From Vibe Coding to Vibe Researching: OpenAI’s Mark Chen and Jakub Pachocki

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a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What comes after vibe coding? Maybe vibe researching. OpenAI’s Chief Scientist, Jakub Pachocki, and Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, join a16z general partners Anjney Midha and Sarah Wang to go deep on GPT-5—how they fused fast replies with long-horizon reasoning, how they measure progress once benchmarks saturate, and why reinforcement learning keeps surprising skeptics. They explore agentic systems (and their stability tradeoffs), coding models that change how software gets made, and the bigger bet: an automated researcher that can generate new ideas with real economic impact. Plus: how they prioritize compute, hire “cave-dweller” talent, protect fundamental research inside a product company, and keep pace without chasing every shiny demo.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The big thing that we are targeting is producing an automated researcher.
0:04.0	So automating the discovery of new ideas, the next set of evils and milestones that we're looking at will involve actual movement on things that are economically relevant.
0:13.0	I was talking to some high schoolers and they're saying, oh, you know, actually the default way to code is vibe coding.
0:19.0	I do think, you know, the future hopefully will be vibe
0:20.9	researching. What does it take to build an automated researcher and can AI discover new ideas
0:26.8	on its own? OpenAI's chief scientist, Yaka Pohutski, and chief research officer Mark Chen,
0:33.3	joined A16Z general partners Ageny Mideh Mita and Sarah Wang to unpack GPT5's reasoning push.
0:39.9	Why e-vowels must shift to economically meaningful benchmarks and the march towards an automated researcher.
0:45.7	We get into Long Horizon Agency, why RL keeps working, the new codex for real-world coding,
0:51.9	research culture versus product, and why, for now, compute is destiny. Let's
0:57.0	get into it. Thanks for coming, Jacob and Mark. Jakob, you are the chief scientist at Open
1:03.2	AI. Mark, you are the chief research officer at Open AI, and you guys have both the privilege
1:08.6	and the stress of running probably one of the most high-profile
1:11.4	research teams in AI. And so we're just really stoked to talk with you about a whole bunch of
1:17.0	things we've been curious about including GPD-5, which was one of the most exciting updates
1:23.1	to come out of opening in recent times, and then stepping back how you build a research team
1:27.2	that can
1:27.8	do not just GPD-5, but codex and chat GPDT and an API business and can weave all of the many
1:35.9	different bets you guys have across modalities, across product form factors into one coherent research
1:42.3	culture and story. And so to kick things off, why don't we start with GPD 5?
1:47.0	Just tell us a little bit about the GPD 5 launch from your perspective.
1:50.0	How did it go?
	...

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