Sixty minutes with and without Sam Altman

Focus aerobics in Silicon Valley for the supporters' monthly wanderlust

“St. Francis Borgia Helping a Dying Impenitent” (1795), Francisco Goya

Regular readers of this newsletter know occasionally I spend an hour somewhere noticing things, writing down as much as possible.

This week, I was invited to San Francisco to attend a tech launch—a first for me—for a company named World, cofounded by Open AI’s Sam Altman, to hear a surprise announcement: their plan to deploy “Orbs” around the United States, starting this week, in order for humans to scan their irises in order to prove they’re human, because according to Altman, World, et al, such a thing will be necessary in a future dominated by artificial intelligence, and is possibly necessary now.

Some observations:

—The event is held in a cavernous space at Fort Mason, on the bay. The order of events is an hour’s pageant in the manner of Steve Jobs debuting a new iPhone, then a press briefing, followed by a party.

A thousand people or so, with a hundred global media, plus influencers, “content creators,” plus a mystery guest.

—Leading up to the event, I’m told there’s a chance I can do a one-on-one interview with Sam Altman, perhaps the most famous person in Silicon Valley right now—and for magazine writers, a bit of a white whale—so I board a plane.