The joke on the internet asks: “What are the seven most terrifying words in the English language?” The answer: “Ronan Farrow’s been asking questions about you.”

The investigative journalist has a piece in The New Yorker this week, where the subject of said inquiries is Sam Altman, the billionaire founder and CEO of OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT.

Farrow’s new piece suggests timely, broader questions of who has power, who should have it, who absolutely shouldn’t … and what we do if they have it, anyway.

OpenAI’s products now reach into everything, from your smartphone to defence contracts to law enforcement. Its operations have a growing hunger for electric power; its datacentres are spreading across the planet; and the labour market implications of its potential to replace jobs suggest an industrial upheaval for white-collar workers on a world-changing scale.

The commercial momentum of this company is such that, despite a projected loss of $14bn in 2026 reported in early March – tripling estimates made in 2025 – OpenAI still held an eye-watering market valuation of $852bn by March’s end.

Farrow’s piece claims the OpenAI board had doubts about whether they could trust Altman when they fired him in 2023.

As per Farrow, Altman then convened a “war room” comprising of crisis communicators – and some influential company investors – to defend his reputation. He was........

© The Guardian