South Park creator Matt Stone asks if Sam Altman does anything other than ‘go on podcasts’
- South Park’s creators said they want to target OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in future episodes.
- Matt Stone said he finds Altman’s frequent podcast appearances amusing.
- South Park parodied OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman may join the ranks of celebrities pilloried by South Park.
South Park co-creator Matt Stone said that Altman “just makes me laugh every time” when a reporter at a Bloomberg event on Friday asked if there was an executive he’d like to make fun of.
“Does he do anything but podcasts?” Stone asked. “Maybe he’s smart. I don’t know, but all I do is see the guy on podcasts.”
Stone and Trey Parker, co-creators of South Park, are also behind the AI entertainment startup Deep Voodoo. Deep Voodoo showed off a face-swapping tool on an acclaimed Kendrick Lamar video that replaced his face with those of O.J. Simpson, Kobe Bryant, and others in 2022.
Stone said at the Bloomberg event that Altman is “presumably” running a company, but “when you actually listen to him talk, does anything he says make sense or strike you as smart?”
“I would say yes, I think he’s a very smart guy,” he added to laughter from the crowd. “I hope to meet him someday.”
South Park parodied OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the March 2023 episode “Deep Learning.” The episode follows the show’s characters as they become reliant on ChatGPT for things like writing text messages and school papers. ChatGPT is credited as a co-writer for the episode.
