{"id":42617,"date":"2026-08-13T06:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42617"},"modified":"2026-08-13T06:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:59:18","slug":"special-openai-email-is-apparently-a-direct-line-to-sam-altman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42617","title":{"rendered":"Special OpenAI email is apparently a direct line to Sam Altman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/category\/openai\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">OpenAI<\/a> employees apparently have a quick way to reach founder and CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/tech\/sam-altman-suggests-parents-generate-ai-podcasts-about-kids\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">Sam Altman<\/a>, <em>Fortune <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s an <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/tech\/sam-altman-suggests-parents-generate-ai-podcasts-about-kids\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">e<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2026\/08\/11\/openai-employees-email-friction-address-to-eliminate-bureaucratic-bottlenecks-sam-altman\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\">mail address, <span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"2f495d464c5b4640416f405f4a414e46014c4042\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a>, and its purpose is to give employees a place to report company problems that OpenAI&#8217;s leadership team can triage and handle. <\/p>\n<div class=\"flex mx-auto mt-8 w-full max-w-3xl font-sans text-lg leading-normal md:text-xl md:leading-7\">\n        <span class=\"font-bold text-primary-400\">SEE ALSO:<\/span><br \/>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/tech\/openai-astra-model-details-release-date\" class=\"flex items-center text-secondary-300\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"ml-1\">What is OpenAI Astra? Everything we know about the new \u2014 and possibly dangerous \u2014 new model<\/span><br \/>\n            <svg class=\"ml-1 w-4 h-4 font-normal fill-current\"><use href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/images\/icons\/spritemap.svg#sprite-arrow-right-thin\"\/><\/svg><br \/>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<p>The friction@ inbox has existed for a while, according to\u00a0<em>Fortune<\/em>, but its use widened when Fidji Simo joined OpenAI as CEO of Applications in the fall of 2025. Simo went on a &#8220;listening tour&#8221; to better understand problems across the company, and formalized the friction@ process. She assigned Irina Kofman, VP of strategic initiatives and operations, to monitor the inbox and ensure that issues were resolved. Simo also established a monthly, company-wide Slack update to track progress, <em>Fortune <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n<p>Simo has since left OpenAI, but these processes remain. One former OpenAI employee told\u00a0<em>Fortune\u00a0<\/em>that the system gives leadership an effective way to hear employee feedback.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a good thing \u2014 literally anybody can complain about big company bullsh*t directly to Sam, and they can act on it,&#8221; the former employee told <em>Fortune<\/em>. <\/p>\n<section x-data=\"window.newsletter({ isDeal: false })\" x-init=\"init()\" aria-label=\"Newsletter Sign-Up\" class=\"relative invisible my-12 mx-auto w-full max-w-3xl md:my-16 ziff-component accent-cut-for-gradient-bg accent-cut-border-for-gradient-bg bg-gradient-fuchsia-secondary p-[2px]\">\n<p>\n            <span class=\"text-gradient-fuchsia-secondary\">Mashable Light Speed<\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Examples <em>Fortune <\/em>reported include a pilot program to prioritize parking spots for workers with longer commutes to combat full lots, and a more reliable process for granting API credits.<\/p>\n<p>However, a problem brought to friction@ only gets resolved if Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman consider it &#8220;worthy,&#8221; another former employee, who led a team at the company, told <em>Fortune<\/em>. Unlike the other former OpenAI employee, this person said the process created inefficiency. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The individual who reports the issue probably thinks it&#8217;s the single most important thing, but to teams like mine that are constantly underwater, under-resourced, and over-leveraged, it\u2019s the single most disruptive thing you could do,&#8221; they told <em>Fortune.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s certainly a way for Sam Altman to get internal real-time critique. For external critique, he can go to X, like when he suggested <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/tech\/sam-altman-suggests-parents-generate-ai-podcasts-about-kids\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">parents make AI podcasts about their children<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable\u2019s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.<\/em><\/p>\n<section class=\"mx-auto max-w-7xl\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OpenAI employees apparently have a quick way to reach founder and CEO Sam Altman, Fortune reported. It&#8217;s an email address, [email\u00a0protected], and its purpose is to give employees a place to report company problems that OpenAI&#8217;s leadership team can triage and handle. SEE ALSO: What is OpenAI Astra? Everything we know about the new \u2014&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/helios-i.mashable.com\/imagery\/articles\/01HxMBM2AnfpfMMejExnQ0E\/hero-image.fill.size_1200x675.v1786554433.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}