OpenAI Research Chief on AI Advances | Generated by AI
Question: What did Mark Chen from OpenAI say recently?
Answer:
Mark Chen, OpenAI’s Chief Research Officer, has been active in public discussions on AI advancements, talent competition, and future research directions. His most recent statements, as of early December 2025, come from a detailed interview with journalist Ashlee Vance (published around December 2, 2025), where he addressed OpenAI’s progress, competitive landscape, and strategic priorities. Below is a summary of key points from that interview and related recent comments:
On Internal Models and Competition
- Chen revealed that OpenAI has developed internal models that match or exceed the performance of Google’s Gemini 3, with plans to release them soon—potentially as successors like GPT-5.2 or GPT-5.5 in early 2026. He described the reaction to Gemini 3 as “moved and not,” indicating it’s impressive but not a game-changer for OpenAI’s trajectory. He emphasized confidence in releasing even stronger successors.
- Regarding the AI talent war, Chen shared that Meta targeted “half” of his direct reports with offers up to $100 million, but all declined. He recounted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally delivering homemade soup to one engineer as a recruitment tactic, likening successful poaches to “someone having broken into our home and stolen something.” Chen noted Meta’s $10 billion annual AI talent budget but affirmed OpenAI’s retention efforts, including recalibrating compensation.
On Pre-Training and Scaling Advances
- Chen highlighted breakthroughs in pre-training efficiency, stating OpenAI can now embed the same level of knowledge into smaller models, reducing the need for massive scaling. This addresses criticisms that “scaling is dead,” with Chen countering: “We don’t think so at all. We absolutely want to keep scaling the models and we have algorithmic breakthroughs that enable us to scale.” He mentioned “strong algorithms” for data efficiency, potentially cutting data needs by up to 40% in some areas.
- On compute: “If we had 10x the compute today, we could use it productively in a few weeks,” underscoring OpenAI’s readiness to leverage more resources for rapid iteration.
On AI-Driven Research and Future Tools
- Chen outlined a roadmap for AI-assisted research: Within one year (by late 2026), OpenAI aims to use “AI interns” for implementation and debugging while humans handle idea generation. By 2.5 years (mid-2028), AI should conduct end-to-end research, with humans only steering the “outer loop.”
- He discussed big bets like synthetic data generation, where models like o3 create high-quality training data that outperforms raw web sources, enabling recursive self-improvement loops.
- On user-facing tools: Chen critiqued current ChatGPT as “dumb” for lacking persistent memory, predicting a future where it deeply learns from interactions to become “much smarter” over time. He hinted at a prototype for a Jony Ive-designed AI device centered on this memory thesis, saying he “may or may not” have one already.
Other Recent Context
- In a November 25, 2025, clip (circulated widely), Chen reiterated the need for more compute to accelerate progress.
- Earlier in 2025 (e.g., January Reddit AMA), he praised competitors like DeepSeek for independently discovering o1-level reasoning concepts, showing a collaborative tone amid rivalry.
These comments reflect Chen’s focus on sustainable scaling, talent retention, and shifting research paradigms toward AI autonomy, positioning OpenAI for continued leadership in AGI pursuit.
References:
- New Interview with OpenAI’s Mark Chen (Bloomberg, Dec 2025)
- OpenAI’s Mark Chen on Pre-Training Breakthroughs (Reddit discussion of interview, Dec 1, 2025)
- Mark Chen on AI Talent War and Soup (X post summarizing interview, Dec 3, 2025)
- Chen on Compute and Scaling (X video clip, Dec 3, 2025)
- OpenAI Research Roadmap (X thread on interview, Dec 2, 2025)