Sam Altman was at an exclusive OpenAI event in Muson Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, on Friday, May 19, 2023. The event had several tech executives, investors, and founders in attendance. It was a two-part event, with a Q&A session and a meet and greet with Altman.
OpenAI Chief Executive Officer, Sam Altman, is in Nigeria interacting with some members of the tech community, apparently to spread interest in emerging AI.
Mr. Altman was seen speaking with various stakeholders in
the tech community in Lagos in photos circulating on social media on Friday.
Mr. Altman also spoke to students at the MUSON Center about
the future of artificial intelligence.
Between May and June, Mr Altman plans to visit 17 locations
around the world, including Toronto, New Delhi, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Brussels and
Singapore, with Lagos as the only African city on his itinerary.
Mr Altman reportedly encouraged potential clients to fill
out a form asking for basic information such as the person’s name, email
address and reason for wanting to meet.
The AI pioneer is at the forefront of what some are
already calling the coming AI revolution.
He also invites those who can organise meetings of 500
people or more to specify this.
Nigeria is home to Africa’s most active tech hub, and
developers are already churning out amazing AI-generated products. These
include Justin Irabor’s Kainene Vos Savant and Richmond Alake’s audio-to-text
AI automation tool, as well as research partners on Telegram.
OpenAI opened ChatGPT to the public in November 2022,
demonstrating its excellent ability to quickly acquire and adapt new knowledge.
There’s a lot of excitement about this advanced language model because it’s
designed to generate answers in a conversational way.
In addition to meeting with OpenAI users and developers, Mr.
Altman announced plans to interact with lawmakers to gather feedback and ideas
about AI. Just two days ago, OpenAI’s CEO spoke to the U.S. Senate, saying he
supports government control of artificial intelligence.