Sam Altman allegedly told US officials in 2017 that China had launched an ‘AGI Manhattan Project’ to push for funding for OpenAI, a report said. However, intelligence agencies found no evidence of such a programme, with one official calling it a “sales pitch” aimed at securing government backing.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly attempted to deceive the United States government into funnelling billions of dollars into his company by conjuring a threat that may never have existed.

The 'AGI Manhattan Project' claim

According to the New Yorker, in 2017 Altman met with US intelligence officials and made a dramatic claim, that China had launched an 'AGI Manhattan Project,' a state-backed artificial general intelligence programme on par with the scale of America's World War II nuclear weapons effort. He urged that OpenAI urgently needed billions of dollars in government funding to keep pace with this supposed Chinese threat.

When officials pressed him for hard evidence, however, Altman's response was startling. He reportedly said, "I've heard things." He made similar claims across multiple meetings and promised to furnish proof, but that never came.