Inside ChatGPT, AI assistants, and building at OpenAI — the OpenAI Podcast Ep. 2

Why was OpenAI surprised by ChatGPT’s success? What does it really mean to “reason” in an AI system? And what’s next for agentic coding and multimodal assistants? OpenAI Head of ChatGPT Nick Turley and Chief Research Officer Mark Chen unpack it all in a conversation that pulls back the curtain on the making of OpenAI’s most iconic product.00:00 – Intro: Meet Nick Turley and Mark Chen00:40 – Origin of the name "ChatGPT"03:50 – ChatGPT’s viral takeoff07:00 – Internal debate before launch9:40 – Evolution of OpenAI’s launch approach11:00 – The sycophancy incident and RLHF14:45 – Balancing usefulness vs. neutrality in model behavior20:00 – Memory and the future of personalization22:50 – ImageGen’s breakthrough moment29:00– Cultural shifts in safety and the freedom to explore33:10 – Code, Codex, and the rise of agentic programming37:45 - Coding with taste41:45 – Internal adoption of Codex43:40 – Skills that matter: curiosity, agency, adaptability46:45 – OpenAI’s “Do Things” culture51:30 – Adapting to an AI future55:15 – The opportunities ahead: healthcare, research01:01:00 – Async workflows and the superassistant01:05:40 – Favorite ChatGPT tips Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.