Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Kevin Weil, Vice President for Science at OpenAI. After leading product teams at Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, Kevin is now focused on accelerating scientific discovery with AI. In this interview, he explains how AI models are pushing beyond the frontier of human knowledge, why robotic labs and long-horizon reasoning could transform research, and what founders need to understand to build successfully in the age of AI.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Career path → joining OpenAI
03:50 - AI solving frontier science problems
07:01 - The AI “world shift” moment
11:10 - Keeping up with rapid AI progress
12:25 - Robotic labs & the future of scientific discovery
16:52 - Risky product decisions at scale
18:27 - Designing UX for reasoning AI models
20:47 - Data Vs Taste
22:31 - Startup lessons, agents & emerging AI ecosystems
24:21 - Surprising builds on top of OpenAI
27:47 - Making history with AI
29:15 - Why AI is B2B-first and the consumer opportunity
31:16 - Open AI distribution
💡 Are you a founder building the next big thing? Join Speedrun, the startup accelerator designed to help founders move fast with capital, mentorship, and top investors.
👉 Apply now: speedrun.a16z.com
📲 Follow us for more insights:
X (Twitter): https://x.com/speedrun
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/school/a16zspeedrun
Kevin Weil, Vice President for Science at OpenAI. After leading product teams at Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, Kevin is now focused on accelerating scientific discovery with AI. In this interview, he explains how AI models are pushing beyond the frontier of human knowledge, why robotic labs and long-horizon reasoning could transform research, and what founders need to understand to build successfully in the age of AI.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Career path → joining OpenAI
03:50 - AI solving frontier science problems
07:01 - The AI “world shift” moment
11:10 - Keeping up with rapid AI progress
12:25 - Robotic labs & the future of scientific discovery
16:52 - Risky product decisions at scale
18:27 - Designing UX for reasoning AI models
20:47 - Data Vs Taste
22:31 - Startup lessons, agents & emerging AI ecosystems
24:21 - Surprising builds on top of OpenAI
27:47 - Making history with AI
29:15 - Why AI is B2B-first and the consumer opportunity
31:16 - Open AI distribution
💡 Are you a founder building the next big thing? Join Speedrun, the startup accelerator designed to help founders move fast with capital, mentorship, and top investors.
👉 Apply now: speedrun.a16z.com
📲 Follow us for more insights:
X (Twitter): https://x.com/speedrun
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/school/a16zspeedrun
