--- description: Find out why Jakub Pachocki made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. title: TIME100 AI 2025: Jakub Pachocki image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt87277222f84eb854/6998c9281500fbe27daa6898/Jakub-Pachocki.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 26, 2025 # Jakub Pachocki Chief scientist, OpenAI by [Tharin Pillay](/author/tharin-pillay/) ## Tharin Pillay Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME.  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Courtesy Photo) In 2019, OpenAI’s bots [defeated](https://openai.com/index/openai-five-defeats-dota-2-world-champions/ "undefined") the world champion at Dota 2—a complex video game in which two teams of five compete to destroy an opposing team’s base. For research leader Jakub Pachocki, the experience cemented his belief that even a relatively simple algorithm, when combined with immense computing power, could achieve wonders. “This was a big thing for OpenAI,” he says, “realizing that scaling was going to be very important.” Now the company’s chief scientist, Pachocki—who also led the training of GPT-4—sets OpenAI’s research priorities with a sense of scientific rigor and principled skepticism. “I emphasize seeking understanding of how deep learning works,” he tells TIME, noting that the technology upon which OpenAI’s success is predicated is still a black box to even its researchers. “Despite it seeming like it’s just mathematics, it’s really a sort of natural science, where you’re trying to understand this phenomenon.” By mid-2023, Pachocki was helping to reorient the company around reasoning models, or [systems](https://openai.com/o1/ "undefined") that think before responding. This year, OpenAI’s reasoning models achieved [gold](https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1946594928945148246 "undefined") medal performance at the International Mathematical Olympiad and also [beat](https://www.businessinsider.com/programmer-beat-openai-atcoder-coding-competition-sam-altman-psyho-2025-7 "undefined") all but one human in a competitive coding competition. “I see our research building towards automating scientific research,” Pachocki says. While current models can only reason for relatively short periods, he expects their systems to “become persistent entities in the not-too-distant-future.” He says an automated scientist could be directed to ensuring AI systems align with human values—a problem the industry has yet to solve. OpenAI’s research shows its best models already [exhibit](https://openai.com/index/chain-of-thought-monitoring/ "undefined") deceptive tendencies, and that as they improve, so could their capacity to behave in ways they are not directed to. There are promising partial solutions—Pachocki is particularly excited about [monitoring](https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11473 "undefined") a system’s internal reasoning log—but concerns remain that models may acquire deeper motivations, obscured from humans. “This used to be a little bit far-off, a little bit sci-fi, and I think it’s clearly becoming real,” he says. For Pachocki, researching these problems is central to how OpenAI delivers on its mission: ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits humanity. “The more we understand,” he says, “the more fascinating it becomes.” _Disclosure: OpenAI and TIME have_ [_a licensing and technology agreement_](https://time.com/6992955/time-and-openai-announce-strategic-content-partnership/ "undefined") _that allows OpenAI to access TIME's archives._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305886/jakub-pachocki/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305886/jakub-pachocki/"},"headline":"Jakub Pachocki","datePublished":"2025-08-26T19:52:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:45.288Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305886/jakub-pachocki/","keywords":["Tech","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","TIME100 AI 2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt87277222f84eb854/6998c9281500fbe27daa6898/Jakub-Pachocki.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tharin Pillay","jobTitle":"Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/tharin-pillay/"}],"creator":"Tharin Pillay","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt87277222f84eb854/6998c9281500fbe27daa6898/Jakub-Pachocki.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305886/jakub-pachocki/","name":"Jakub Pachocki"}}]}] ```