Matt Levine

AI position

Aware of x-risk

Repeatedly riffs on rogue/doom AI scenarios (insurance, crypto-theft) but treats them as comic thought experiments, not sustained argument-engagement.

Why influential

Shapes market and policy expectations by interpreting economic data, corporate decisions and regulatory choices for influential professional audiences. Primary policy lanes: markets; regulation; crypto; corporate law; ai business.

Who pays attention

Investors, lawyers, regulators, corporate executives, policy staff and financial journalists

Work samples

• AI Insurance Is Expensive

  Oct 8, 2025 · newsletter

  Explores who would pay out, and who could even sue, if a frontier AI model went rogue and harmed humanity -- an insurance/liability framing of x-risk.

• AI Can Steal Crypto Now

  Dec 2, 2025 · newsletter

  Riffs on the idea that a sufficiently capable/superintelligent AI's most obvious profit-making move would be to steal crypto.

• Matt Levine's Money Stuff: The AI Whateverpocalypse Trade

  Feb 11, 2026 · newsletter

  Discusses AI business models and disruption scenarios tied to OpenAI/Sam Altman.

• Matt Levine's Money Stuff: Who Controls OpenAI?

  May 1, 2024 · newsletter

  Analysis of OpenAI's unusual nonprofit/for-profit governance structure and board control questions.

• OpenAI Was Pretty Portable

  Dec 7, 2023 · newsletter

  Written after Sam Altman's brief firing/reinstatement at OpenAI; examines how easily staff could have moved to Microsoft.

AI-world contacts

• Sam Altman — CEO, OpenAI

  • Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · Feb 11, 2026 — Riffs on Altman's AI business plans and the 'AI whateverpocalypse trade'.
  • Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · May 1, 2024 — Analysis of OpenAI board control and Altman's equity/compensation arrangements, including Levine's 'business negging' line about Altman.
  • Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · Dec 7, 2023 — Column on Altman's November 2023 firing and reinstatement and OpenAI's governance fallout; commentary built on reported news, not a direct interaction with Altman.