--- title: "Sam Altman Allegedly Has a Very Specific Tell Every Time He Lies" description: "Sam Altman is no stranger to accusations of lying — but according to one of OpenAI's biggest haters, he has a tick when he does it on camera. " date: "2025-08-12" modified: "2025-08-12" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/sam-altman-lying-tell" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "gary marcus" - "gpt-5" - "OpenAI" - "sam altman" --- # Sam Altman Allegedly Has a Very Specific Tell Every Time He Lies ![Sam Altman is no stranger to accusations of lying — but according to one of OpenAI's biggest haters, he has a tick when he does it on camera. ]() *\Image: Andrew Harnik / Getty / Futurism\* OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is no stranger to [accusations]() of [lying]() — but according to [one of the company's most vociferous critics](), he has a tick when he does it on camera. In a [post on X-formerly-Twitter](), AI researcher and skeptic Gary Marcus put forth a compelling theory: that viewers can tell when Altman is lying or stretching the truth by the way he looks up and away from the camera when being filmed. "When he says things he can’t actually deliver, or that aren’t the full truth, he often looks up at the sky," Marcus proffered. Filmed and published back in February, the [video evidence of Altman's obfuscation]() sees the CEO talking a very big game about GPT-5, OpenAI's then-forthcoming large language model (LLM) that at that point had been eagerly anticipated for [nearly two years](). The video shared by Marcus dates back to when Altman was visiting Japan in February in his [second attempt]() to [sell AI software]() to that country's government. In the clip, the CEO boasted at length about the incredible capabilities of GPT-5. As we now know, those capabilities have very much not materialized, with all [reports and anecdotes]() suggesting that in the nearly two-and-a-half years between the releases of GPT-4 and GPT-5, OpenAI somehow managed to launch a product that left a lot to be desired, with users arguing that it was [inferior to its predecessors, like GPT-4o](). The blowback was severe enough for Altman to [announce]() that OpenAI would be reinstating GPT-4o for paying subscribers a mere day after the GPT-5 announcement. Still, back in the halcyon days of early 2025, the CEO's big talk likely sounded more like bravado and less like *basura*. "Going from GPT-3 to GPT-4 really surprised the world," Altman told Matsumura in the February interview. "GPT-4 to GPT-5 will be similar." When speaking those two opening sentences, the CEO twice looked up and away from the journalist — the very same "tell" that Marcus claimed to have clocked. Later, upon the utterance of "the capabilities of these models," Altman again looked up and away, and his eye-line stayed there as he bragged about how smart OpenAI's models are becoming — almost smarter than humans, he wagered. https://www.twitter.com/tsarnick/status/1886506015954510282 "Remember folks, this video is February," Marcus mused. "He made predictions he couldn’t back up — with absolute conviction. That’s his \[*modus operandi*\]." "As we can now seen in hindsight, in his big talk about the leap from GPT-4 to GPT-5," the AI critic continued, "Altman wasn’t saying something he knew to be true, he was straight up bluffing." Today, nothing about GPT-5 resembles Altman's suggestions of an uber-smart AI that is approaching human-level intelligence. It doesn't know what the [last 15 presidents looked like](), are named, or when they served; it [flips erratically]() from one model to another thanks to OpenAI's decision to roll up all previous models into the new one; and it's [really easy to jailbreak](), just to name a few of its glaring shortcomings. While it's hard to get a full grasp of Altman's conviction during the February interview, Marcus makes a compelling point. In a more generous light, one could suggest that Altman wasn't necessarily *bluffing*, but selling a vision of the future to investors. After all, the company is [eying a whopping $500 billion valuation](), requiring an enormous level of buy-in from stakeholders. Still, Altman went on to claim, very boldly, that combining previous models will, somehow, lead OpenAI to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), or human-level AI. "We want to bring GPT and o together, so we want one integrated model, the AGI, you know, that does everything all together in one," Altman alleged. That's not the kind of thing one says if they're unsure of themself or what they're building, to say the least. Curiously enough, the CEO did *not* look up when he dropped his declaration about building AGI from OpenAI's GPT and o series — the integration of which, at least, has occurred with the new GPT-5 launch. **More on Sam Altman:** [*Sam Altman Says OpenAI Is Poised to Wipe Out Entire Categories of Human Jobs*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()