Sam Altman refuses opportunity to meet Benjamin Netanyahu

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman turned down the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Israel this week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Altman, a co-founder of the company that developed ChatGPT, is expected to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog while in the country. It seems that the initiative to meet between Netanyahu and Altman came from mediators who offered their services to bring the two together, but the contacts did not mature until a meeting.

We have not received a meeting request from Prime Minister Netanyahu, an OpenAI spokesperson told Globes.

This afternoon, Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kish met with senior executives from OpenAI as the offices of Masterschool, an Israeli startup that has developed technology for online courses. Tech employees started a spontaneous demonstration outside the company’s offices and Kisch’s security team had to smuggle him out a side door through the stairs.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 4, 2023.

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