using the billionaire's likeness to trick people into investing in its crypto software.

It's not the only time scammers have used deepfakes of the Tesla CEO to steal money. Earlier this year, a woman in South Korea said scammers used a deepfake of Musk to trick her into handing over $50,000, which she believed would be invested on her behalf. She even had a video call with someone she thought was Musk, where he expressed his love for her.

Deepfakes have also been used in romance scams, which use fake online personas to gain their victim's trust before tricking them into handing over money.

• HIFIs are people who are high income, financially insecure.
• They're predominantly made up of millennials and Gen Zers who want to exude wealth. 
• However, lifestyle creep and inflation could be hurting their financial futures.

Many Americans want to look wealthy. And to do that, some are taking inspiration from their favorite celebrities, or hoping to keep up with rapidly changing trends. Either way, they're spending a fortune.

People who fall into this category are HIFIs, individuals who are high income, financially insecure. They're predominantly made up of millennials and Gen Zers, per Sherwood News, who want to exude "old money" or "quiet luxury" but who are struggling to keep up with their lifestyle creep. HIFI is the latest acronym to describe a facet of the American economic experience, joining the ranks of DINKs, HENRYs, and ALICEs.

Although people under 40 are accumulating more wealth earlier in life than previous generations, 48% of Gen Zers and 59% of millennials say they feel behind financially, according to a Credit Karma survey of 1,006 US adults published in December.

That could be due to inflation keeping prices high, the cost of living skyrocketing in US cities, and the end of pandemic-era government cash infusions combined with student loan and credit card debt.

HIFIs are redefining spending norms at their own expense

Sherwood News reported that many HIFI consumers' steep spending began during the pandemic. Stimulus checks provided young people with additional income, and, because people were staying home, they spent more money on online shopping instead of restaurants, recreation, or vacations.

The "buy now, pay later" feature on credit cards, Amazon, and other online platforms is fueling these shopping sprees, per a 2024 Adobe report. Shoppers feel like items are more affordable when they can pay in installments, according to the report.

Many Americans also haven't cut back on their pandemic-era shopping habits — even as they renewed their social spending with the reopening of restaurants and vacation destinations.

Additionally, there are social reasons for HIFIs behavior: people want to feel rich.

Per a Schwab survey of 1,000 Americans in 2023, younger generations tend to measure their wealth in comparison to their peers. If a friend or social media personality owns something, Gen Zers and millennials don't want to miss out.

Some will buy the same piece of expensive clothing item or accessory they see on celebrities or social media, while others will search for dupes.

In fact, millennials and Gen Zers were responsible for a 22% gain in luxury spending in 2022, according to a Bain & Co. report published in January 2023.

But for many, this spending culture isn't sustainable.

HIFIs are increasingly facing an economic disconnect. Although they're affluent, their income often isn't enough to overcome luxury spending and the high costs of daily life.

Many HIFIs struggle to afford rising housing and food costs but still spend a sizable amount of their income on recreation and personal care. And, financial and fintech news firm Pymnts found in its February/March report that 36% of millennials in US cities making $200,000 or more a year are currently living paycheck to paycheck.

Are you a HIFI? Are you open to sharing how you fit recreation and luxury spending into your budget? If so, reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@insider.com.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is one of the biggest names in the AI industry.
• This makes him pretty recognizable in San Francisco — too much so for his liking.
• He says "the inability to just be mostly anonymous in public is very, very strange."

Sam Altman is one of the best-known names in AI, but he wasn't prepared for just how much he'd be recognized in public.

The OpenAI CEO reflected on the privacy and anonymity he's lost as a result of his job during an episode of the podcast The Logan Bartlett Show, published Tuesday.

"The inability to just be mostly anonymous in public is very, very strange," he said. "I think if I had thought about that at the time, I would've said, 'Okay, this will be a weirder thing than it sounds like,' but I didn't really think about it. It's like a much weirder thing. It's a strangely isolating way to live."

He continued: "I was like, 'AI's going to be really important, OpenAI's going to be a really important company.' I didn't think I would not be able to go out to dinner in my own city."

Though OpenAI has shone a bigger spotlight on Altman, he was far from anonymous in Silicon Valley before. He was president of the startup accelerator Y Combinator for several years before taking the helm at OpenAI in 2019.

Later in the podcast episode, Altman discussed his dramatic ousting from OpenAI last year. He said he was living in an "adrenaline-charged state" and didn't eat or sleep much during that time.

Altman was fired in mid-November after OpenAI's board at the time announced a "deliberate review process" showed he was "not consistently candid in his communications with the board." Altman, however, was brought back less than a week later, and the board has since changed.