Key facts
- Altman changed his X display name to "Ram Altman" after a user suggested it and he replied "OK yeah".
- The name had reverted to "Sam Altman" by 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, November 4.
- Altman said on the October 29 "Cheeky Pint" podcast that personal computers could leave scarce memory underused.
- Elon Musk posted a meme on X on November 1 captioned "The people deserve to have their RAM too!"
- Altman wrote on X that he wants the world to have "tons of memory" and has long argued for more memory production.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman briefly changed his display name on X to "Ram Altman" on November 4, after an exchange about memory chips used in AI data centers, Business Insider reported. By 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, November 4, the name on his profile had reverted to "Sam Altman". OpenAI declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider, and the report said it was unclear why he changed it back.
The exchange began when a user replied to an Altman post about people retaining control over AI's future with an image of memory chips leading toward a cardboard box propped up like a trap. Altman replied, "i lol'd." When another user asked whether he could rename his account "Ram Altman," he answered, "OK yeah" and did.
The joke followed remarks Altman made on an October 29 episode of the "Cheeky Pint" podcast. He argued that running AI models on personal computers could leave scarce memory underused, and that cloud data centers can use it more intensively when supply is tight. The comments drew criticism from some people who took them to mean consumers should have less access to memory so data centers could have more.
Elon Musk, who the report says has feuded with Altman for years, posted a meme on X on Sunday, November 1, with the caption: "The people deserve to have their RAM too!" Altman pushed back on X, writing that he does want the world to have "tons of memory" and that he has long argued for increasing memory production. He said he was annoyed his remarks had been taken out of context. Asked by another user why he wanted their RAM, Altman replied: "I want you to have so much ram let's build more."