Interview, Explained

In-depth breakdowns of tech interviews — section-by-section analysis with diagrams, quotes, and insights.

~80 min

Dwarkesh Podcast·2026-09-17

Noam Brown on why the model, not the swarm, did the hard part

Noam Brown· Researcher

OpenAI's Noam Brown explains how many agents scale test-time compute in parallel, why the underlying model deserves the credit for cracking a Millennium Prize Problem, and why aligning these systems is the unsolved problem that worries him most.

AgentsReasoningAI SafetyTraining

~36 min

No Priors·2026-06-26

Noam Brown on Why Reasoning Models Need Budget Curves — Interview, Explained

Noam Brown· Research Scientist at OpenAI

Noam Brown argues that reasoning models must be evaluated as budget curves, because more test-time compute can unlock capabilities that static benchmark grids hide.

ReasoningLLMAI Safety