Zack Kass, Former-OpenAI, Talks AI Futures & the Wounds of Social Media

At CJU24, one of the session highlights was undoubtedly the Guest Keynote featuring Zack Kass.

Kass is best known as the former Head of GTM for OpenAI. He left the company in 2023 and has since focused on AI consultancy and speaking at events. As an AI advisor, Kass has worked with world-famous brands like Coca-Cola and Morgan Stanley.

Arriving on stage, Kass boldly announced that this keynote was the ‘proudest moment’ in his career. He describes himself as a ‘hometown boy’, having grown up in Santa Barbara and residing there today.

“When we look back in 10,000 years, we will remember this moment,” he declared, equating the development of AI to other monumental signposts in the history of human technology; the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel, the creation of the printing press, and so on.

For the most part, Kass appeared optimistic, even advocatory, about the future of AI, though he balanced this out with some scepticism and concern.

One memorable point from early on in the session was his emphasis that AI development is “further than (we) realise.” According to Kass, the kind of interface we’re seeing in GPT-4 is nothing compared to what’s currently in the lab.