Calvin French-Owen, a senior engineer at OpenAI, recently shared a reflective blog post following his resignation after a year with the company. In it, he discussed the rapid growth and internal dynamics of the ChatGPT maker during his tenure.

A Smooth Exit

French-Owen, who contributed to OpenAI’s coding agent Codex, clarified that there was no drama surrounding his departure. He expressed a desire to return to startup founding, drawing from his extensive experience as a cofounder of Segment, a customer data platform acquired by Twilio for $3.2 billion in 2020.

Rapid Expansion

In his post, French-Owen emphasized the staggering pace of growth at OpenAI. “When I joined, the company had just over 1,000 employees. One year later, it has grown to over 3,000, and I was in the top 30% by tenure,” he wrote.

The Costs of Speed

Reflecting on the challenges of rapid scaling, he noted, “Anything that has scaled that quickly is bound to break.” This includes systems for communication, reporting structures, product shipping, management, and hiring processes.

A Unique Communication Style

French-Owen explained that everything at OpenAI runs on Slack; emails are largely nonexistent. He described the company’s culture as “bottoms-up,” particularly in research, fostering a meritocratic environment where good ideas can originate from any level.

Meritocracy at Work

Promotions at OpenAI are awarded to those who demonstrate the capability to generate and execute compelling ideas, enhancing a culture of innovation.

Secrecy and Public Perception

In an age where OpenAI has frequently been in the headlines, French-Owen noted the organization’s secretive nature. “I’d regularly see news stories broken in the press before they were announced internally,” he shared.

Pre-formed Opinions

He mentioned that revealing his affiliation with OpenAI often led to preconceived opinions about the organization, illustrating the public’s perception shaped largely by media narratives.

Automated Scrutiny

French-Owen also pointed out that numerous Twitter users operate automated bots to monitor upcoming feature launches at OpenAI, highlighting the intense interest in the company’s developments.

Commitment to Safety

Despite criticism regarding shifting priorities on safety, he assured that safety is a genuine focus at OpenAI, more so than many people realize.

A Team Effort

He revealed that many team members work diligently to develop safety systems, balancing practical risks—such as hate speech and manipulation of biases—against more theoretical risks like intelligence explosions.

Talent Departures

French-Owen’s exit is part of a broader trend of talent outflow from OpenAI. Several cofounders, including John Schulman, have joined competing firms like Anthropic, while Jan Leike left due to differences over the company’s priorities.

Former CEO’s Ventures

Additionally, former CEO Mira Murati’s new initiative, the Thinking Machines Lab, recently secured $2 billion in seed funding, raising its valuation to $10 billion within just six months.