“Thongs are not underwear”: The case of an Australian ChatGPT

OpenAI, which opened its first Australian office in Sydney this year, is not backing down. Oliver Jay, Managing Director International at Canva, told the Create event that Australia was already one of the company’s key markets.

“User growth in Australia has doubled in a year,” Jay told Canva co-founder Cameron Adams on stage. “We’re seeing a lot of momentum.”

Jay said OpenAI recruits aggressively locally and works with partners such as CommBank, Coles and Canva. The company has developed an “OpenAI for Countries” program to work directly with governments on national AI strategies.

In a separate interview, Jay acknowledged the case for local investment: “Countries investing in their own AI capabilities is a good thing – it builds resilience and sovereignty.” However, he argued that OpenAI’s frontier models could meet Australian needs through localization “at three levels – in the model itself, in…”