Tworek: Top-down management does not work in AI research organizations
Jerry Tworek · How GPT-5 Thinks — OpenAI VP of Research Jerry Tworek · Oct 16, 2025 · at 26:16
Jerry Tworek, VP of Research at OpenAI, explains how research leadership must balance top-down direction with bottom-up autonomy.
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“Top down structuring of research doesn't work in research organizations. I really don't believe in it because like you are not kind of hiring some of the smartest people in the world and open air has incredibly, incredibly smart people. To kind of tell them what to do, they need to, like, they need to figure out what to do, but they cannot figure out in the whole space of things what are cool things to do. They need to figure out from within the space of what the project needs and what is, what could advance the research goals of OpenAI the most.”
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