--- title: "The Person Who Was in Charge of OpenAI’s $175 Million Fund Appears to Be Fake" description: "For a period of time in 2023, the person in charge of OpenAI's $175 million startup fund appears to have been completely fake." date: "2024-03-30" modified: "2024-03-30" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/fake-person-openai-fund" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "business" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # The Person Who Was in Charge of OpenAI’s $175 Million Fund Appears to Be Fake ![For a period of time in 2023, the person in charge of OpenAI's $175 million startup fund appears to have been completely fake.]() *"A man alone in the dark, with half of his face in the shadows.You can find more photographs of this model in" \Image: Getty Images\* ## Fake News Is anything ever normal in the AI industry? A doozy of a scoop [by the newsletter ]()*[Nongaap Investing]()* and [extensively followed up by *Business Insider*]() certainly makes us wonder. The gist is that for a period of time in 2023, the person in charge of OpenAI's $175 million startup fund appears to have been completely fake — and OpenAI says the documents filed with the California Secretary of State to put the fake person in charge were "completely fabricated." Head spinning yet? Us too. OpenAI is almost certainly the hottest startup on the planet right now, and it sounds like someone pulled an extrardinary fast one on it, with unclear goals. And lest you think this is some unimportant position, the [person now running the fund]() is none other than OpenAI's mercurial CEO, Sam Altman. ## Clear as Mud A pair of documents filed about a year ago in 2023 established the seemingly fake person, Jacob Thomas Vespers, as the manager of the fund, and provided an address corresponding to an affordable housing complex in Santa Ana, California that denied any connection to OpenAI. "Jacob Vespers does not exist to our knowledge," an OpenAI spokesperson told *Business Insider*, adding that the "document itself is not legitimate." Another OpenAI spokesperson told *Business Insider* that the company doesn't know who filed the document, and that the company wasn't made aware of the scheme until a journalist asked about it during the summer of 2023, months after the paperwork had been filed. Knowingly filing a false document with a public office is a felony in California, but the company says it didn't report the document to the authorities at the time. What does it all mean? It's tough to say. Perhaps it was an unsuccessful attempt at a financial crime. Maybe it was a bizarre prank. Or — bear with us here — maybe the [AGI that everybody's so worried about]() is already online, and quietly trying to seize control itself. Just kidding... right? **More on fake people:** *[Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()