Breaking Even as OpenAI Patronizes its Power Audience… and the Handsome, Bullied, Gaslit Mayor Throws a GPT Hail Mary
Disclaimer:
Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics: AI, Technology, Small Businesses, ChatGPT, Innovation, Workshop, Jam, Hackathon
Off to an event with OpenAI. This sorta is like mind-bending to me, cause it’s the first event I’ve ever been to where they potentially know me very well. I was in the top 1% of ChatGPT users last year (so they told me in the yearly review). So I’m like, holy crap. That’s nuts. And btw these days, I mostly use Claude. ChatGPT I use for random small tasks. But… yeah, the fact that this website knows SO MUCH about me, its not like normal events. Likely they didn’t profile each attendee… but maybe they did, you know? Maybe they do have lots of info on everyone attending. Just strange to think about and you realize it may be a norm in the future. For summaries of people to be widely known?
Why Attend: I can only go half day but I am curious what are they going to be teaching. Will it be basic stuff or will it be stuff I don’t know yet? Let’s find out. And then, I’ve got a lot to do today… so I may skip some of my afernoon plans if this event is fun. Or I’ll leave around lunchtime.
PHOTO COLLAGE AND COMMENTARY:
NOTES FROM THE EVENT
They’re playing “sit next to me” by foster the people as you walk in and figure out where to sit. Hilarious
The event was liek 10 times more crowded than I expected. They made it seem more exclusive in the event invitation originally. And I was just sorta observing the crowd… no one was super fashionable… liek the crowd was so random.
all my age or older… like just so random. Mostly older.
I go find a seat in the front and the countdown annouces on the speaker and is like “take a seat, the event starts in 10 minutes”
lol this made me laugh to myself, liek “take a seat for an event to start in 10 minutes?” that is so early to sit… more like “start to get reay”
And btw they had this water with cinnamon, apples, and orange in it. I was like wow! this is good. I will try it at home… fruit/spice-enhanced water is underrated. Literaly cinnamon sticks and apples and oranges in it hahahah. Simple.
then they said it’ll start in 5 minutes
Then an announcement for 3 minutes
but then, LESS THAN ONE minute later a guy comes on stage and starts off with “good morning how are we?”
I’m like… uh oh. Classic lazy start hahah. It’s never a good sign when speakers start with that line - for real.
Low response… so he repeats himself and people cheer and then he says, “there we go!”
dude. exactly. don’t put the pressure on the audience to hype themselves up. That’s literally your only job as the emcee. Especially the starting one.
Then he says he’s so glad we’re all here. It’s a great opportunity to all say hello and introduce ourselves.
Let’s welcome up our engineering leaders for our chatgpt product. He’s super amazing, and then we’ll get started for the day.
This guy is not dressed up at all. Like, I’m surprised and I dont mean to be rude. Just like, not that fancy dressed to be a leader on stage for a freaking Chat GPT event. One of the biggest companies on earth rihgt now.
And this guy says usually he’s in a conference room and not let out very often. Glad to be with epos who use their products on a daily basis and people who benefits form it as well.
omg sad hahaha. truth in comedy. geeze.
He wants to thank the partners, and lists them all.
He says that a few months ago his family member called him and said that ChatGPT saved him and saved his business. He lost his fine motor skills after a stroke. Then he realized that you could just talk to ChatGPT and instead of writing emails and doing research, you can jsut ask ChatGPT what needs to be done and it’ll do it for you
Instead of doing research!? I mean, true but also a lot of trust.
It’s about everyday users who just find more time in the day to do what they need to do through ChatGPT.
It helps you become more efficient day in and day out.
Me, I work 12-14 hours a day. Then my daughter will ask me for homework help. I’d like to think I’m pretty competent at math, but instead of me just pretending I know what I”m doing, ChatGPT becomes a much more patient instructor than I could ever be with ym daughter
Omg but this guy works a LOT. 14 hour days? Oof he’s liek a captive on stage. He’s made jokes how they dont’ let him out. He works 14 hours a day. And his time to bond with his daughter are to do homework.
