Isa Fulford is only a few years out of school and is already the mind behind Deep Research and ChatGPT Agent - two of the most important and ambitious projects at OpenAI. She’s a close friend from our Stanford days, someone I adore, and someone the world is going to hear a lot more about in coming years.

We talk about how her upbringing and violin training shaped the discipline behind her professional work. Isa breaks down how these systems were built, how they think, and where AI is heading, from agents talking to agents to a future where humans guide the work instead of doing it.SHOWNOTES:

0:00 Introduction

1:50 Early life, math, music, and discipline

4:40 Stanford, Journey into AI, & joining OpenAI

7:15 Deep Research, building datasets, & early indications

11:35 Building ChatGPT Agent

13:47 What comes next from OpenAI?

15:58 Personal Use of AI

16:40 Future of Internet + Agent Communication

19:03 Personal AI agents

20:06 Safety Risks 22:44 AGI

24:03 Agents for personal growth

25:00 How AI is changing the way we work

27:43 Talent war and poaching

28:30 Lessons from Sam Altman: raise ambition level

30:18 Rapid questions

EPISODE LINKS:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SabrinaHalper

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sabrina-halper-show/id1627753991