Sam Altman thinks using AI in emails and Slack is 'dehumanising' - and revenue will 'take a bit longer to figure out' - Startup Daily

The head of one of the world’s biggest pure-play AI developers says even he’s had times when using the groundbreaking technology just wasn’t going to happen.

The adoption of artificial intelligence in Australia and the world hasn’t quite gone as expected, but it has underlined our need for human connection, according to one of the market leaders.

Founder and chief executive Sam Altman of OpenAI, which has been going for three and a half years, says while there’s been strong take-up, the human element has turned out to be more intriguing.

And there have certainly been situations where he’s found himself unwilling to use AI.

“I’ve felt that threshold – most strongly when I briefly tried to let AI do my messaging. You know, write my emails, my text messages, do Slack for me,” he told business leaders at a conference in Sydney.

“Yet, I found it, like, surprisingly dehumanising to watch, even when I had it reply to messages.

“It was an amazing example to me of like, we really do care about people and we really do care about our interactions with people.”

No ‘jobs apocalypse’

Altman was beaming in virtually to Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s first dedicated AI gathering on Tuesday to talk about the challenges and future of the tech, especially in Australia.

During a fireside chat with bank head Matt Comyn, the multibillionaire said the issue of jobs being lost to AI had also played out differently than expected, so far.

“I use it a lot, so I guess right now the thing that’s most on my mind is just what it’s going to take to integrate this into people’s lives and into our companies, that we have the acceleration we deserve,” he said.

“But I don’t think we are going to have the kind of … jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate for or talk about. 

“I thought that … there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar work jobs being eliminated by now.”

Later, Comyn told the conference he’s certainly noticed more uncertainty and anxiety across the CBA workforce, which is being trained up on AI applications.

“There are … very understandable concerns around this technology,” he said, adding that leaders need to be transparent and communicate about what they’re doing.

“There’s economic opportunities for Australia … but in some of these issues there’s a balance to be struck, and there are some elements to work through,” he said.

Australia as ‘data centre capital of the world’

Altman agrees there are AI opportunities for Australia, particularly in data centres, which power the energy-hungry technology.

“Australia has among the best natural resources and abundant clean energy stories in the world,” he said.

“And if Australia wanted to become a data centre capital of the world, it would certainly be able to.

“In fact, … it would be in the very few top places in the world in terms of what’s possible.”

Australia’s other advantages include its stable institutions, “great” national security posture and strong economic and geo-political partnerships, Altman said.

Still, the revenue elephant in the room remains.

AI sucks up enormous amounts of capital, and that’s left investment markets pondering whether valuations are too high, given the likely long run to return.

In terms of AI predictions, OpenAI has been “roughly right” on the technology and “pretty wrong” on the social and economic implications.

“Companies in the last few months, or last couple of years, are finally adopting AI … and many of these companies are spending huge amounts of money,” Altman said.

“The question is, where is the revenue?

“My best answer to that is it’s all still very new, and it’s just going to take a bit longer to figure out.”

AAP