The podcaster and M.I.T. scientist Lex Fridman, who has become known as a leading figure in the tech world, shared a wide range of emotions related to the rapid advancement of AI technology: “You sit back, both proud, like a parent, but almost like proud and scared that this thing will be much smarter than me. Like both pride and sadness, almost like a melancholy feeling, but ultimately joy.”
During a visit to the OpenAI headquarters in May, an impressive culture was observed. Many of the individuals interviewed had joined OpenAI when it was a nonprofit research lab, before the ChatGPT explosion – a time when most people were unfamiliar with the company. “My parents didn’t really know what OpenAI did,” remarked Joanne Jang, a product manager, “and they were like, ‘You’re leaving Google?’” Mark Chen, a researcher who contributed to the development of the visual tool DALL-E 2, shared a similar experience. “Before ChatGPT, my mom would call me like every week and she’d be like, ‘Hey, you know you can stop like bumming around and go work at Google or something.’” These individuals are not primarily motivated by money.
Even after GPT made headlines, the atmosphere at OpenAI remained relatively calm. “It just feels a lot calmer than the rest of the world,” expressed Jang. “From like the early days, it did feel more like a research lab, because mainly we were only hiring for researchers,” recounted Elena Chatziathanasiadou, a recruiter. “And then, as we grew, it started becoming apparent to everyone that progress would come from both engineering and research.”
There were no tech bros or individuals with the kind of “we are changing the world” confidence one might expect from pioneers of this technology. Diane Yoon, vice president of people, described the workforce as “earnest … earnestness.”
Typically, when visiting a tech company as a journalist, there are limited opportunities to meet with executives, and those that are interviewed tend to adhere strictly to their corporate messaging. OpenAI, however, simply organized a sign-up sheet and had individuals come to speak.
