Inside OpenAI: Former Engineer Reveals Culture of Secrecy, Intensity, and Rapid Growth

Rapid Growth and Chaotic Environment

Calvin French-Owen, a former OpenAI engineer who worked on the Codex project, has provided a revealing look into the company's internal culture. During his year-long tenure from May 2024 to June 2025, French-Owen witnessed OpenAI's explosive growth, with the company expanding from 1,000 to over 3,000 employees 1

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. This rapid scaling led to significant operational challenges, as French-Owen noted, "Everything breaks when you scale that quickly: how to communicate as a company, the reporting structures, how to ship product, how to manage and organize people, the hiring processes, etc." 3

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The company's growth has resulted in a chaotic environment where multiple teams often duplicate efforts. French-Owen observed "half a dozen libraries for things like queue management or agent loops" 3

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. Despite its size, OpenAI maintains a startup-like atmosphere, with a strong bias towards action and quick decision-making 1

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Intense Work Culture and Communication

OpenAI's work culture is characterized by high intensity and long hours. French-Owen described the development of Codex as "probably the hardest I've worked in nearly a decade," with most nights extending until 11 PM or midnight, and work continuing on weekends 1

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. This aligns with reports from other sources, suggesting that 12-hour workdays are common, with some employees working up to 14 hours a day, six days a week 1

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Interestingly, the company relies almost exclusively on Slack for internal communication. French-Owen stated, "There is no email. I maybe received ~10 emails in my entire time there" 1

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. This unique approach to communication contributes to the company's ability to move quickly and change direction rapidly 1

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Secrecy and Public Perception

OpenAI maintains a high level of secrecy, both internally and externally. French-Owen described it as "a very secretive place," where employees often couldn't discuss their work in detail, even with colleagues 1

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. This secrecy extends to financial information, although it was clear that the company is spending significant amounts on computing power, particularly GPUs 1

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Interestingly, the company pays close attention to social media, especially X (formerly Twitter). French-Owen noted, "If you tweet something related to OpenAI that goes viral, chances are good someone will read about it and consider it" 1

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. This focus on public perception and "vibes" plays a significant role in shaping the company's direction and product development 1

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AI Safety and Ethical Considerations

Contrary to some external perceptions, French-Owen emphasized that OpenAI does focus on AI safety. However, their primary concern is with immediate, practical risks such as hate speech, abuse, political manipulation, and prompt injection, rather than long-term theoretical risks like intelligence explosion 3

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. The company acknowledges the high stakes involved, given that hundreds of millions of people are using their large language models for various applications, including medical advice and therapy 5

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Technical Challenges and Innovation

Despite the chaotic environment, OpenAI continues to ship groundbreaking tools like ChatGPT and Codex. The development of Codex, for example, was completed in just seven weeks by a small team 3

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. However, the rapid pace of development has led to some technical challenges. French-Owen described the main software system, sa-server, as "a bit of a dumping ground," highlighting the difficulties in managing a rapidly growing codebase 3

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In conclusion, French-Owen's account provides a unique insight into one of the most influential AI companies in the world. While the intense work culture and chaotic environment present challenges, they also contribute to OpenAI's ability to innovate rapidly in the fast-paced field of artificial intelligence.