Inside OpenAI: A former engineer's perspective
Calvin French-Owen, who just left OpenAI after joining in mid-2024, posted a blog sharing what it was really like inside the fast-growing AI giant.
He described how the company ballooned from 1,000 to 3,000 employees in just one year, but still felt like a hectic startup behind the scenes.
How the codebase was described
French-Owen called OpenAI's main codebase a "dumping ground," with polished scripts from industry pros mixed right alongside experimental code from new PhDs.
This mix led to frequent software breakages—a headache for engineers—though leadership is trying to fix it.
OpenAI keeps things under wraps due to public attention
He also talked about how OpenAI keeps things tightly under wraps because of constant public attention. The team closely watches viral posts online and reacts fast.
At the same time, he said they're genuinely focused on tackling real-world AI risks like hate speech and bias—not just big-picture threats.