He says his goal is to make AI accessible to business leaders, work smarter, and unlock opportunity that used to require bigger teams and bigger budgets.
Every day we see people using it in ways we never imagined. Tutors creating personalized lesson plans, small teams that used to require an entire department, helping to improve a menu.
Tutors?? see? Did they profile the audience???
Things can be intimidating at first, but that is normal.
We’re grateful you’re here to connect and learn and explore.
We have restaurants, consultants, general companies, yoga studios, tutoring centers, hair salons. We even have the world’s number one bobblehead producer here too. That may e the best job title in teh room. Probably better than mind for sure.
OMG are they making it obvious that they know I’m here? hahha Theyhae said tutoring twice in liek 2 minutes hahahah ahhh. And people never mention tutors in reality. I told you they know me. LOL geeze. Sorta/mostly joking but you never know.
Thanks again for being here, we’re excited to be with you and build.
Now tehy have the chief executive officer for hte city to share remarks. He almost trips as he steps on stage. HE speaks to say hello in English and Spanish.
Then he says he’s excited to see how we can build the future. He’s reading his speech off of his phone.
He says they can not have a meeting at the city without using the word “innovation” at least three times. He is here to help support all of you. Even if you jsuthrave an idea for a business or if you’re an amazon or open AI. This is an incredible community because of the forward thinking, the human-centered thinking from our business coommnty. It takes a village to raise a business and build a sustainable one.
If any of you at hte end of the day want more resources and more connections, connect with teh people he just mentioned (this city isn’t near where I live… but I think that when I move to LA I’ll get as connected as possible)
Just yesterday we inaugurated the new office for OpenAI in this city and that’ll be one of the biggest employers in this city.
Yeah my friend went to their kick off yesterday. I saw him post about it online. I bet he’s here, too…
Thanksfor being here and let us help you continue the momentum. He said even if you see me at the grocery store, I’m always happy to help.
Lol he’s sweet.
Now this emcee is back up and they run a cafe and she’s a council woman. He says they’re becoming fast friends .
Lol. He’s trying to connect with the influential powerful poeple, huh? kissing ass, sounds like. ahahha. really though!
Now this woman says that they have to embarrass someone, the mayor is here. He stands up and waves.
lollllllllllllll I walked by that guy many times today and was thinkign he’s handsome. Really, like I almost hit him with the door cause I walked through a doorway and he was right next to it hiding in a corner. I almost flirted with him even, cause I was liek, oh.. he’s cute and very unassuming/hiding body language. Maybe he’d be funny to talk to. hahahahah omg and the second time I walked by him, still hiding in/behind the doorway, and I even heard someone congratulate him) - so now they’re going to welcome him up and ask him to speak.
Is he the new mayor? Omg he has a strong accent.
He says that this is exactly the way he’s using ChatGPT. He said he should not have any speaking opportuntiy but they’re going to bully him and so he ran to a corner and asked for something to say. And he told Chat GPT to give him something to say
WHAT THE HECK!? The MAYOR can’t come up with something to say????? AND IS RELYING ON CHATGPT AT A CHATGPT EVENT???? AND GOT BULLIED
hahahah omg what if I had like, tried to talk to him. He’d be like, “ma’am, I’m the mayor. move on…”
Okay, he says, “first thank you for being here. I love this event because it’s the most city-thing ever. Small business owners showing off their need to learn something new. And checking email while they do it.”
Then he says you need to laugh right now cause that was supposed to be a joke from ChatGPT
Omg this is like dystopian.
He said jokes should be very very short. Like a permit timiline in this city.
AI is not a future concept, it is tool an the real question isn’t whether you shoudl use it. IT is how you shoudl use it in a way that saves time, helps you serve customers better, and makes your business stronger. This room is the point.
When small businesses learn these tools, the whole city wins.
