Sam Altman has acknowledged that he heavily relied on advice from his friend, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, to grow OpenAI after ChatGPT became a global sensation. In a joint interview with Mr Chesky at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the OpenAI CEO mentioned that while many people offered help once ChatGPT gained popularity in late 2022, Mr Chesky was the only one who truly pitched in, CNBC Make It reported.

“Everything just went crazy for me,” Mr Altman said. “Brian would sit down with me for about three hours every other week and provide a list of things I needed to do. He’d point out where I was behind, what I was messing up, and what I needed to proactively consider.”

Five days after ChatGPT launched to the public, it surpassed 1 million users. By January 2023, the platform had 100 million monthly active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to CNBC Make It. As the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence company experienced rapid growth, Chesky became a close confidant, Altman noted. Mr Chesky was “almost always right,” Altman added, saying, “I learned to just always shut up and follow the advice.”

Elaborating on the impact of Mr Chesky’s advice on OpenAI’s business, Altman mentioned that his friend guided him on hiring decisions and how to “map” out the company’s strategy.

Recently, Mr Chesky pointed out that Mr Altman was “probably not thinking enough about” the political consequences of the company’s generative AI technology, the OpenAI CEO said.