Why I Joined OpenAI

In a lifetime, you only see a few technology shifts that truly change how people live.

For me, the first was the internet.

In 1997, my dad told me he had brought this thing called the internet into our home. None of us really knew what to do with it. He said there were a few websites I could surf. That was about it.

A few months later, I learned to chat with people online and play chess against strangers on the other side of the world. It was the first time I felt how much a new technology could expand the size of everyday life.

The second shift was mobile.

Once phones became powerful and always connected, entirely new habits and companies became possible. Social media took off. Communication became cheap and constant. Before that, sending an international SMS could cost me about a dollar for 140 characters. As a teenager, I had to think carefully about which few messages were worth sending each day.

The latest shift is AI. I think it may be the biggest one.

The internet lowered the cost of access. Mobile lowered the cost of reach. AI lowers the cost of intelligence and iteration.

That is what makes it feel different from the shifts before it. It is not only another way to connect people or distribute information. It is a force multiplier for every field built on thinking.

I still remember when ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022. I was a co-founder at my company, and for the next three days I barely worked. I just chatted with it.

I had already used GPT-2 and the GPT-3 API. ChatGPT felt different. It was not only about completion. It was about conversation: asking questions, exploring ideas, getting useful answers, and going back and forth until something became clearer.

Since then, I have used ChatGPT every day and built many products with AI. Over time, the conclusion became simple: I wanted to be closer to the people building this technology, and I wanted to help shape where it goes.

That is why I joined OpenAI.

I believe in the mission to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity. The reason is practical, not abstract. AI is already making expertise easier to access. I may still need a doctor, a lawyer, or a designer for important decisions. But I can now ask better first questions, understand the terrain faster, and iterate before I ever speak to an expert.

That matters. A lot of progress is blocked not because people lack ambition, but because they do not know what they do not know. Before, if I wanted to redesign a room in my home, I would not even know which questions to ask first. Now I can take a photo, explore options, compare tradeoffs, and arrive at a much better first conversation with a designer.

That does not remove the need for experts. It changes who can get started, how quickly they can learn, and how many iterations they can afford before making a real decision. When useful intelligence becomes easier to reach, more people can move from vague intent to informed action with less friction.

Over the next decades, I expect AI to help humanity solve problems that are still beyond us today, from disease to scientific discovery to many of the everyday bottlenecks that keep good ideas from becoming real. That future is not guaranteed. Safety matters precisely because the upside is so large.

My first 50 days at OpenAI have reinforced the decision. The pace is high, the mission is clear, and I get to work with people who think deeply about AI every day.

I joined OpenAI because I believe AI will be one of the defining technologies of our lifetime. I also wanted a front-row seat, and some responsibility, in helping make that future real.