Last Wednesday night, I was staring at my laptop, dazed
I had just picked up a Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) account-management gig, opened my usual AI copywriting tool, and found the interface had totally changed. I spent half an hour figuring out where the new buttons went. This wasn't the first time I got left behind.
What is DevDay? Who's already watching?
OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) holds this annual keynote to announce what features they're shipping over the next year. Among the friends I watched last year's livestream with — freelance illustrator Ah May plugged the new image features into her client workflow that same night; Lao Zhou, who runs Xiaohongshu training courses, cut about a third of his SOP docs after the event. We don't write code, but half of what they announce will become which button you click tomorrow.
What it costs you to follow along today
Money: completely free, the livestream is public. Time: 1 hour for the main stage, plus about 30 minutes for my breakdown afterward. Technical barrier: you can click a mouse and log into an account, that's it. I made this mistake before — I assumed DevDay required coding knowledge to follow, but really it's just watching a livestream and listening to explanations. First step: open the OpenAI website, click the login button on the top right (if you have an account, just sign in), find the DevDay livestream entry, and set a calendar reminder.
How to follow along at different stages
Just starting out, no clients yet: don't stay up tonight, just wait for my breakdown the next day — saves time. Have 1-2 clients: if you're planning to raise your prices this year, I'd recommend watching the livestream. New features directly affect how fast you deliver, and I'll be flagging key points in the comments in real time. Scaling up: livestream + replay + official blog, the three-piece set. Pull together a 3-person group chat to split note-taking — one person tracks models, one tracks Agents, one tracks pricing. Not everyone needs this tool, but missing an entire year would be a shame.