Chat GPT-maker Open AI announced today that it's appointed a new boss to lead its international expansion.
Oliver Jay – whose background includes building out Dropbox's sales team, a board appointment at Asia's Uber-analog Grab, and a stint as chief revenue officer at Asana – is taking on the role, leading OpenAI's strategy and operations in international markets.
OpenAI also today announced Singapore will be home to its APAC office, serving as a hub for APAC operations. The firm already has a footprint in the region, after establishing its first Asian office in Tokyo earlier this year.
The new office is expected to be opened by the end of the year – perhaps helped by a $6.4 billion infusion of cash at the start of this month.
"We really look forward to working with commercial partners, with government partners, as we grow our presence here, and really view this as a critical first step to our commitment to Singapore and to Asia more broadly," stated OpenAI's head of policy in APAC, Sandy Kunvatanagarn at Singapore's Tech Week conference following the announcement.
Kunvatanagarn elaborated that part of the Singapore team's focus will be helping develop local language datasets through partnerships.
"I think we all realize that Asia is one of the most linguistically diverse places in the entire world," she asserted, stressing the importance of comfortable natural speech in OpenAI products. The head of policy said the data sets would be open to researchers and other developers.
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Kunvatanagarn noted that even though many are yet to become adept ChatGPT users, OpenAI has already signed millions of enterprise and commercial partners.
The GPT-maker is banking on its o1 model, released a few weeks ago, to increase demand for its offerings. The o1 family of models uses "chain of thought" techniques that are supposed to produce more accurate output. Kunvatanagarn described it as a "game changer" during a Q&A session at the conference.
She also frequently cited "the science" of AI, arguing it should be central to regulations, governance and the future of AI. Safety was another topic she addressed, by pointing out that OpenAI conducts rigorous evaluations of its wares.
"If people don't think that the models and the products are safe, they're not going to trust them, and if they're not going to trust them, then they won't be able to use them to their benefit," Kunvanatangarn reasoned.
Priorities for the Singapore outpost will be to work with developers, governments, and commercial partners.
Kunvanatagarn mused that when it comes to governments, many already "have very good roadmaps on their own." ®