Mulaney opened his set by questioning the choice of location, stating, “You’re hosting a ‘future of AI’ event in a city that has failed humanity so miserably?” The crowd groaned, but Mulaney continued, teasing them with observations like, “You look like a group who looked at the self-checkout counters at CVS and thought, ‘This is the future.’”
He challenged the audience on the implications of AI, suggesting, “If AI is truly smarter than us and tells us that [humans] should die, then I think we should die,” highlighting a sense of existential dread among tech workers. Mulaney also questioned whether AI could replicate the human experience, quipping, “Can AI sit there in a fleece vest?”
In his 45-minute set, he took jabs at the corporate jargon often used in tech. He told one audience member, “You know in your goddamn bones that a bunch of you are working on products that are just OK.” He also ridiculed buzzwords and titles, saying, “Congratulations on your position that did not exist five years ago!”
Mulaney further mocked the conference's vague language and the term “trailblazers,” stating, “The fact that there are 45,000 ‘trailblazers’ here couldn’t devalue the title any more.”
Reflecting on his personal life, Mulaney mentioned his marriage to actress Olivia Munn and the birth of their son. He humorously expressed concern for his child's future, saying, “Thank you for the world you’re creating for my son … where he will never talk to an actual human again.”
Mulaney wrapped up his performance with a lighthearted story about playing baseball with his nearly three-year-old son, drawing a parallel to the atmosphere at Dreamforce: “We’re just two guys hitting Wiffle balls badly and yelling ‘Good job’ at each other.”
The event marked Mulaney's appearance as the headliner at Dreamforce, as he also prepared for a show at the Golden Gate Theatre later that evening.