Inside the self-proclaimed first generative AI conference, executives explain why the hot new technology behind ChatGPT is ‘not just hype, but something real’

• AI startup Jasper hosted what it claims was the first conference dedicated to generative AI.
• Taking place in San Francisco, the event hosted a packed crowd of 1,200 attendees. 
• The mood was reminiscent of the hype around crypto, but attendees say generative AI is here to stay.

“It’s a step forward in humanity,” one VC said of generative AI. An executive compared it to the Gutenberg press. A CEO called the technology  “not just hype, but something real.” 

That’s how attendees Bessemer partner Sameer Dholakia, Jasper vice president Greg Larson, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, respectively, described the hot new subset of artificial intelligence at a conference called GenAI held in San Francisco on February 14.

GenAI served as the self-proclaimed “first” conference dedicated to generative AI, which ingests vast sums of human-generated information and, from that, learns how to mimic human creation. It could be the first of many to come. 

Roughly 1,200 people gathered at Pier 27 for GenAI hosted by Jasper, a startup that has raised over $140 million. It brought together leading companies in the industry, including startups Anthropic and Stability AI.

The conference comes at an interesting moment for generative AI. This past November, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT, the chatbot that captured the internet’s imagination with its ability to respond to just about any question using full paragraphs almost indistinguishable from something a human would write. While the hype around generative AI is reminiscent of that of crypto and web3 that dominated the pandemic, insiders believe the technology is here to stay.

Microsoft recently invested billions into OpenAI with plans to integrate a chatbot into Bing. Google followed up shortly thereafter by announcing its own chatbot for search called Bard. 

The frenetic pace of development in the field is perhaps why Jasper held the event.

Speaking in a fireside chat, Nat Friedman, the former CEO of Microsoft’s GitHub, praised Microsoft for quickly introducing the chatbot into Bing, despite concerns about its readiness. The incumbent technology companies have gone from a decade of “corporate blandness to wartime,” Friedman said, as Microsoft and Google battle it out to win the next generation of AI-based search.

Insiders say generative AI is not just a fad

Generative AI has already run into some road bumps. Early beta testers discovered that Bing’s chatbot can sound highly emotional. The news outlet CNET came under fire for writing news stories using ChatGPT, which were discovered to be riddled with factual inaccuracies. There are worries that large language models powering the likes of ChatGPT could spread bias and misinformation, or become vectors for disseminating spam and malware. Some also fret it could take over people’s jobs. 

It’s hard to ignore how Silicon Valley has a way of jumping onto new fads, only to quickly scrub them from memory and move on when all the excitement meets road bumps.

Still, at the conference, there was little talk of technologies like web3 that VCs plowed billions of capital into before the industry entered the current “crypto winter.” Instead, AI leaders explained how generative AI is different, something that actually has practical applications today.

Anthropic’s Amodei said that consumers, businesses, and developers alike are moving at “record speeds” to adopt generative AI.

“Every C-suite executive is asking, ‘what is our AI strategy?’ Every company will have AI, every piece of a company will have AI,” Amodei said at a panel.

Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI, cited a tweet during a panel highlighting how a generative AI GitHub project  managed to surpass bitcoin in “stars” (which developers use to bookmark projects) on the code repository site within just 40 days — even though the bitcoin project has been on GitHub years longer.

“People see the implications of generative AI immediately,” Mostaque said at the panel.

Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, emphasized that AI should not be feared, but rather embraced.

“Generative AI is going to augment humans, advance their abilities, and push humanity forward,” Masad said.

What’s different with generative AI is that large language models have been quietly in development for some time, , executives said. Google has worked on chatbots and related technologies for years under its Google Brain and DeepMind divisions. OpenAI changed the game by creating an application that people could use to interact with and understand the potential of generative AI. 

“ChatGPT gave gen AI this face, something people could interact with,” Jasper’s Larson said in a panel. “It shifted the conversation in a fundamental way. People are starting to get it. They’re starting to see it in a more practical way, how AI fits into their lives.”

AI startups on the rise

While incumbents have quickly moved on the trend, there’s massive room for smaller startups that can target different areas with niche generative AI models. For example, Anthropic recently raised $300 million from Google. Stability AI helped build an open-source image model called Stable Diffusion. The popular app Lensa, which can take selfies of individuals and artistically render them as portraits in various styles and settings, relies on this technology.

“There are many different directions to go in,” Anthropic’s Amodei said. “There will be infinite customization and that creates space for innovation.” 

These tools also won’t eliminate the need for artists and other information professionals as human expertise and taste will still be required, executives said. Instead, they will increase efficiency. Masad, the CEO of Replit, said during a panel that more people will be able to write code, while expert software developers will just become better at their jobs as AI teaches them new tricks they didn’t know. 

Industry insiders at GenAI echoed the same idea, painting a picture of a world where humans are not threatened by generative AI, but enhanced by it with new superpowers.

“It’s super important to remember this technology will be used for a lot of good,” said Bessemer’s Dholakia.