AI Side Notes with Sharon Goldman

Behind the reporting: The improbable $1.5B AGI bet of a 23-year-old ex–OpenAI researcher

I spent the past few weeks digging into how Leopold Aschenbrenner went from getting fired at OpenAI to managing a $1.5 billion hedge fund — and what his…

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September 2025

On the ground in Texas for Sam Altman’s power trip: What I saw inside OpenAI’s gigawatt arms race

Altman’s pitch is simple: more compute, more power, more AI. What that looks like on the ground is staggering.

Sep 25 • 

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Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee is just the latest hurdle for AI talent in the U.S.

In a January article for Fortune tied to the inauguration, I deeply researched the ‘sense of panic’ felt by immigrant AI talent who worried Trump could…

Sep 21 • 

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On a real mountain under sunny skies, why talk about AI? Because we are there to talk about AI

At 8300 feet, the altitude at Deer Valley in Park City, Utah, bothers me a bit.

Sep 11 • 

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Meet the Anthropic team breaking its own AI models — and preaching their dangers

In a new story for Fortune, I write about how Anthropic's 'Frontier Red Team' is unique among AI companies in having a mandate to both evaluate its AI…

Sep 4 • 

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August 2025

AI Side Chat Vol. 1: Mashable’s Cecily Mauran on the challenges of covering AI — and why we needed a group chat

In this first AI Side Chat, Cecily and I pull back the curtain on what it’s really like to cover AI — the hype cycles, the burnout, and the group chat…

Aug 28 • 

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We survived a hot AI summer. I’m buckling up for fall.

After my summer of conferences, cross-country reporting, geopolitics and industry gossip, it feels like the AI landscape may be overheated. Fall could…

Aug 23 • 

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July 2025

On an Amtrak train, ready to go All-In on the AI 'race'

Headed to DC to hear about Trump's AI Action Plan -- at an All-In podcast/Hill & Valley summit that is all in on AI acceleration

Jul 23 • 

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The future of quantum computing: behind the scenes video

Many thought IBM's power had faded -- but CEO Arvind Krishna is betting big on the future of quantum. In this video, you'll see it happening at an…

Jul 1 • 

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June 2025

This former OpenAI researcher thinks it’s time to start gaming out AI’s future

Here's what happened in an AI 2027 simulation, and why Steven Adler thinks we all should try it

Jun 27 • 

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6 things I learned after spending a week writing a story about Scale AI's Alexandr Wang

Often one of the great pleasures of writing is the process of researching and crafting a story.

Jun 23 • 

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The Meta/Scale AI news was big—but Microsoft’s Copilot security flaw was my story of the week

I was still sniffling and sneezing from my bout with Covid (that I caught at the AI+ Expo in DC last week) when the news broke that Meta CEO Mark…

Jun 15 • 

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