AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)

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.

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. Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts In our in-depth conversation, we discuss: The shift from “rowing” to “steering,” and why human judgment and ambition will become differentiators as AI takes on execution How OpenAI thinks about building for model capabilities two to three months out OpenAI’s best internal memes, such as “Is this maximally accelerated?” and “Are you mainlining it yet?” Why ambition is the new bottleneck for companies, and why elevating others’ ambitions is now the key part of the PM job Writing as thinking vs. writing as reporting Brought to you by: WorkOS —Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more Mercury —Radically different banking, now with Command Where to find Tara Seshan: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarstarr https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarstarr • Newsletter: https://substack.com/@taraseshan https://substack.com/@taraseshan Referenced: • Codex: https://chatgpt.com/codex https://chatgpt.com/codex • ChatGPT Work: https://openai.com/chatgpt-work https://openai.com/chatgpt-work • Stripe: https://stripe.com https://stripe.com • Watershed: https://watershed.com https://watershed.com • Thiel Fellowship: https://thielfellowship.org https://thielfellowship.org • 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 • 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 • 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 • 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 • Patrick Collison’s examples of fast projects: https://patrickcollison.com/fast https://patrickcollison.com/fast • 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 • Andrew Ambrosino on X: https://x.com/ajambrosino https://x.com/ajambrosino • Tyler Cowen’s website: https://tylercowen.com https://tylercowen.com • 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 • “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 • 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 • Alan Kay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan Kay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan Kay • Brie Wolfson on X: https://x.com/zebriez https://x.com/zebriez • 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 • 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 • Sutter Hill Ventures: https://shv.com https://shv.com • Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com https://www.snowflake.com • Mike Speiser on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikespeiser https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikespeiser • Footnotes and Tangents: https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com • 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 • The Odyssey : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258 • Rashomon : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876 • Akira Kurosawa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira Kurosawa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira Kurosawa • Kevin Kwok on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinakwok https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinakwok • 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 • Ari Weinstein on X: https://x.com/AriX https://x.com/AriX • Sky: https://sky.app https://sky.app • 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 Recommended books: • Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life : https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143109391 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143109391 • Anna Karenina : https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Karenina-LEO-TOLSTOY/dp/8175993421 https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Karenina-LEO-TOLSTOY/dp/8175993421 • The Power Broker : https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394720245 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394720245 • War and Peace : https://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/8175992832 https://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/8175992832 • Wolf Hall : https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429983 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429983 Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ https://penname.co/ . For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email email protected /cdn-cgi/l/email-protection 43332c2720223037032f262d2d3a3122202b2a3730283a6d202c2e . Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.