Sam Altman, the visionary CEO of OpenAI and one of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence, is set to deliver the opening keynote at the 2025 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats. His highly anticipated address will take place on the morning of April 10, 2025, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Vanderbilt Summit, now in its fourth year, is renowned for convening global thought leaders, policymakers, and experts from a diverse array of fields to explore the evolving landscape of modern conflict and the cutting-edge technologies shaping global security. This year’s summit, themed AI and the Future of National Security: Emerging Threats, Challenges, Opportunities, will feature thought-provoking panel discussions and insights from distinguished experts exploring the evolving landscape of global national security.
This year’s event also marks a significant milestone as it falls under the newly established Vanderbilt Institute of National Security, which launched in September 2024. The Institute is led by General (Ret.) Paul M. Nakasone, former Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command.
Sam Altman is the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT and Sora. Before co-founding OpenAI in 2015 with the mission to build general-purpose artificial intelligence that benefits all humanity, Sam served as president of the early-stage startup accelerator Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019. Under his leadership, OpenAI has developed transformative technologies that are reshaping industries and global innovation.