Hannah Wong, a former communications lead at OpenAI, says technology executives need to stop writing long-winded essays and start telling the community how their products will help people.
Ms Wong made the comments during an event organised by Clipbook, a media intelligence platform. The discussion focused on communications in the age of AI.
"Companies need to do more showing and less telling," she told Clipbook founder and chief executive Adam Joseph, who moderated the discussion. "This is why these manifestos can fall flat. We don't want to hear anything any more."
Ms Wong said that too many communications firms and professionals working in technology were releasing long essays on various topics.
"Just yesterday I read one and then somebody sent me another. Can we stop with it?" she said.
"I think these manifestos can fall flat when you say one thing and it's aspirational. For example, a lot of executives say AI will create opportunities for all of us, but on another hand you just laid off just a couple thousand people from the workforce."
She said the mixed messages create a credibility gap and that far too many technology companies did not have people organising in the community and contacting influencers to help gain trust with a wider audience.
"You're never going to win an argument by just talking at people," she explained.
Her comments come weeks after Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg tried to turn around the increasingly negative public perception about AI by writing an essay.
Many outlets referred to Mr Zuckerberg's essay of more than 6,000 words, titled "The Future is for Everyone", as a manifesto.
Due to concerns about AI's potential to disrupt the labour market, harm the environment and be misused, AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta have faced ample scrutiny and been viewed with distrust.
Ms Wong said that from her perspective, Airbnb and Nvidia seem to be better at connecting with audiences.
"I think Brian Chesky is an amazing storyteller, and when you hear him speak it's very authentic," she said, referring to the Airbnb co-founder and chief executive.
She echoed the sentiments of Mr Joseph, who spoke highly of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's ability to articulate how AI will improve society.
"He's fantastic and it shows that we can do a better job in the industry of kind of finding those use-cases of AI and holding them up like a beacon," Ms Wong said. "It's that classic idea of showing and not telling."
Ms Wong, who left OpenAI at the start of the year, said that during her time there, chief executive Sam Altman, was authentic, approachable and always willing to get the opinion of OpenAI's communications team.
"I was really glad to have that sort of relationship with all the leaders of OpenAI," she said.