Your success means jobs, strong neighborhoods, and a local economy that can handle whatever comes next. Tanks for showing up, being curious, and willing to try something new. Let’s make AI practicel, not scary. And let’s make sure the benefits reach the poel who actually keep the city runnign.T hank you so much
BTW I think before I met the mayor of this city and so this must be a newly elected mayor, for real. Legit at a breakfast one time I was like, uh do you work in. theo ffice and the lady was like, yeah.. i’m the mayor hahahah. so.. he must be new?
She says, btw we didnt’ bully him.
Dude, when I saw him off to the side behind those doors, I think he was texting Chat GPT at that point
And it’s weird how they say they dint bully him but then he said they did. Oof. Politics. and, like, I’ve just been learning more that… sometimes leaders are picked for weird reasons - so hearing him be gaslight like right in front of everoyne on stage is wild.
This vibe is weird, I’ll just say it.
Okay now she is on stage still saying that she’s a mom and that she has a council meeting every tuesday to close her cafe, feed her kids, and then go to the council meeting. Thousands of people depend on us to be just.
She says that 45 mintues before the meeting, she will use ChatGPT to help make her dinner. Then ChatGPT helps her make dinner.
That is smart. I thought she swas going to say something else. Like that she has GPT read over the notes beofre she makes city council decisions (hahah i mean, probably she does)
And she says since English isn’t her first language, it’s hard to explain algebra in easy to understand ways. But then ChatGPT helps her be the best presentation to her kids. They deserve this, not an exhausted overworked mom.
If AI can make her job betters a mom, it can be better for your business.
They hire refugees, survivors of human trafficking, and kids with special needs. A special menu doesn’t work for everyone. They work so the staff can do what they love and they can pick the task tehy enjoy. They make sensory friendly for the employees with special needs.
Building sensory breaks from overwhelmed to succeeding.
Then they said their firs hire with special needs is now off to the US Navy.
Then she pauses a long time and then peopel start to clap and she is glad they clap lol
Now they say that the team from Ukraine can make a cappiccino in days, not weeks.
Again she waits for people to clap bu tehy don’t . I dont think people will clap over cappiccino if they’ll hardly clap over the navy.
Trauma informed has words removed like “you must”
So theres not time and pressure. To prevent trauma
She then claps cause no one else does ad she says she has to clap for this cause its the most wonderful.
Be prompt about the ways that we can change the world.
AI has value but we are the peopel in control. Using the more the good way to use for theocmmon good tour community.
BTW I’m liek how do you become a councilperson? This is two I’ve seen in two days. Last night I went to an event where a woman is a council woman and a leader at a charity. I’m like, waht the heck. I shoudl become a councilwoman.
Omg the EMCEE whispers “that was so good” and then realizes he was on a live mic. He loves sucking up to her hahaha omg. I wonder if he befriended the mayor too? Or just this council woman that did/did’t bully him.
Now he’s going through the plan for the day. Building as a group, building in breakouts.
But… I won’t probably be able to stay for this. I might. I’m not sure.
Okay quick poll. If you run a business with less than 10 employees, raise your hand… less than 50… less than 100 (but people dont’ get it and quit raising their hands after this).
People shoudl be raising their hands for this whole time but then no one is and he says, “oh everyone was supposed to be raising their hand at the end”. Like I did and then my neighbor looked at me like I was weird - the guy sitting next to me. But turns out I was doing it right? Idk. confusing.
He asks if you read customer reviews. Do you wrk on marketing? Hiring?
That’s me, for all of them.
Now it’s a breakout session time to meet a neighbor and share one thing you wish AI would take off your plate.
Not being super smooth can be an advantage cause you’re a human not a bot.
Can’t you use AI to automate reaching out to masses of schools and groups?
I said that all I can think of is a joke, is the idea that AI is replacing lots of jobs. So can it help you figure out for how it not to replace you?
These siblings came together and run a nail salon and cleaning business. The sister doesn’t speak English and her brother is translating. His name is Jesus. They want help with booking, posting, etc.
