The winner of the AFR’s AI Trailblazer award talks life under Canva

Leonardo AI chief executive and co-founder JJ Fiasson has been honoured at the Financial Review AI Awards for 2025. Here’s how he got there.

Leonardo AI’s JJ Fiasson: “I think if you’re just trying to recreate other people’s art it’s a pretty uninspired use of the technology.” Oscar Colman

Amelia McGuireBusiness reporter

Jun 3, 2025 – 5.00am

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The world changed forever on November 30, 2022, when OpenAI boss Sam Altman launched the first public version of its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT.

Within five days, it had amassed more than 1 million users. Altman claims it’s on track to clinch 1 billion users by its third anniversary at the end of this year, and his company is now worth more than $US300 billion.

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Amelia McGuireBusiness reporterAmelia McGuire covers technology from the AFR's Sydney newsroom. She was previously the aviation, tourism and gambling reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.