AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)
Tara Seshan, product lead for ChatGPT Work and Codex at OpenAI, joins Lenny Rachitsky to discuss how AI is shifting knowledge work from task execution ('rowing') to high-level direction ('steering'). She outlines OpenAI's rapid, empirical approach to product building, internal culture memes, why human ambition is the new operational bottleneck, and how to maintain sharp thinking by separating writing-as-thinking from automated reporting.
- The bottleneck in product development has moved from technical capability to human ambition. AI tools already let one person write code, build prototypes, and run financial models in minutes. Read →
- Tara Seshan, product lead for ChatGPT Work and Codex at OpenAI, stopped writing long reasoning documents in favor of immediate functional prototyping. Read →
- Most founders believe finding product market fit is pure luck, but Sutter Hill partner Mike Speiser treats enterprise venture creation as a repeatable formula. Read →
- Writing splits into two distinct categories: writing as reporting and writing as thinking. Read →