Use a different domain so your domain doesn’t get blacklisted for being a spammer.
Can you get chatgpt to do what you want it to do?
Help you understand how to get the best out of the product.
The emcess says hope you all got great new friends.
lol. I got a friend in Jesus. He’s fashionable and friendly.
He says that cahtgpt will need get mad at your for asking it to do the same thing over and over again - LOL but sometimes Claude will push back and be like “kelly, we’ve gone over this for 5 times now, take a break” and I’m like, “NO!! We haven’t gotten deep enough into this concept yet” hahah so I have to push back.
We’ll come up with a reusable solution. Working exampesof what we created and access to peers and resources.
You’ll leave with peers and actual working examples and community.
Now he asks if we’ve not got our accounts set up. So raise your hand and get help.
This event is sorta dull though. It’s like, I can’t figure out this vibe. Like I can’t tell if I want to be here or not. But let’s see. Cause I’m trying to figure out if I wanna stay here all day - or go and do the other stuff I had planned today - but if I do that, it’ll be super rushed.
What is prompting? It’s how we communicate with ChatGPT. It’s how you tell it what you want to do.
Bro… “what is prompting??” lol i mean… duh.
They have instructions, contexts, input, output.
It’s like an ask
It’s most effective when you think of talking to a coworker or a really smart intern.
ChatGPT helps you see what is not being communicated. The more context you give it, the richer, more usable of an outcome you’ll get.
I feel like this guy is talking to this group as if we’ve never used ChatGPT before. Almost liek it’s 5 or 3 years in teh past. You know? I get it that not everyone here is the 1% like me… the 1% users, lol. But… hm.
Now he says congrats on the Super Bowl win, lol. People cheer. Some look so happy about this. remember my blog I did about the Super Bowl how I just don’t get it? That was liek 5 blogs ago. So… waht? Times like this you get a surge of happiness hahaha.
Okay, he says three examples of how to prompt GPT
OKAY - HELP ME HIRE A BARISTA
BETTER - HELP ME HIRE A BARISTA. I RUN A CAFE WITH 8 EMPLOYEES. WE NEED A PART-TIME BARISTA WHO CAN HANDLE THE MORNING RUSH AND BE FRIENDLY WITH CUSTOMERS.
BEST - HELP ME HIRE A BARISTA. I RUN A CAFE WITH 8 EMPLOYEES. WE NEED A PART-TIME BARISTA WHO CAN HANDLE MORNING RUSH AND BE FRIENDLY WITH CUSTOMERS. WRITE (1) A JOB POST, (2) A 20 MIUTE INTERVIEW SCRIPT WITH A SIMPLE SCORECARD, AND (3) AONE-WEEK ONBOARDING PLAN. KEEP IT REALISTIC FOR A SMALL SHOP.
I’m really like, what the heck? They’re really acting like no one here has ever used ChatGPT before. I feel liek this is super obvious stuff. It’s like… so far this is worse than I expected but also what I expected in a bad way. Like, now way is this real what they’re talking about right now hahaha. Right? I mean, is this stuff no one knows already?
I see peopel looking bored, reading emails, browsing google.
Then the girl next to me can’t connect to the internet even tough I tried to help her and showed her she’s doing it wrong. SHe’s using the hotel’s internet and trying to enter the password as a code. But I showed her how that doesn’t work… but she ignored me and keeps trying anyway.
Okay, now he’s asking about hallucinations within ChatGPT. He said its when AI gives confident answers that are incorrect or mad eup.
They’re a natural faucet of communication.
Mimize error and ask ChatGPT to provide sources and cite the info. Question where it got its numbers.
Brah… Like, we’re learning that frigging yellow and red make orange or something. hahahaha I mean.
Take your complex questions and break it into smaller chunks. Work on smaller parts.
Provide specific details in desired formats. The more details the better.
This is wild. We’ve been here and hour and a half and not gotten into anyhitn gI haven’t heard at basic AI meetings. AI presentations.
