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News

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks about AI’s promise and peril on Toronto stop of world tour

Business executives, tech developers and policymakers swarmed a downtown Toronto event space Monday afternoon for an appearance by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman —but some of the best seats in the house were occupied by three little blond kids.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks about AI’s promise and peril on Toronto stop of world tour

It’s ‘exhausting to always talk about the downsides and not the upsides,’ OpenAI CEO says

By Claire Brownell
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks in Redmond, Wash. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Photo: Associated Press/Stephen Brashear
May 15, 2023
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks in Redmond, Wash. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Photo: Associated Press/Stephen Brashear

Business executives, tech developers and policymakers swarmed a downtown Toronto event space Monday afternoon for an appearance by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman —but some of the best seats in the house were occupied by three little blond kids.

They were the children of Shopify founder and CEO Tobias Lütke, who hosted the “fireside chat”-style event with Altman at the Design Exchange. Their mother, Fiona McKean, said the kids couldn’t miss the chance to see their dad interview the hottest name in tech and business. “AI is all we talk about at the dinner table,” she said.

The Lütke kids aren’t alone. Attendees snapped up all 500 tickets to the event—presented by Elevate, an innovation-focused non-profit that organizes the eponymous annual September tech conference in Toronto—within just 30 minutes of their release Tuesday.

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All eyes have been on Altman since the November launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot that can write code, pen poetry, pass legal exams and facilitate medical diagnoses. Since its release, the hot topic at dinner tables around the globe has been predicting how it will change the world—from mass unemployment to a utopian future of longevity and abundance to all-out apocalypse.

ChatGPT is already shaking up Big Tech. Microsoft, which has reportedly invested US$13 billion in OpenAI, beat rival Google to market with an OpenAI-powered chatbot in February and is outperforming in search traffic growth.

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Altman’s stop in Toronto is part of a world tour, on which he’s “hoping to” give talks and meet with policymakers to answer questions about the potential impact of what he’s unleashed. At the Design Exchange, he played his part as ambassador for a brighter future. Dressed in a blue checked blazer and olive slacks on a stage lit in pink, he exuded positivity when Lütke asked about AI’s potential to make life better. “It’s a little bit exhausting to always talk about the downsides and not the upsides,” he said.

“The revolution has been launched. I’m so excited about it.”

#artificial intelligence #ChatGPT #OpenAI #Sam Altman #Shopify #Tobi Lütke

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Photo: Associated Press/Stephen Brashear

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