He Left OpenAI To Think Bigger - EP 53 Jerry Tworek

**Ashlee Vance** (0:00)
Welcome to the Core Memory Podcast. This is Ashlee Vance.

**Kylie Robinson** (0:04)
And this is Kylie Robinson.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:06)
We are, well, we've done one pod since the new year began. And today we're bringing in the big guns for the second one. Jerry Tworek of OpenAI is going to be here. He is something of a living legend.

**Kylie Robinson** (0:21)
Yeah.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:21)
The AI space. This is Newsy.

**Kylie Robinson** (0:24)
Yeah.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:25)
He just left.

**Kylie Robinson** (0:25)
Newsy, Newsy. I saw a lot of people from OpenAI tweeting like, I'm crushed. I'm absolutely crushed. So yeah, he's a phenom.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:31)
Yeah. Obviously, we will discuss this on the pod, but he led or was part of many of their biggest projects. Huge on this era of reasoning that has come, is in part because of Jerry. So he's going to talk about his experience, I'm sure, and what he worked on. And then we'll see. We'll see how spicy he gets.

**Kylie Robinson** (0:51)
Yeah. Here's hoping.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:52)
On his OpenAI time. So anyway, that's what's coming. I did want to take just a little moment. So we're doing a bit of a different intro. Obviously we're not doing our usual clip. But I think I short changed a couple of things on the last pod, which is we've been at this for a year.

**Kylie Robinson** (1:10)
Yeah.

**Ashlee Vance** (1:12)
And we have a broad media empire here at Core Memory. Obviously, if you're listening to the podcast, you've probably found the podcast, we've got a video channel on YouTube, podcast channel on YouTube, we've got our Substack, making movies, doing all this kind of stuff. And the reason I want to do this is just to thank people like deeply for who have been here for this first part of the journey, our loyal subscribers and listeners and everything. And yeah, anyway, just a really genuine heartfelt thanks. We got this thing off and running and a bunch of people who signed up for the Substack from day one or tuned in to the show. It's cool.

**Kylie Robinson** (1:53)
Yeah.

**Ashlee Vance** (1:53)
Now we have Kylie bringing energy and fresh, fresh blood to this venture.

**Kylie Robinson** (2:00)
I always say that you put so much time and work and energy into everything you've delivered this year and it really shows. And I'm glad people are subscribing. It's a huge reason why I wanted to join is just because you really get this space. And like you work hard and you also play hard. Like it's playful and fun and fucking rad. Congrats.

**Ashlee Vance** (2:21)
Thank you very much. And for those of you who've been potting or for free, that's all fine. We love Brex, you work ventures, they help us pay the bills. But if you have been listening to the show a lot and you want to leave a little token of thanks, I know this is so lame, but actually apparently it makes a huge difference if you would actually put a review. Just take, if you've been listening to lots of the show, take five minutes.

**Kylie Robinson** (2:50)
It's easy, I do this for a nice Starbucks barista. Come on, guys.

**Ashlee Vance** (2:53)
Just a little bit, it will really help us out. You'll be doing the right thing. And then otherwise, if you are already paying for our sub stack and everything, thank you so much and the rest of you should as well.

**Kylie Robinson** (3:03)
Yes, and don't forget to subscribe to YouTube, Core Memory Pod and Core Memory.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:08)
Big stuff there, big great stuff. All right, I won't keep selling too much, but genuine heartfelt thank you to you all. Hooray and then off we go with Jerry Tworek.
Jerry, hello.

**Jerry Tworek** (3:37)
Hello, Ashlee.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:38)
How are you?

**Jerry Tworek** (3:39)
I'm having an excellent day today.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:41)
You've got the glow of unemployment about you.

**Jerry Tworek** (3:46)
Eight days of unemployed so far, and it's a change, it's a shift. Having been unemployed for a very long time, but there are many upsides to it.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:54)
Yeah.

**Jerry Tworek** (3:54)
I'm spending much more time in the sun right now.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:56)
Yeah, well, so this is like, this is your exit interview.

**Jerry Tworek** (4:01)
Thank you very much for a very fruitful collaborate.

**Ashlee Vance** (4:06)
Well, we set the context for you very, very briefly. So I'll dive in just one sec to give people a bit more context. But you started at OpenAI around 2019, I want to say. You and I, we've chatted before. You're from Poland.