【學英文看科技】OpenAI內部文化大揭密:混亂、衝刺與安全誤解!
2025-7-24
| 2025-7-24
字數 2722閱讀時間 7 分鐘
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📢【新聞標題】

A former OpenAI engineer describes what it’s really like to work there
一位前 OpenAI 工程師描述在那裡工作的真實情況

📰【摘要】

A former OpenAI engineer, Calvin French-Owen, shared his experience working at the company, including the fast growth, chaotic environment, and intense "launching spirit" to build Codex. He also addressed the misconception that OpenAI isn't concerned about safety, emphasizing the company's focus on practical safety concerns.
一位前 OpenAI 工程師 Calvin French-Owen 分享了他在該公司的工作經驗,包括快速增長、混亂的環境以及為構建 Codex 而進行的緊張「發布衝刺」。 他還闡述了關於 OpenAI 不關心安全的誤解,強調公司對實際安全問題的關注。

🗝️【關鍵詞彙表】

📝 Resign (v.)

  • 辭職
  • 例句: Three weeks ago, an engineer resigned from the company.
  • 翻譯: 三週前,一位工程師從公司辭職。

📝 Codex (n.)

  • OpenAI 的一種新的程式碼編寫工具
  • 例句: He just published a fascinating blog post on what it was like to work there for a year, including the sleepless sprint to build Codex.
  • 翻譯: 他剛剛發表了一篇引人入勝的部落格文章,講述在那裡工作一年的感受,包括為了構建 Codex 而進行的不眠不休的衝刺。

📝 Monolith (n.)

  • 大型單體架構
  • 例句: The central code repository, aka “the back-end monolith,” is “a bit of a dumping ground,” he described.
  • 翻譯: 他將中央程式碼儲存庫,也就是「後端單體架構」,描述為「有點像垃圾場」。

📝 Uptick (n.)

  • 增長
  • 例句: I’ve never seen a product get so much immediate uptick just from appearing in a left-hand sidebar, but that’s the power of ChatGPT.
  • 翻譯: 我從未見過一個產品僅僅因為出現在左側邊欄中就獲得如此立即的 增長,這就是 ChatGPT 的力量。

📝 Scrutinized (adj.)

  • 受到嚴格審查的
  • 例句: ChatGPT is a highly scrutinized company.
  • 翻譯: ChatGPT 是一家受到高度 審查 的公司。

📝 Misconception (n.)

  • 誤解
  • 例句: French-Owen implied that the biggest misconception about OpenAI is that it isn’t as concerned about safety as it should be.
  • 翻譯: French-Owen 暗示,關於 OpenAI 的最大 誤解 是它不像它應該的那樣關心安全。

📝 Doomsayers (n.)

  • 預言末日的人
  • 例句: While there are doomsayers worrying about theoretic risks to humanity, internally there’s more focus on practical safety.
  • 翻譯: 雖然有一些 預言末日的人 擔心人類面臨的理論風險,但在內部,人們更關注實際安全。

✍️【文法與句型】

📝 What it was like to...

  • 說明: Describes an experience or situation.
  • 翻譯: 描述一種經驗或情況。
  • 例句: He just published a fascinating blog post on what it was like to work there for a year.
  • 翻譯: 他剛剛發表了一篇引人入勝的部落格文章,講述在那裡工作一年的感受。

📝 Right down to...

  • 說明: Emphasizing that something is thorough or complete.
  • 翻譯: 強調某事物是徹底的或完整的。
  • 例句: OpenAI doesn’t seem to know yet that it’s a giant company, right down to running entirely on Slack.
  • 翻譯: OpenAI 似乎還不知道自己是一家大型公司,甚至 完全在 Slack 上運行。

📖【全文與翻譯】

Three weeks ago, an engineer named Calvin French-Owen, who worked on one of OpenAI’s most promising new products, resigned from the company.
三週前,一位名叫 Calvin French-Owen 的工程師從 OpenAI 辭職,他曾參與 OpenAI 最有前途的新產品之一。

He just published a fascinating blog post on what it was like to work there for a year, including the sleepless sprint to build Codex.
他剛剛發表了一篇引人入勝的部落格文章,講述在那裡工作一年的感受,包括為了構建 Codex 而進行的不眠不休的衝刺。

That’s OpenAI’s new coding agent that competes with tools like Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude Code.
那是 OpenAI 的一種新的程式碼編寫工具,與 Cursor 和 Anthropic 的 Claude Code 等工具競爭。

French-Owen said he didn’t leave because of any “drama,” but because he wants to get back to being a startup founder.
French-Owen 說他離開不是因為任何「鬧劇」,而是因為他想回到新創公司創辦人的身分。

He was a co-founder of customer data startup Segment, which was bought by Twilio in 2020 for $3.2 billion.
他是客戶資料新創公司 Segment 的共同創辦人,該公司於 2020 年以 32 億美元的價格被 Twilio 收購。

Some of what he revealed about the OpenAI culture would surprise no one, but other observations combat some misconceptions about the company.
他所揭露的一些關於 OpenAI 文化的事情不會讓任何人感到驚訝,但其他觀察結果反駁了對該公司的一些誤解。

Fast growth: OpenAI grew from 1,000 to 3,000 people in the year he was there, he wrote.
快速成長:他寫道,在他工作的那一年,OpenAI 從 1,000 人增加到 3,000 人。

