Redazione RHC : 16 November 2025 11:58
The pursuit of immortality is a pervasive obsession in Silicon Valley. Likewise, the idea of perfecting children through genetic modification is another. Sam Altman, the man who brought artificial intelligence to the general public with the widespread use of ChatGPT, is the mastermind behind this controversial company , which raises numerous ethical questions.
The Stanford graduate (who is openly gay) and her husband, Oliver Mulherin, are among a group of billionaires who have invested in Preventive , a startup working to create a genetically modified baby to prevent a hereditary disease.
The proposal, outlined in an article published in the Wall Street Journal, risks not only attracting widespread opposition from the scientific community but also considerable legal challenges . Genetic modification of embryos to create children is prohibited in the United States and other countries. Therefore, Preventive is considering operating in more tolerant jurisdictions, such as the United Arab Emirates.
Silicon Valley is home to several companies operating in this sector. A rush to sell innovative technologies to modify the traditional reproductive process and create personalized children is underway . The goal, according to millionaires like Altman, is to create children protected from specific hereditary diseases or with a reduced propensity for cardiovascular disease. However, the potential is much broader and includes creating children with superior intelligence or the ability to choose physical characteristics such as skin or eye color.
The other prominent figure behind Preventive is Brian Armstrong , CEO of Coinbase, who amassed his fortune in cryptocurrency. According to people close to Armstrong, the entrepreneur considered working in secret and introducing a genetically modified baby to shock the scientific community before it could object to the process.
“I’m thrilled to invest in Preventive,” he wrote on his X account . “Over 300 million people worldwide live with genetic diseases,” he continued. “It’s much easier to correct a small number of cells before the disease progresses, like in an embryo.”
Altman’s husband, Oliver Mulherin, also made clear his intention to support the company’s disease prevention efforts . “Sam supports me, as always, in all my work and in this cause.” They are now one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful couples. Their first public appearance together was at a White House dinner in 2023, hosted by Joe Biden. They married in January 2024 in Hawaii , in an intimate ceremony with just a few guests.
Mulherin is an Australian software engineer who has been involved in several artificial intelligence projects. He worked for companies such as Spark Neuro and Broadwing before joining Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for two years.
They live in Russian Hill, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive neighborhoods, and spend weekends in a house in Napa Valley. They intend to donate much of their wealth — approximately $3 billion —to causes that create abundance through technology and innovation, and they made it clear from the beginning that they wanted to start a family.
In February 2025, they confirmed the birth of their first child via surrogacy . For Altman, 40, it was a turning point. She says the arrival of her son completely changed her priorities. “I remember feeling a neurochemical shift within the first hour, and it happened so quickly. It’s incredible. But now everything will be different.”
Strengthening his recent paternity is the agreement reached with Microsoft a few weeks ago to transform OpenAI into a public benefit, valued at approximately $500 billion . Microsoft will acquire a 27% stake in the company, facilitating capital raising and preparation for the planned IPO in the future.
This would further increase his fortune and visibility compared to visionaries like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Born in Chicago on April 22, 1985, Altman grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri , aware of his gay status from a very young age but unwilling to reveal it until he reached a certain maturity.
“Growing up gay in the Midwest in the 2000s wasn’t the coolest thing in the world,” he said in a 2016 interview with The New Yorker . Today, he appears on lists of the world’s most influential gay people , convinced that artificial intelligence will change the world for the better . Whether this is true remains to be seen.
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