Canva has partnered with OpenAI for its Magic Write tool, which auto-generates full bodies of text for presentations and blogposts based on prompts of a few words. But Perkins said the company is moving ahead cautiously, "over-indexing towards trust and safety."
"There's a lot of terms you can't do in Magic Write. There's no medical, no political, there's a lot of categories that we've actually said it's too risky at this point in time. We're erring on the side of caution because this industry is so in its infancy," she said.
Still, Perkins said the tools are intended to streamline and simplify design processes, which she believes will "supercharge" what people can do. "Every industry goes through radical transformations. Certainly, our industry's not been distant from that," Perkins said. "As new technology becomes available, the whole industry has to adapt and everyone has to learn new skills. I think that's just happened time and time again.""When we launched Canva, people were like 'oh, is this going to be the end of graphic design' and it certainly hasn't been the case.
Asked whether that user target could occur within the next decade, Perkins said she was hopeful. However, on the prospect of a potential initial public offering, she was less forthcoming. "There's nothing to speak of at this point," she said.