{"slug": "ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent-ai-coworkers-tara-seshan-openais-product", "title": "AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)", "summary": "OpenAI product lead Tara Seshan discussed the rise of persistent AI coworkers in a podcast, describing a shift from 'rowing' to 'steering' where human judgment and ambition become key differentiators as AI handles execution. She noted that OpenAI builds for model capabilities two to three months out and that ambition is now the new bottleneck for companies, making the elevation of others' ambitions a core part of the product manager role.", "body_md": "**Tara Seshan** leads product for Codex and ChatGPT Work at OpenAI (alongside previous podcast guest Andrew Ambrosino, who’s her engineering manager). Before OpenAI, Tara spent over six years at Stripe, where she joined as one of the first five product managers. She went on to lead product for Watershed, which *Time* magazine named one of the best inventions of 2022, and she is also a founder and Thiel Fellow. Most personally meaningful to me: Tara is one of the three inaugural Lenny’s Newsletter Fellows, a program I ran a couple of years ago to spotlight the most exciting up-and-coming product leaders.\n\n**Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts**\n\n### In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:\n\nThe shift from “rowing” to “steering,” and why human judgment and ambition will become differentiators as AI takes on execution\n\nHow OpenAI thinks about building for model capabilities two to three months out\n\nOpenAI’s best internal memes, such as “Is this maximally accelerated?” and “Are you mainlining it yet?”\n\nWhy ambition is the new bottleneck for companies, and why elevating others’ ambitions is now the key part of the PM job\n\nWriting as thinking vs. writing as reporting\n\n### Brought to you by:\n\n** WorkOS**—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more\n\n** Mercury**—Radically different banking, now with Command\n\n### Where to find Tara Seshan:\n\n• LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarstarr](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarstarr)\n\n• Newsletter: [https://substack.com/@taraseshan](https://substack.com/@taraseshan)\n\n### Referenced:\n\n• Codex: [https://chatgpt.com/codex](https://chatgpt.com/codex)\n\n• ChatGPT Work: [https://openai.com/chatgpt-work](https://openai.com/chatgpt-work)\n\n• Stripe: [https://stripe.com](https://stripe.com)\n\n• Watershed: [https://watershed.com](https://watershed.com)\n\n• Thiel Fellowship: [https://thielfellowship.org](https://thielfellowship.org)\n\n• Meet your Lenny’s Newsletter Fellows: [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/meet-your-lennys-newsletter-fellows](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/meet-your-lennys-newsletter-fellows)\n\n• The rituals of great teams | Shishir Mehrotra of Coda, YouTube, Microsoft: [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir)\n\n• The nature of product | Marty Cagan, Silicon Valley Product Group: [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-nature-of-product-marty-cagan](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-nature-of-product-marty-cagan)\n\n• Product management theater | Marty Cagan (Silicon Valley Product Group): [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/product-management-theater-marty](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/product-management-theater-marty)\n\n• Patrick Collison’s examples of fast projects: [https://patrickcollison.com/fast](https://patrickcollison.com/fast)\n\n• Inside ChatGPT: The fastest-growing product in history | Nick Turley (Head of ChatGPT at OpenAI): [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-chatgpt-nick-turley](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-chatgpt-nick-turley)\n\n• Andrew Ambrosino on X: [https://x.com/ajambrosino](https://x.com/ajambrosino)\n\n• Tyler Cowen’s website: [https://tylercowen.com](https://tylercowen.com)\n\n• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai)\n\n• “Chop wood, carry water” quote: [https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/15921/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-zen-quote-before-enlightenment-chop-wood-carry-wat](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/15921/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-zen-quote-before-enlightenment-chop-wood-carry-wat)\n\n• 4 questions Shreyas Doshi wishes he’d asked himself sooner | Former PM leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google: [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/shreyas-doshi-live](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/shreyas-doshi-live)\n\n• Alan Kay: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay)\n\n• Brie Wolfson on X: [https://x.com/zebriez](https://x.com/zebriez)\n\n• The playbook for building high-talent-density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor: [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-playbook-for-building-high-talent](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-playbook-for-building-high-talent)\n\n• Building product at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession | Jeff Weinstein (Product lead): [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-product-at-stripe-jeff-weinstein](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-product-at-stripe-jeff-weinstein)\n\n• Sutter Hill Ventures: [https://shv.com](https://shv.com)\n\n• Snowflake: [https://www.snowflake.com](https://www.snowflake.com)\n\n• Mike Speiser on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikespeiser](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikespeiser)\n\n• Footnotes and Tangents: [https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com](https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com)\n\n• The Power Broker Book Club: [https://www.robertcaro.org/copy-of-six-books-six-ny-times-book](https://www.robertcaro.org/copy-of-six-books-six-ny-times-book)\n\n• *The Odyssey*: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258)\n\n• *Rashomon*: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876)\n\n• Akira Kurosawa: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa)\n\n• Kevin Kwok on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinakwok](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinakwok)\n\n• The Work You Do, the Person You Are: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/toni-morrison-the-work-you-do-the-person-you-are](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/toni-morrison-the-work-you-do-the-person-you-are)\n\n• Ari Weinstein on X: [https://x.com/AriX](https://x.com/AriX)\n\n• Sky: [https://sky.app](https://sky.app)\n\n• Dylan Field live at Config: Intuition, simplicity, and the future of design: [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/dylan-field-live-at-config](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/dylan-field-live-at-config)\n\n### Recommended books:\n\n• *Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life*: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143109391](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143109391)\n\n• *Anna Karenina*: [https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Karenina-LEO-TOLSTOY/dp/8175993421](https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Karenina-LEO-TOLSTOY/dp/8175993421)\n\n• *The Power Broker*: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394720245](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394720245)\n\n• *War and Peace*: [https://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/8175992832](https://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/8175992832)\n\n• *Wolf Hall*: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429983](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429983)\n\nProduction and marketing by [https://penname.co/](https://penname.co/). For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#43332c2720223037032f262d2d3a3122202b2a3730283a6d202c2e).\n\n*Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent-ai-coworkers-tara-seshan-openais-product", "canonical_source": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent", "published_at": "2026-08-30 12:31:30+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-30 12:52:19.339707+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-agents"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Tara Seshan", "Codex", "ChatGPT Work", "Stripe", "Watershed", "Thiel Fellowship", "Lenny's Newsletter"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent-ai-coworkers-tara-seshan-openais-product", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent-ai-coworkers-tara-seshan-openais-product.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent-ai-coworkers-tara-seshan-openais-product.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent-ai-coworkers-tara-seshan-openais-product.jsonld"}}