Astra

OpenAI’s Head of ChatGPT: We’re entering a new era of AI (again) | Tibo Sottiaux

Oct 4, 2026 · 37:23

Lenny's Podcast interviews Tibo Sottiaux, OpenAI's Head of ChatGPT and Codex, who argues always-on agents like OpenAI's new Dots will replace today's apps since most actions on the internet will soon be taken by agents. He explains Dots works 24/7 across devices with no model picker, that Codex and ChatGPT Work will merge for ChatGPT's 1.2 billion users, and that agent loops and graphs are a passing phase versus systems that learn. He details the open ecosystem—Sign in with ChatGPT at 16 partners, plugin revenue share—where plugin discovery runs on retention, not SEO. His Dot warned him five minutes before a DevDay demo that production was down; he says typing fast matters less while taste and 120+ ex-founders define hiring. He cites OpenAI's safety spend and the withheld 6.1 Astra model.

How to run your product team like a research lab | Dan Shipper (Every)

Sep 24, 2026 · 18:32

Dan Shipper, co-founder and CEO of Every, argues product orgs should add a small labs team exploring frontier AI like Astra 6 and Fable 5.1 while the product team executes, because exploring and executing pull in opposite directions. Labs teams of one or two people—messy "pirates" with "architects"—should dogfood, run parallel experiments, and expect to discard 90%, recouping ROI through content and early adopter programs. Anthropic Labs produced Claude Code and skills this way, and OpenAI's Codex, launched February 2026, merged into ChatGPT's 800 million daily users. Every's "Kate Bench" shows the pipeline: an AI copy editor trained on editor-in-chief Kate's edits cut her work 12% in a month. He advises weekly pipeline reviews and criteria—recurring usage, 10x better, affordable.