Kevin Weil

Kevin Weil, the previous CPO & Vice President of Science at OpenAI, joins Speedrun to discuss the future of AI, scientific discovery, and startup building. After helping build products at Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, Weil is now focused on one of AI's most ambitious applications: accelerating science itself. He explains why modern AI models are beginning to solve problems that sit beyond the frontier of existing human knowledge, and how advances in reasoning, coding, and autonomous research could reshape fields ranging from mathematics to medicine. The conversation explores scientific discovery, robotic labs, AI agents, product design, startup opportunities, and why the current wave of AI may create entirely new categories of companies. Along the way, Weil shares lessons from scaling products used by billions of people and explains what founders should understand about building in a world where AI capabilities continue to improve at an unprecedented pace.   Resources: Follow Kevin Weil on X: https://x.com/kevinweil Follow Speedrun on X: https://x.com/speedrun Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kevin Weil

Chief Product Officer

OpenAIPlanet

Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week, recording from the Coatue East Meets West stage, they welcome OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil to discuss all things OpenAI. Enjoy another episode of BG2! Show Notes: Coatue EMW 2025 Slides Produced by Benny Beausoleil Music by Yung Spielberg Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com Follow: Brad Gerstner @altcap https://x.com/altcap Bill Gurley @bgurley Kevin Weil @kevinweil BG2 Pod @bg2pod

Kevin Weil

Chief Product Officer

OpenAIPlanet

Kevin Weil is the chief product officer at OpenAI, where he oversees the development of ChatGPT, enterprise products, and the OpenAI API. Prior to OpenAI, Kevin was head of product at Twitter, Instagram, and Planet, and was instrumental in the development of the Libra (later Novi) cryptocurrency project at Facebook. In this episode, you’ll learn: 1. How OpenAI structures its product teams and maintains agility while developing cutting-edge AI 2. The power of model ensembles—using multiple specialized models together like a company of humans with different skills 3. Why writing effective evals (AI evaluation tests) is becoming a critical skill for product managers 4. The surprisingly enduring value of chat as an interface for AI, despite predictions of its obsolescence 5. How “vibe coding” is changing how companies operate 6. What OpenAI looks for when hiring product managers (hint: high agency and comfort with ambiguity) 7. “Model maximalism” and why today’s AI is the worst you’ll ever use again 8. Practical prompting techniques that improve AI interactions, including example-based prompting — Brought to you by: • Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments • Persona—A global leader in digital identity verification • OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster — Where to find Kevin Weil: • X: https://x.com/kevinweil • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinweil/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Kevin’s background (04:06) OpenAI’s new image model (06:52) The role of chief product officer at OpenAI (10:18) His recruitment story and joining OpenAI (17:20) The importance of evals in AI (24:59) Shipping quickly and consistently (28:34) Product reviews and iterative deployment (39:35) Chat as an interface for AI (43:59) Collaboration between researchers and product teams (46:41) Hiring product managers at OpenAI (48:45) Embracing ambiguity in product management (51:41) The role of AI in product teams (53:21) Vibe coding and AI prototyping (55:55) The future of product teams and fine-tuned models (01:04:36) AI in education (01:06:42) Optimism and concerns about AI’s future (01:16:37) Reflections on the Libra project (01:20:37) Lightning round and final thoughts — Referenced: • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • The AI-Generated Studio Ghibli Trend, Explained: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2025/03/27/the-ai-generated-studio-ghibli-trend-explained/ • Introducing 4o Image Generation: https://openai.com/index/introducing-4o-image-generation/ • Waymo: https://waymo.com/ • X: https://x.com • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ • Planet: https://www.planet.com/ • Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama • A conversation with OpenAI’s CPO Kevin Weil, Anthropic’s CPO Mike Krieger, and Sarah Guo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxkvVZua28k • OpenAI evals: https://github.com/openai/evals • Deep Research: https://openai.com/index/introducing-deep-research/ • Ev Williams on X: https://x.com/ev • OpenAI API: https://platform.openai.com/docs/overview • Dwight Eisenhower quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_164720 • Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder & CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons • StackBlitz: https://stackblitz.com/ • Claude 3.5 Sonnet: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-5-sonnet • Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/ • Four-minute mile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile • Chad: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-3F100ZiIe-chad-open-a-i • Dario Amodei on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dario-amodei-3934934/ • Figma: https://www.figma.com/ • Julia Villagra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliavillagra/ • Andrej Karpathy on X: https://x.com/karpathy • Silicon Valley CEO says ‘vibe coding’ lets 10 engineers do the work of 100—here’s how to use it: https://fortune.com/2025/03/26/silicon-valley-ceo-says-vibe-coding-lets-10-engineers-do-the-work-of-100-heres-how-to-use-it/ • Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/ • Windsurf: https://codeium.com/windsurf • GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot • Patrick Srail on X: https://x.com/patricksrail • Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/ • CK-12 Education: https://www.ck12.org/ • Sora: https://openai.com/sora/ • Sam Altman’s post on X about creative writing: https://x.com/sama/status/1899535387435086115 • Diem (formerly known as Libra): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diem_(digital_currency) • Novi: https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/welcome-to-novi/ • David Marcus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmarcus/ • Peter Zeihan on X: https://x.com/PeterZeihan • The Wheel of Time on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Wheel-Time-Season-1/dp/B09F59CZ7R • Top Gun: Maverick on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Top-Gun-Maverick-Joseph-Kosinski/dp/B0DM2LYL8G • Thinking like a gardener not a builder, organizing teams like slime mold, the adjacent possible, and other unconventional product advice | Alex Komoroske (Stripe, Google): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/unconventional-product-advice-alex-komoroske • MySQL: https://www.mysql.com/ — Recommended books: • Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI: https://www.amazon.com/Co-Intelligence-Living-Working-Ethan-Mollick/dp/059371671X • The Accidental Superpower: Ten Years On: https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Superpower-Ten-Years/dp/1538767341 • Cable Cowboy: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Cowboy-Malone-Modern-Business/dp/047170637X — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Kevin Weil

