Sam Altman isn't content with building the most powerful AI on the planet. Now he apparently wants to control the media that covers it, too.
OpenAI's growing footprint in the media world took another step forward with Altman's acquisition of TBPN, a podcast network, adding to what's becoming a pattern that should make every independent-minded person a little uncomfortable. The man running the company most likely to reshape the global economy is quietly assembling an influence machine that extends well beyond large language models.
Let's be clear about what's happening here. The traditional media landscape is crumbling — legacy outlets are hemorrhaging money and laying off journalists left and right. Into that vacuum steps Silicon Valley, flush with cash and armed with a very specific worldview about how the future should unfold. And who better to shape the narrative around AI than the people building it?
This isn't illegal. It's not even unprecedented — tech moguls buying media properties is practically a tradition at this point. Jeff Bezos has the Washington Post. Marc Benioff owns Time. But there's something uniquely concerning about AI companies specifically gobbling up media outlets. These are the firms that will need favorable regulatory environments, public trust, and political goodwill to operate. Owning the microphones that shape public opinion is a hell of a strategic advantage.
From a free-market perspective, we're not going to argue that Altman shouldn't be allowed to buy media companies. But we will argue that the rest of us should be paying very close attention. Concentrated power — whether it's government bureaucracies or corporate empires — deserves relentless scrutiny.
The next generation of media barons won't be newspaper tycoons. They'll be AI lab founders who realized that controlling the narrative is just as important as controlling the technology. San Francisco is ground zero for this shift, and we're watching it happen in real time.
Stay skeptical, folks. Especially when the people asking for your trust are the same ones buying the platforms that manufacture it.