She Left UWaterloo Without Graduating. Now She's at OpenAI | Brooke Joseph
She left Waterloo without graduating. Now she's a Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI. Brooke Joseph joined a 12-person startup called Sky as an intern. Six months later, OpenAI acquired it. Now she does agent post-training research on computer use — teaching models to click, type, and operate any software a human can. The thread through her career: she takes roles she's "on paper very much unqualified for." She taught herself differential privacy as a teenager, built ML for Volvo and Siemens in Sweden, and threw herself into Sky surrounded by the best engineers she'd ever met. We filmed in Washington Square Park in San Francisco. In this episode: → Why she takes jobs she's "unqualified" for — and how to build that confidence → What made Sky magical (the Sky Shot → App Shot story, now in Codex) → Why computer use is one of the most important skills on the road to AGI → When you should NOT let an agent use your computer → How she learns: weekend deep-dives, pen-and-paper notes, and teaching it back → Why leaving undergrad drives her never to stop learning → Her post-AGI plan: a Michelin-level bakery in Paris Follow Brooke: @BrookeaJoseph ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro — Washington Square Park 02:00 Her First Job: Her Dad's Produce Store 03:43 Why She Takes Roles She's "Unqualified" For 07:12 Why Sweden — Building Edge ML for Volvo & Siemens 11:18 What Made Sky Magical 14:19 Ari, Konrad, and Asking "Why" Relentlessly 17:28 Six Months In: OpenAI Acquires Sky 18:54 Computer Use, Explained 20:14 Why Computer Use Is the Road to AGI 25:14 When Not to Let an Agent Use Your Computer 29:32 The "Never Satisfied" Mindset 35:40 Her Love of Math, and Mr. White 45:32 Her Curiosity Deep-Dive System 52:29 Post-AGI Plans: A Bakery in Paris This is a Composio "Agents at Work" podcast, where I sit down with founders building the next leap of AI. 🎧 Subscribe for new episodes 📩 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4fxtM0FC4FxTR4l9NRgWsj?si=d05940c466154f1e 🐦 Follow Composio: @composio #AI #OpenAI #MachineLearning #ComputerUse #Startups