Dive Club 🤿 Ian Silber - What it's like designing at OpenAI
45 snips
Apr 8, 2026 Ian Silber, Head of Product Design at OpenAI and former Instagram designer, talks about designing with AI and building reusable design systems. He explores using models as interface primitives, when to rely on UI versus model behavior, and the creation of a Dynamic Interface Library. Conversation highlights rapid prototyping, tools like Codex, and how design roles are evolving in an AI-first workflow.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Combine Chat With Targeted Manipulation
- Blend chat's simplicity with targeted UI blocks for common tasks like writing to improve ergonomics.
- OpenAI created editable writing containers so users can directly manipulate and ask the model to change specific text segments.
Build Reusable Primitives Not Isolated Features
- Systems thinkers design primitives that generalize across features so models and humans can reuse them.
- 'Skills' are an example primitive intended for both product composition and model reasoning.
Live Model Prototypes Sparked The Math Experience
- Designers at OpenAI prototype working model-powered features using live responses rather than static mockups.
- Ian shared the math learning prototype where designers asked the model to respond differently and the idea rapidly gained traction.