The LLM model maker certainly has reasons for such hiring.
LLM 模型製造商當然有理由進行如此大規模的招聘。

It is the fastest-growing consumer product ever, and its competitors are also growing fast.
它是有史以來成長最快的消費產品,其競爭對手也在快速成長。

In March, it said that ChatGPT had over 500 million active users and climbing quickly.
今年三月,它表示 ChatGPT 擁有超過 5 億活躍用戶,並且還在迅速增長。

Chaos: “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.,” French-Owen wrote.
混亂:「當你擴張得如此之快時,一切都會崩潰:公司如何溝通、報告結構、如何交付產品、如何管理和組織人員、招聘流程等等,」French-Owen 寫道。

Like a small startup, people there are still empowered to act on their ideas with little to no red tape.
就像一家小型新創公司一樣,那裡的人們仍然有權根據自己的想法採取行動,幾乎沒有繁文縟節。

But that also means that multiple teams are duplicating efforts.
但這也意味著多個團隊在重複工作。

“I must’ve seen half a dozen libraries for things like queue management or agent loops,” he offered as examples.
「我一定見過至少六個用於佇列管理或代理迴圈等功能的程式庫,」他舉例說。

Coding skill varies, too, from seasoned Google engineers who write code that can handle a billion users, to newly minted PhDs who do not.
程式碼編寫技能也各不相同,從編寫可以處理十億用戶的程式碼的經驗豐富的 Google 工程師,到剛畢業的博士生。

This, coupled with the flexible Python language, means that the central code repository, aka “the back-end monolith,” is “a bit of a dumping ground,” he described.
這,加上靈活的 Python 語言,意味著中央程式碼儲存庫,也就是「後端單體架構」,被他描述為「有點像垃圾場」。

Stuff frequently breaks or can take excessive time to run.
東西經常會壞掉或需要過多的時間才能運行。

But top engineering managers are aware of this and are working on improvements, he wrote.
但他寫道,頂級工程經理意識到這一點,並且正在努力改進。

“Launching spirit”: OpenAI doesn’t seem to know yet that it’s a giant company, right down to running entirely on Slack.
「發布精神」:OpenAI 似乎還不知道自己是一家大型公司,甚至完全在 Slack 上運行。

It feels very much like move-fast-and-break-things Meta in its early Facebook years, he observed.
他觀察到,它感覺很像 Facebook 早期那種快速行動並打破現狀的 Meta。

The company is also full of hires from Meta.
該公司也聘用了許多來自 Meta 的員工。

French-Owen described how his senior team of around eight engineers, four researchers, two designers, two go-to-market staff, and a product manager built and launched Codex in only seven weeks, start to finish, with almost no sleep.
French-Owen 描述了他的高級團隊,包括約八名工程師、四名研究人員、兩名設計師、兩名上市人員和一名產品經理,如何在短短七週內從頭到尾構建並發布 Codex,幾乎沒有睡眠。

But launching it was magic.
但是發布它是神奇的。

Just by turning it on, they got users.
僅僅通過打開它,他們就獲得了用戶。

“I’ve never seen a product get so much immediate uptick just from appearing in a left-hand sidebar, but that’s the power of ChatGPT.”
「我從未見過一個產品僅僅因為出現在左側邊欄中就獲得如此立即的增長,這就是 ChatGPT 的力量。」

Secretive fishbowl: ChatGPT is a highly scrutinized company.
秘密的魚缸:ChatGPT 是一家受到高度審查的公司。

This led to a culture of secrecy in an attempt to clamp down on leaks to the public.
這導致了一種保密文化,試圖遏制向公眾洩露資訊。

At the same time, the company watches X. If a post goes viral there, OpenAI will see it and, possibly, respond to it.
同時,該公司會關注 X(前身為 Twitter)。 如果那裡的一篇文章爆紅,OpenAI 會看到它,並且可能會回應它。

“A friend of mine joked, ‘this company runs on twitter vibes,’” he wrote.
「我的一個朋友開玩笑說,『這家公司靠 Twitter 的氛圍運作,』」他寫道。

Biggest misconception: French-Owen implied that the biggest misconception about OpenAI is that it isn’t as concerned about safety as it should be.
最大的誤解:French-Owen 暗示,關於 OpenAI 的最大誤解是它不像它應該的那樣關心安全。

While there are doomsayers worrying about theoretic risks to humanity, internally there’s more focus on practical safety like “hate speech, abuse, manipulating political biases, crafting bio-weapons, self-harm, prompt injection,” he wrote.
雖然有一些預言末日的人擔心人類面臨的理論風險,但在內部,人們更關注實際安全,例如「仇恨言論、虐待、操縱政治偏見、製造生物武器、自殘、提示注入」,他寫道。

OpenAI isn’t ignoring the long-term potential impacts, he wrote.
OpenAI 並未忽視長期潛在影響,他寫道。

There are researchers looking at them, and it’s aware that hundreds of millions of people are using its LLMs today for everything from medical advice to therapy.
有研究人員正在研究它們,並且它知道今天有數億人正在使用它的 LLM 進行從醫療建議到治療的各種事情。

Governments are watching. Competitors are watching (and OpenAI is watching competitors in return).
各國政府正在關注。 競爭對手正在關注(而 OpenAI 反過來也在關注競爭對手)。

“The stakes feel really high.”
「風險感覺真的很高。」

🔗【資料來源】
文章連結:https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/a-former-openai-engineer-describes-what-its-really-like-to-work-there/
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