Kevin Weil, CPO at OpenAI
Beyond Intelligence: AI and What's Next
Posted on LinkedIn and X. Let's connect if we're not already! More coming soon.
🚀 Packed house last night hosting an Icons dinner with Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer at OpenAI.
Kevin’s an amazing person, leading some of the most consequential products reinventing society today.
Kevin’s career is a masterclass in building products billions love: early Twitter, Instagram (Head of Product), Planet Labs, and now ChatGPT at OpenAI—the fastest-growing product in history (120M+ DAU and 500M+ WAU).
1 in every 16 people across the world use that product weekly and they’ve done this in 2 years.
The dinner was off the record but here are some insights from Kevin:
🤔Knowledge work is being reinvented. If your job runs on reasoning and text or voice, disruption is coming—accounting, recruiting, legal, admin. Blue-collar jobs might be the safest of all!
🚀 Research + Product + Design: OpenAI pushes the frontier by tightly integrating research, product development, and design into a single iterative loop. This unique approach lets them rapidly build and refine products people genuinely love while continuously advancing AI research.
🔄 Iterative Deployment Wins: Ship early, ship often, and constantly iterate. At OpenAI, "the model you're using today is the worst you'll ever use again."
🎙️ Interfaces Evolve Fast: Chat today, voice tomorrow, maybe glasses soon. Kevin hinted at "screen-less" AI moments becoming as intuitive as breathing.
📚 Personalized Education Revolution: Every child deserves a personal tutor. AI will make this possible at scale, dramatically accelerating learning.
💻 Everyone Becomes a Developer: AI tools are making coding accessible to everyone, transforming millions into creators overnight. Soon, being a developer won't require formal training—just curiosity.
🛠️ Utility, Not Dependency: OpenAI aims for genuinely helpful products that enhance user trust, safety, and control—not addictive apps.
🔮 AGI Optimism: AI will reshape work, not end it.
Massive thanks to Kevin for the insights and for sticking around to talk AGI, ultramarathons, and parenting tips!