Slack co-founder Cal Henderson is a self-confessed AI sceptic
At a moment where it’s easy to get caught up in all sorts of AI hype, it's refreshing to hear a different view.
Attendees leaving most South by Southwest Sydney panels can be forgiven for being convinced artificial intelligence will fundamentally change society. No one at SXSW can say specifically how, but the consensus is that AI will change everything.
Which is why Slack co-founder Cal Henderson’s live interview on Thursday was so refreshing. Speaking to former NSW Minister of Customer Service Victor Dominello, he was one of the few people at the convention waiting to be convinced of AI's transformative qualities.
“There’s a reasonable argument to be made that the current technological trend in AI is going to change computing in some large way,” he said. “But I’m quite sceptical of how big that impact is going to be [in society],” he said.
Which is not to say that Slack isn’t working on integrating AI. Henderson said the company, for which he still serves as chief technology officer, is internally trialling a range of new AI tools. His only elaboration was that some big companies that have been using Slack for years have millions of messages in their archives, and that this could be used in valuable ways.
