A fairer future for AI

Most people have an opinion on AI. If you listen to the media, it’s either the most exciting technology the world has ever seen or a harbinger of humanity’s downfall. For regular people, it’s increasingly becoming a handy tool to streamline the way we work, even as it threatens to displace that work in ways we’ve never imagined.

But no matter how you feel about AI, Steve Nouri thinks you need to get on board. The technology isn’t going anywhere, so the best way to empower yourself in this next industrial revolution is to open the door and invite it in.

Steve is the CEO and co-founder of GenAI Works and the founder of AI4Diversity. A 2018 graduate of the Master of Information Technology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and now a globally recognised technology leader, he has a stunningly simple ethos: everyone can benefit from AI if only they know how to use it.

“Real impact happens when what you create gives somebody an opportunity they didn’t know was possible,” says Steve, the winner of the Technology and Innovation Award at the 2026 UTS Alumni Awards.

“For me, that happens when someone stops seeing AI as something being built somewhere else and starts thinking, ‘How can I be part of this too?’.”

From radar blip to technology boom

Steve has been learning about, working in and teaching AI since before it was a blip on most people’s radar. Back in the late 2010s, he didn’t fully understand where it would take him, but he knew that something big was coming.

“Even before ChatGPT in 2022, I was already building a community around generative AI. And I remember I was giving a keynote in Singapore, where I said I believed the technology was going to be huge, and some leaders told me afterwards that it sounded like a fantasy,” he says.

“I just believed that it was important and kept learning and contributing over time.”

If Steve was the type of person to gloat, now would be the time to do it. Since that keynote speech, the AI sector has grown by trillions of dollars; in Australia, an estimated 5.2 million people use AI every day.

But that’s not Steve’s style. Instead, he remains preoccupied by what he sees as the bigger question surrounding the technology: with experts sounding the alarm over AI’s potential to widen global inequality, how can we ensure the spoils are distributed equally?

The people’s technology

Steve’s first answer to the question was to cofound GenAI Works, now one of the world’s largest AI learning and community platforms.

GenAI Works helps businesses, professionals and learners to untangle the complexity of AI and adopt the technology into their daily lives. It also provides market intelligence and growth tools that support startups and enterprises to integrate AI into their business workflows.

“For me, the goal has always been to help other people understand the shifts early enough so they can participate and contribute, rather than simply waiting and watching it happen in front of their eyes,” says Steve, who had previously worked in data science and AI roles at the Australian Computer Society and CSIRO’s Data61.

With a focus on knowledge sharing and building a global learning community, GenAI Works is doing just that. Under Steve’s leadership, the company has now reached more than 12 million users and has reported 300% year-on-year customer growth.

Diverse inputs for equitable outputs

But even as GenAI Works’ success grew, Steve knew that there were still huge numbers of people, particularly from diverse communities, who were effectively being locked out of the AI revolution. For example, more than 40% of First Nations people are digitally excluded, unable to fully access and benefit from the technologies that are transforming the global landscape.