My friend Jason and I went to see Eric Schmidt, the former CEO and Chairman of Google, speak today at the Denver AI Summit. He was really, really impressive.
What made him stand out, you may ask? For me, it was his lucidity and his comfort on stage. We have all seen someone perform poorly in a public arena. We have also seen those who have come well prepared, and speak with confidence. Eric, he was past all of that. He spoke with comfort. Despite 1000 people in the crowd, he sat back in his chair as though it was his own living room.
The topic was largely around AI, and Eric was able to pull together a bunch of different strands. Although I work in the space, I learned quite a bit, and enjoyed it as well. However, my favourite part was when it was opened to questions, and this extraordinarily self-obsessed person began waffling on about who she was, her background, her work, why it’s so important, how DEI is having a bad time, and how it is such an important part of AI. It is such an American way to ask a question, by going on and on and on, thus making the question all about yourself. Luckily the moderator, who happens to also be the Mayor of Denver, point blank cut her off and asked her “Do you have a question?”.
People clapped.
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