In a conversation on the Y Combinator podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a surprising revelation about cognitive enhancement that caught many listeners off guard. During a discussion about productivity and managing cognitive load, Altman casually mentioned his use of armodafinil, a wakefulness-promoting agent, stating that with it “you get 20” good productive hours in a day.
The comment came while Altman was discussing his daily productivity patterns and how many truly productive hours one can achieve. When asked about his optimal working capacity, he explained, “I would say I mean I can definitely like sit down and be super productive for eight hours in the row… which I think is more than most people can do. But it’s definitely not like sixteen, and I think like the people who say sixteen, I feel like I get much more done than they do.”
However, he immediately qualified this with an important caveat: “If you take Armodafinil or something you get 20.”
This brief mention represents one of the rare instances where a prominent tech leader has openly discussed pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement. Armodafinil, the purified form of modafinil, is typically prescribed for sleep disorders but has gained popularity in Silicon Valley circles for its ability to promote wakefulness and focus.
Throughout the conversation, Altman emphasized more traditional approaches to productivity. He stressed the importance of sleep, stating, “I try to sleep eight hours or close to it as much as I can and I get it most nights.” He also highlighted exercise and nutrition as fundamental to maintaining peak cognitive performance, noting that he had gained 18 pounds of muscle mass through a dedicated lifting program.
Altman also zoomed out to reflect on what actually gives people meaning, especially in a future shaped by artificial general intelligence. He suggested that AGI could fundamentally alter how society values intelligence. “One thing that will happen with this sort of arrival of AGI is intelligence, like I got lucky I got born in reasonably smart, will be less and less of a benefit,” he said, framing human intellect as a temporary advantage in a much longer historical arc.
Drawing a sweeping comparison, Altman noted that “60,000 years ago, intelligence wasn’t that much of a benefit, physical strength, endurance [were] much more important,” and predicted that “60,000 years from now, human biological intelligence, I don’t think will be that much of a benefit again.”
For Altman, the present moment is a historical anomaly. “It just happens to be in a moment in society where it is really valuable,” he said, implying that humanity may soon be forced to redefine what status, contribution, and self-worth look like in a world where machines rival or surpass human cognition.
