OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman reportedly takes charge of product strategy

So Greg Brockman, the co-founder who keeps getting shuffled around OpenAI like a jigsaw piece that never quite fits, is now 'taking the reins' of product strategy. According to Wired, this is an interim gig while Fidji Simo—the CEO of AGI deployment, because of course that's a title that exists—is out on medical leave. Nothing says 'steady hands' like handing product direction to a man whose last major public appearance involved being dramatically fired and rehired via Slack in a weekend. But sure, let him oversee the products that might eventually automate everyone else's jobs; what could possibly go wrong?

This is the same OpenAI that can't decide if it's a non-profit research lab or a capitalist money-printing machine, and now its product strategy is being run by someone whose background is more 'boardroom coup survivor' than 'consumer electronics visionary.' One imagines the product roadmap meetings: 'We could ship AGI next quarter, or we could do a thoughtful rollout over three years. Let's take a vote—oh wait, Sam just changed his mind again.' The most telling detail is that this is described as an 'interim basis,' which in OpenAI years is about 48 hours of calendar time before another reshuffle.

So here we are, entrusting the product vision of the world's most consequential AI company to a man whose tenure has been defined by being the loyal lieutenant through the chaos. Fidji Simo, meanwhile, gets to recover from the stress of working for a company that treats organisational stability like a suggestion. The real product strategy, as ever, is 'keep the lights on and the hype train rolling.' Maybe Brockman's first act should be releasing a product that actually works consistently, but let's not get carried away.