Simon Last: GPT-4 Proto-Interface Sparked Notion's AI Pivot
Simon Last · From Note-Taking App to AI Workspace: The Simon Last Interview · Mar 12, 2026 · at 1:00
Simon Last, co-founder of Notion, discusses the origin story of Notion's AI strategy after gaining early access to OpenAI's GPT-4 alongside co-founder Ivan Zhao.
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“It wasn't until I played with GPT-IV that it became really, really real. So, you know, we, when we got access to it was sort of like a proto-ChatGPT-like interface. And my co-founder Ivan and I both got access, and it was just immediately clear, like, I would say two big things. One is that it was just pretty smart. It could follow reasonably complicated instructions. It could write things for you. It could edit things. And the second big thing was that the scope of its knowledge was extremely interesting. Super, super deep, like and broad world knowledge. When we play with it became just instantly clear to both of us, like, okay, the time is now to start, but we think about how to apply this.”
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