What racing reveals about working with AI — the OpenAI Podcast Ep. 22

Racing is a sport of tiny margins and mountains of data. OpenAI researcher Joyce Ruffell and RaceTek Systems co-founder Chase Holden are each using AI to help teams make better use of information from the track, the garage, and the people behind the wheel. They discuss OpenAI’s research collaboration with Chip Ganassi Racing and how Chase used ChatGPT and Codex to go from hosting a NASCAR podcast to building a racing intelligence company. They also examine how AI could give smaller teams an edge without replacing the human expertise at the heart of racing, and why car culture runs so deep at OpenAI.

Chapters

00:43 Intro to OpenAI researcher Joyce Ruffell and Chip Ganassi Racing
02:43 Intro to Chase Holden and RaceTek Systems
07:45 Joyce’s path into racing
10:00 Helping racing teams work with AI
15:31 Combining human feedback with racing data
18:26 How AI helps smaller teams compete
21:43 Spreadsheets and the “data wars” in racing
27:03 Getting started with AI and Codex
30:08 How RaceTek won its first customer
33:01 Humans, robot racing, and the future of competition
39:26 Using AI beyond the racetrack