OpenAI brought in Patreon’s Co-Founder. Here’s what he has planned.

Two weeks after OpenAI announced the hire of Sam Yam as the head of its Creator Product division, the Patreon Co-Founder is already hard at work. Yam’s team has announced a partnership with Chloe Shih, who will use OpenAI tech to produce a parenting series.

Shih gained a significant following across platforms like YouTube and Instagram by uploading sincere, polished videos that document her life and her career in the tech industry. Empowered by her success, Shih launched Office Drama, a podcast that features conversations with business leaders and anonymized bits of workplace gossip submitted by listeners.

In tandem with OpenAI, Shih — who is currently pregnant with her first child — will explore the role technology can play in parenting and early childhood education. “Being a parent is becoming increasingly expensive and even out of reach for many who are already trying to balance their professional and personal lives,” Shih said. “I’ve often seen tech products focusing too much on convenience and not enough on addressing actual problems that the everyday person faces, and I want to make sure we build for people outside the tech bubble, too.”

As OpenAI dips its toes into the waters of creator content, its development strategy seems to be diverging from the approaches adopted by more traditional entertainment platforms like YouTube and TikTok. While those companies cast a wide net when producing original content, the maker of ChatGPT is focusing on Silicon Valley discourse. Its acquisition of TBPN turned a notable news podcast into an official OpenAI mouthpiece, and Shih will now explore other applications for OpenAI products within the broader tech industry.

Some of those products will help Shih produce her series. She will be an early user of Dots, the agentic AI assistant that was unveiled at OpenAI’s recent DevDay event.

Yam had previously said that DevDay would bring announcements that would explain his new role, and he was able to follow through on that promise. His partnership with Shih shows us the direction OpenAI will take as it interacts with creators — though release details about the Office Drama host’s new project are being kept under wraps for now.