OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman is officially taking the reins of the company’s product strategy, according to Wired. This move solidifies an already-existing change, with Brockman overseeing OpenAI’s products on an interim basis while the company’s CEO of AGI deployment Fidji Simo is out on medical leave. Wired also reports that in a staff memo, Brockman described plans to combine ChatGPT and its programming product Codex into a single unified experience.
“We’re consolidating our product efforts to execute with maximum focus toward the agentic future, to win across both consumer and enterprise,” Brockman reportedly said, which is corporate-speak for “we’re putting all our eggs in one chatbot-shaped basket.” OpenAI told TechCrunch that although Simo remains on medical leave she worked with Brockman on these changes. It also noted that OpenAI has already been talking about plans to combine ChatGPT, Codex, and its API into a single platform, with one core product team.
At the end of last year, CEO Sam Altman declared a “code red” and said the company needs to refocus on the core ChatGPT experience. Since then, OpenAI has halted “side quests” including video generator Sora and OpenAI for Science - because apparently, saving the world can wait when there’s a chatbot to perfect. This post has been updated with additional information from OpenAI.