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Dubois: OpenAI model iteration speed spans months upstream to days downstream

Yann Dubois · OpenAI's Yann Dubois: Why AI Progress Suddenly Feels Real · May 21, 2026 · at 7:10

Yann Dubois, Post-Training Frontiers Co-Lead at OpenAI, explains how iteration cycles vary depending on how close a training stage is to product release.

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“So we really have like different sub teams including pre-training and you have like the mid training stage and like you have some post training and usually the closer you get to products like pushing being the last one, the faster the iteration cycle is. And if you're more upstream, the slower the iteration cycle is. So I could go from, let's say from months to two days basically.”

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