Ian Silber
Designer who led product design at OpenAI, including ChatGPT and Codex; previously at Artifact and, for eight years, Instagram.
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What they believe
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Unlike coding with an agent, the design process is still messy and fluid.
the design process is really still very messy and fluid and you think you have a great idea and you try it and it sucks
youtube.comSaid 16 Aug 2026This on korrents
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Beliefs
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Unlike coding with an agent, the design process is still messy and fluid.
the design process is really still very messy and fluid and you think you have a great idea and you try it and it sucks
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Nobody should feel behind on AI in design, because someone starting today would still have a head start on most people.
nobody should feel like behind right now. I think that if you literally started today, you're going to have a leg up on pretty much most people.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Everyone is still extremely early in working out how AI changes design, and nobody has it figured out.
We're all extremely early in this process and nobody really has like the it figured out.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
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The human element of design will become more and more important as more software gets made.
I do think that the human element of design is going to really be start to become more and more important.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
This is the best time to be a designer.
I really do think it's the best time to be a designer.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
The lines between product, design and engineering roles have always been blurry and are becoming blurrier.
I think there's those lines have always been blurry, but they're becoming blurriier for sure.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Single siloed role definitions for product, design and engineering do not really make sense.
I've always found that these like single siloed um role definitions don't really make sense.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Even as roles blur, an excellent product manager who can rally multiple teams still adds a lot of value.
I still find a lot of value, for example, in having like an excellent PM that can help rally multiple teams together
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
In one sense, AI already is an incredible product designer.
Maybe one way to put it is I think it already is an incredible um product designer.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
A designer's point of view, who they are building for and why, is something to hone as AI gets better.
I think that that's like an important thing for a designer to like really hone is like what is my point of view? What who am I building this for and why?
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Having a human in the loop is going to be very important in design.
I think there's a lot of reasons why uh having that human in the loop is going to be so important.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Designers do not need a background in AI, but they do need high curiosity about it.
we do not expect you to have a background in AI because again, this is evolving so quickly, but we definitely expect high curiosity about it
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
A design team should be well rounded, with many different strengths, because no single designer checks every box.
I really believe in hiring a well-rounded team that has many different strengths.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Systems thinking is becoming more and more important for designers.
systems thinking um is becoming more and more important
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
With products moving fast, designers should do less: not design something if they do not have to.
like my encouragement has been do less there like don't design it if you don't have to.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Designers working on AI products should maybe not be precious about a design until the technology underneath it has settled.
maybe not be so precious about it until it's at the point where okay this is kind of hardened like we don't think that this is necessarily going to change tomorrow because of the technology
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
A feature only truly reaches billions of users when they do not have to think about a switch or a mode.
things will truly become like for billions of users when they don't have to like think about a switch or a mode or anything like that.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Proactivity is a big untapped part of the AI assistant experience.
I think proactivity is a big untapped kind of part of the experience that we're really excited to think about.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
A consumer AI assistant should have one universal input that knows whether to answer quickly, chat, or go off and do work.
we do think that there should be sort of this one universal input that you can ask that knows when it needs to answer like really quickly or it should be chatty or whether it should go and like go off and do work for you.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
It is much better to be humble about AI and admit it is changing quickly.
I think it's much better to be humble about it and be like wow yeah I don't know this is like changing quickly
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Designers should focus on the outcome rather than on building processes or maximising tokens.
really try to focus on the output the outcome, right? At the end of the day, we're not here to build tools like processes. We're not here to like build uh or token max or something like that.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
Some companies will probably be left behind for not shifting, but there will be more room than ever for great design.
There probably going to be a bunch of companies that will be left behind because they haven't shifted, but I think that that there's plenty of room for amazing, great design, and that's going to be more true than ever.
Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silber Said 16 Aug 2026
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