a16z Podcast

From Vibe Coding to Vibe Researching: OpenAI’s Mark Chen and Jakub Pachocki

762 snips
Sep 25, 2025
OpenAI's Jakub Pachocki, Chief Scientist focused on reasoning and long-horizon systems, and Mark Chen, Chief Research Officer overseeing core research, dive into the future of AI. They unveil the ambitious roadmap for GPT-5, aiming to enhance reasoning and agentic behavior. Fascinating discussions explore the surprising capabilities of GPT-5 in math and science. They candidly discuss evolving evaluation methods, the significance of reinforcement learning, and the quest for an automated researcher. Hiring talent, balancing research with product goals, and resource allocation are also on their agenda.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
INSIGHT

Reasoning As The Default

  • GPT-5's core aim was to make deep reasoning and agentic behavior the default experience for users.
  • The team fused fast-response and long-thinking model families to remove user mode selection.
INSIGHT

Evals Need Real-World Stakes

  • Standard benchmarks are saturating and no longer capture the most meaningful progress.
  • OpenAI is shifting to evaluations that measure discovery and economic impact.
ANECDOTE

Scientists Had Light-Bulb Moments

  • Mark recalled physicists and mathematicians getting 'light bulb' moments using the model on hard scientific problems.
  • They saw GPT-5 automate work that might have taken a student months.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app