Disclosure: I support hybrid and remote work and do remote searches often. I don’t have skin in the game and share my recommendations openly, which vary company to company, assignment to assignment. Our fees are the same regardless of whether the hire we make works from home, Mars, or an office. OpenAI is not a client. Their largest non-technical vendor is.

OpenAI’s new HQ in New York was a strategic choice of an iconic site: the Puck Building in SoHo. Spanning over 90,000 square feet, this historic building sits in the heart of Manhattan and is close to key transportation hubs like the Broadway-Lafayette subway station. It will house 500+ real, live humans.

Sharing the space with Thrive Capital (which recently led a massive funding round for OpenAI), the site fosters proximity to venture capitalists and tech innovators alike. This move speaks to the broader trend of AI companies establishing physical office spaces to nurture collaboration and culture, something OpenAI seems to value greatly despite its focus on cutting-edge AI and remote capabilities

Here’s a closer look at how this physical office thing plays out:

People to Build OpenAI: Over 500 roles will come to life in the NYC HQ, with the most crucial filled by specialist headhunters, not algorithms. Because you don’t just pick “Best Hire” from a dropdown menu. 🎯

Human-operated Facilities: Cleaned by people with dustpans, not data plans. (Sorry, Roomba🧹)

Catered Lunches: Crafted by chefs, not ChatGPT 🍲

Friendly Faces in the Lobby: You’ll see some cool tech in the lobby but humans will be there to welcome you 😊

Secure as Ever: The building will be secured by a real security team, not a bunch of CCTVs hooked up to facial recognition.

Client Visits: Real-life clients will meet real-life humans to make decisions about AI in their company. There’s something oddly satisfying about talking AI and negotiating with… humans. 🖊️

Facilities Management: Tech-savvy but human-friendly staff keep everything from lightbulbs to servers running smoothly. They know how to actually fix a printer VS recite the manual.

Onsite HR Support: Not every question can be answered by a bot, especially the sensitive day to day things that come up in life in the four walls of the office and beyond

Wellness Services: Yoga, Workouts, and therapy dogs, folks — courtesy of real humans and hopefully real dogs.. or goats.

Company Culture: OpenAI will have real cultural ambassadors fostering a sense of community and corporate DNA, which might be the most “human” thing of all. 🌎

Strategic Hiring: When it comes to truly mission critical leadership roles, OpenAI relies on headhunters who can locate, vet, persuade talent where algos can’t.

P.S. I used ChatGPT to help format this post (not to write it for me), and yes, I love AI too.😊