What racing reveals about working with AI - Episode 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