What podcasts say about Tara Seshan
Every statement, with the speaker, the exact quote and the moment it was said.
What Tara Seshan has said on podcasts
76 statements · 64 positive · 4 negative · 3 mixed · 5 neutral
Persistent AI coworkers may define AI products’ third era.
“that third era that might come soon is how do you work with a persistent coworker who is able to get things done with you”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 0:07
Persistent AI coworkers may soon become a third era of AI products.
“that third era that might come soon is how do you work with a persistent co-worker who is able to get things done with you?”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 0:07
Products fail when designed for current or incorrectly anticipated model capabilities.
“You fail if you build for where the models are now. You fail if you build for where you think the models are.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 0:24
AI products should target model capabilities two to three months ahead.
“The only way to build is two to three months.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 0:31
Empirical, rapid experimentation matters more than theoretical product planning.
“Being prolific and empirical is way more important than being academic or theoretical.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 0:38
OpenAI turns internal work into user-facing products faster than other organizations she has seen.
“so much of what OpenAI does immediately becomes something that users can touch and feel in the product, and that cycle is faster than anywhere else I've seen”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 5:23
OpenAI moves research into user-facing products faster than other organizations.
“that cycle is faster than anywhere else I've seen.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 5:29
AI product development should remain closely connected to research.
“most importantly, it's like very, very important to stay tied to the research.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 7:44
AI product teams should prioritize rapid empirical testing over academic theorizing.
“actually being prolific and being more empirical is way more important than being maybe more academic or theoretical”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 7:49
Product management centers on identifying and testing the essential product question.
“the core of it has always been about what is like the most essential question you need to ask about your product?”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 9:29
A PM’s core job is identifying and testing the product’s most essential question.
“The core of it has always been about what is like the most essential question you need to ask about your product.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 9:29
AI agents will perform more tactical work while humans increasingly steer.
“the future of work will look more like steering than rowing”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 11:24
Future knowledge work will emphasize steering agents rather than performing tactical tasks.
“the future of work will look more like steering than rowing”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 11:24
Human direction of AI systems will shift toward higher abstraction levels.
“the steering will continue to. maybe go up layers of abstraction.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 11:58
Human judgment will remain necessary for choosing directions and goals.
“that is required from a person.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 12:48
Software products require opinionation and artistry, not merely functional execution.
“The products that we build feel similarly opinionated and artistic.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 14:18
Human-agent product development loops are accelerating.
“those loops are moving faster and faster and faster.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 15:21
AI agents are increasingly being designed as persistent teammates or coworkers.
“People are increasingly thinking about agents that are persistent, that feel like teammates, that feel like co-workers”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 16:26
AI agents are evolving toward persistent teammates and coworkers.
“agents that are persistent, that feel like teammates, that feel like coworkers”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 16:27
Future work may resemble multiplayer collaboration among people and their agents.
“Ideally, work feels like a multiplayer game where all of us together are getting stuff done”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 18:03
Future AI-enabled work may resemble multiplayer collaboration among people and agents.
“Ideally, work feels like a multiplayer game where all of us together are getting stuff done”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 18:03
Cloud agents are ineffective without access to users’ systems and data.
“a cloud agent that is similarly isolated will not be that effective.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 19:35
Agent effectiveness depends on infrastructure, data access, and reliability as well as intelligence.
“a huge part of making these agents useful and achieving some of these futures are on the intelligence side, certainly. But a lot of it is also just really tactical, like data access, like cloud infrastructure and reliability pieces”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 19:40
Effective AI users expand their capabilities rather than merely automate routine tasks.
“the people that we see who are most effective at using AI tools don't simply use it to automate rote tasks, but use it to expand the set of things that they are capable of doing.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 20:42
Effective AI users expand their capabilities rather than merely automating routine tasks.
“the people that we see who are most effective at using AI tools don't simply use it to automate rote tasks, but use it to expand the set of things that they are capable of doing”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 20:42
AI tools have dramatically expanded what individuals can accomplish.
“the set of possibilities have widened dramatically.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 22:04
AI reduces execution and communication limits on individual ambitions.
“Your ambitions are no longer limited by like, what you're capable of executing yourself, what you're capable of communicating.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 22:37
AI should produce exponentially more ambitious projects executed quickly and effectively.
“shouldn't we just see an exponential increase of the number of those types of unreasonably quickly and effectively executed things with what AI has given us?”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 23:48
Product managers should raise colleagues’ ambitions and awareness of AI possibilities.
“elevating others' ambitions or reminding them of what's possible here is a huge part of the product management role.”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)Listen at 24:30
PMs should elevate colleagues’ ambitions and expand their sense of what is possible.
“elevating others ambitions or reminding them of what's possible here is a huge part of the product management role”
Open the episode · AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)Listen at 24:31
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.