Chief Product Officer

OpenAIPlanet

Kevin Weil is President of Product and Business @ Planet and Operator in Residence @ Scribble Ventures. In the past, Kevin has been Head of Product at Twitter, Instagram, and Novi (the digital currency effort within Facebook). During his seven years at Twitter, he helped the company scale from 40 to 4000 people and from $0 to $2B in revenue. He then moved to Instagram in 2016 to lead the product and data teams and led through an inflection point as Instagram grew from 400M to over 1B users, including launching Instagram Stories. Kevin then co-founded Diem (formerly known as Libra) and Novi and built both for three years before moving to Planet in 2021. If that was not enough, Kevin is also on the board of Strava, the Nature Conservancy, and the Black Product Managers Network. In Today's Episode with Kevin Weil We Discuss: 1.) Lessons From Leading Product for Instagram and Twitter: What does Kevin believe makes Instagram so inherently good at product? How did leading product for Instagram change the way Kevin thinks and operates? What are 1-2 of Kevin's biggest lessons from working with Kevin Systrom, Instagram's Founder? What are the biggest takeaways for Kevin from leading product at Twitter? 2.) Launching Products, Customer Discovery and Product Sessions: What were Kevin's biggest learnings from launching Instagram stories? How did Kevin's conviction impact the product building and success of Instagram stories? How does Kevin advise founders on the best way to approach customer discovery? What are the best questions to ask to reveal the truth? How does Kevin approach product testing today? Why does Kevin not like softly softly testing new products? 3.) Kevin Weil: Leadership 101 What are some of the biggest leadership mistakes that Kevin made in his time at Twitter? How does Kevin approach decision-making frameworks? How does one balance the speed vs the quality of the decision? What makes a great product strategy? Where do so many go wrong in their product strategy? How do the best leaders communicate with their team? How does this change over time? What is Kevin's preferred medium and style of communication with his teams? 4.) Kevin Weil: The Athlete, Father and Husband: Kevin is an ultra-marathon runner, what does his training routine look like? What 1-2 changes has Kevin made that have had the biggest impact on performance? How does Kevin manage, investing, advising, training and being a father and husband?

Kevin Weil

Chief Product Officer

OpenAIPlanet

Kevin Weil is the ex-head of product at Twitter and Instagram. He's currently the president of business and product at Planet. Weil joins Big Technology Podcast to share an insider's view of how Twitter and Instagram build products, what their potential is, and how each product is dealing with big, imposing, outside forces (Elon Musk and TikTok). Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss Planet, a fascinating company whose hundreds of satellites orbiting the earth capture a new, complete picture of our world daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Weil

Chief Product Officer

OpenAIPlanet