OpenAI you guys are the freaking innovators of this technology. What is gojng on here> I really am expecting more!!! Lol.
Lemme go look at their agenda. OMG this is one more hour of “intro” and “exercises”.
Oof.
And like… what “person who never used ChatGPT before” has the balls to come to an even actually hosted by Open AI to try it for the first time? That’s so intimidating? They shoudl be teaching advanced stuff to these people…. right? Like that’s who is coming here to actually interact with the actual company.
Now he’s saying to be mindful of what you share. They don’t want to have access to secret information. Know your data controls. Keep a human in the loop. Make the final call. Dont’ do sensitive info. Ask for them to point out when they’re making assumptions and what its missing.
Dude. The guy sitting next to me is like 70 and said he loves chatgpt. Like, who is the demographic for this? Cause even the 70 year olds here are caught upppp!!!!! Finding no value so far 😂 I’m just stunned. They marketed this as a hackathon…. a jam/design sprint… those are tech words for challenigng you???
The guy says, “can we do soemthing fun please?” Making fun of himself as the emcee.
lol.
He says he wants for everyone to take a second and write down a prompt that you’re kinda interested in ChatGPT to pursue.
Give them the prompt and ask what context you’re missing to make it a better prompt
Omg this is really confusing and tough.
Okay my prompt: If I want to get a list of peopel to contact and tell about my tutoring classes, where should I search for these? How?
The girl who was sitting next to me stood up and left. The one who couldn’t get onto the internet. OMG hahahaha.
Another girl at my table uses ChatGPT all the time. So, what is this event? It was marketed as a hackathon…
Automated emails so it has the different name in one moment with different names.
Yeah, another team at my table said they use chatgpt all the time. Jesus and his sister.
Another girl at my table has five accounts and they’re saying this is super basic. They say hopefully it’s get super nitty gritty later on.
Literally everyone at my table - there are 7 of us, and we all use it excessively. 100% of the table I’m at isn’t finding this valuable… they marketed this event so incorrectly. lol. Reallyyy!!!!
I’ll go get one coffee and then decide if I want to stay or not. But this is really a waste of my time.. I have a lot of stuff to do today and I’m just like, what is going on? They have a room full of the most active AI users, treating them like… what? Idk. Who even should be in this room? They marketed it totally wrong.
Well, I’ll at least do the same and get a free account for my business.
Wow! I went and talk to them. They refunded my past month and then gave me a whole free year hahahah. Amazing. So thats good at least. Saves me $240. lol.
Now they’re talking about projects. How projects organize campaigns so everything stay consistent and easy to find. Easy to reuse.
I mean, this is true, it is helpful to make this for my class information. I have a few projects I use…
Yeah I’m not doing the best job taking notes. I started working on other things for my work. I’ll probably go soon.
There’s a woman standing up to go to the back of the room with a beadazzled walking cane. I wonder if shes an avid chatGPT user too. I wonder what percent of this group is learning anything from this event. Probably liek 10%? According to my table, 0%…
Now suddenly it’s a break.
A girl came up to me asking if I’d heard of projects, I said yeah. She said she hadn’t…
Seems like a few people haven’t heard of this. Like the guy next to me is excited that he can do projects at the same time as having a chat
Another guy who works for ChatGPT came up and asked if I need help and asks if I’m trying out “projects” and I said to him that I’ve used it before. Then he got awkward and walked away.
Okay, so he’s explaining to anther girl about projects.. you could tell chatgpt everything, all your ideas. And if you want to do it tomorrow, you have to copy/paste everything. But now if you use projects, you don’t have to repeat it’ll. You can tell it waht you project is about. Maybe different sources.
Yeah, I know this stuff. well i still have 50 minutes till lunch.
So, I think I’ll stay for lunch and then leave quickly to go teach my classes.
A few people at my table said they’re doing the same. Lunch and then heading out.
I’m just like… how is the most popular AI company completely underestimating their audience? This is a missed opportunity to say the least.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
