OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has hired Kate Rouch as its first chief marketing officer as it looks to develop AI as powerful as human cognition, known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
At OpenAI, she will focus on marketing OpenAI’s product suite, including ChatGPT, for both consumer and enterprise audiences.
OpenAI’s mission is “to ensure that artificial general intelligence—AI systems that are generally smarter than humans—benefits all of humanity”.
“If AGI is successfully created, this technology could help us elevate humanity by increasing abundance, turbocharging the global economy, and aiding in the discovery of new scientific knowledge that changes the limits of possibility,” OpenAI said on its website.
Rouch will report to chief operating officer Brad Lightcap and help expand the company’s marketing division to include brand marketers and researchers.
Rouch most recently served as CMO at Coinbase.
The hire comes after OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar told the Financial Times that the company is “open to exploring other revenue streams” to boost its subscription-based business but that it has no plans to do so at the time.
OpenAI, which gained instant popularity in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, has refrained from marketing, even while Google and Perplexity, the company’s competitors, have aired national TV ads.
“Now you can expect to see us go on the offense,” Rouch said.
Before joining Coinbase as the cryptocurrency platform’s first CMO in 2021, Rouch spent 11 years at Meta, most recently as global head of brand and product marketing for Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook app, public affairs and corporate.
At Coinbase, Rouch was involved with a 2022 Super Bowl ad that featured a bouncing QR code. The spot gained widespread attention, especially inside the ad industry after then-The Martin Agency’s CEO Kristin Cavallo took issue with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s assertion on social media that “no ad agency would have done this ad”.
Cavallo suggested her shop had come up with the idea. Accenture Interactive got initial credit for the ad. Rouch in a social media post explained that while multiple agencies pitched Coinbase ideas, the company ended up going in its own direction, noting that Coinbase parted ways with Martin shortly after she started.
Rouch’s role will be effective from Tuesday 10 December.
