On 2026-01-13, Gary Marcus discussed the shift in Sam Altman's reputation on his blog. He analyzed that while Altman was viewed as a superhuman figure around 2023, charisma alone is no longer sufficient. Marcus stated that Altman's technical vision has been limited to scaling, which he argues was not enough.
Altman's public credibility is gradually declining. He has parted ways with Elon Musk, and the relationship with Microsoft has changed from what it once was. Marcus also cited the underwhelming expectations for GPT-5 and competitive pressure from Anthropic and DeepSeek. He stated that OpenAI is not generating profit and that there are question marks regarding the ROI for corporate customers.
As of yesterday (at the time of writing), the situation worsened further. It is reported that Apple, disappointed after a pilot with OpenAI in 2024, will adopt Google for the next generation of Siri. Marcus called this a defeat for OpenAI and emphasized that LLMs are becoming commoditized.
Source: The rapid rise and slow decline of Sam Altman (HN 93pt, 53 comments) (HN Search (backfill), 2026-01-14)