Overview

• OpenAI’s headcount tripled from about 1,000 to 3,000 during French-Owen’s year there, triggering widespread communication and process failures.
• The company relies almost entirely on Slack for internal communication, with virtually no email use, creating rapid information flow alongside constant distraction.
• Engineers frequently launch projects independently, resulting in duplicated code libraries and a central “back-end monolith” that has become a dumping ground.
• A senior team built and launched the Codex coding agent in just seven weeks, working long hours and minimal sleep to meet aggressive rollout targets.
• OpenAI maintains strict secrecy and monitors social media trends to guide priorities while focusing AI safety efforts on immediate risks such as bias, abuse and prompt injection.