OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman was one of the latest guests of the podcast “Relentless” and admitted that he became addicted to TikTok. What started with only 10 minutes of use before bedtime turned into several hours of continuous use.
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28/07/2026
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Pit is feared that even the leaders of large companies escape the “vortice” in which you can become TikTok, with the video recommendation algorithm to be pointed out as the great distinguishing element of the video platform.
In an interview with the podcast “Relentless”, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, admitted to being addicted to TikTok and realized that, from one moment to another, he was spending three hours on the couch just watching videos on the social network.
“I erased TikTok because it was too powerful”, admitted Altman. “I got hooked on TikTok because I just wanted to learn”.
Altman explained that at first he loved TikTok and just thought it was a very good thing, that he could control the time he was watching videos.
“At first I spent only 10 minutes [at TikTok] to relax before going to bed and was totally controlled. Then he spent an hour a night and, in the end, on a Saturday afternoon, I spent three hours on the couch.”, told the founder of OpenAI.
During the interview, Altman explains that to control time spent on the phone ended up deactivating all application notifications – leaving only a few of them active. According to OpenAI leader, even message application notifications have been silenced.
“ This is not what I thought. Like a drug, I was enjoying [TikTok] at the time but I could see it was bad for me”, noted Altman, explaining that he later started to control more and more the use of TikTok until he stopped using the app.
You can see below the segment of the interview where Altman talks about his use of TikTok.