Why a man’s rejection letter from OpenAI after applying for CEO job is making headlines everywhere

OpenaAI

Every once in a while, someone on the Internet does something so outrageous that it makes you pause and smile. That’s what happened when a young tech professional, Omer Oztok, casually applied to be the CEO of OpenAI,the same company led by Sam Altman and then went viral for posting the rejection letter.

On LinkedIn, Oztok admitted that his application was “overambitious,” but he wasn’t embarrassed. In fact, he proudly shared the letter that detailed his wild ideas for “fixing” OpenAI, and the Internet couldn’t stop talking about it.

So, what exactly did he propose? For starters, Oztok wanted to replace OpenAI’s entire leadership team with ChatGPT-powered bots, an idea the company politely described as “potentially catastrophic.” He also pitched the plan of poaching Meta’s entire AI division by dangling free lifetime ChatGPT Plus subscriptions. And if that wasn’t enough, he suggested buying Google—yes, the whole company—just for the brand name.

But perhaps the boldest idea of them all was his vision for GPT-6. According to Oztok, the model should be trained exclusively on his own social media posts. Unsurprisingly, OpenAI’s legal department flagged that one as “highly disruptive.”

In their rejection, the company acknowledged his “passion and creativity” but reminded him that they were looking for someone a little more… practical. Oh, and they weren’t too keen on his demand for half the company’s ownership as part of the deal either.

If you think that would have discouraged him, think again. Oztok embraced the rejection with humor, posting that he believed his “time would come” and that one day he would surpass OpenAI. That confidence—borderline audacity is exactly what made his story resonate across the tech community.

So who is this man who dared to dream so big? Oztok is the co-founder of a startup called Sondra and has spent time as a researcher at Stanford University. While his CEO dreams didn’t pan out, his fearless approach has turned him into something of an Internet folk hero—proof that sometimes shooting your shot, no matter how unrealistic, can get you exactly the attention you wanted.