We talked about how they manage the inherent tension between research and product. In particular, I wanted to get a sense of where their heads are at in the run-up to OpenAI’s biggest product release in months: GPT-5. OpenAI’s official line—well, Altman’s—is that it will release GPT-5 “soon.” Anticipation is high. And Chen and Pachocki set the agenda inside OpenAI. OpenAI’s head of research communications, Laurance Fauconnet, sat with an open laptop at the end of the table.