Are bots going to take over the world? Entering Startup Weekend AI
Technology has long wanted to make the world a better place, a new place, and yet, the future seems still unstable. At what extend is Artificial Intelligence critical? At what extend will Artificial Intelligence erase humain creativity, even replace it?
Everyone talks about AI but do we really understand what it stands for, it’s exponential growth and where it can bring us? Do we know how to create a business around it?
Are bots going to take over the world? Not likely, we’re too far from having enough data :) Here’s where we stand (deeplearning by MIT). Joke aside, we need educate ourselves enough to stop believing this non sense.
I had the pleasure of attenting one of Martin Wezowski, chief designer at SAP, talks on creating the future we want to live in. Jobs in sequential steps, that can be translated in algorithms, will be replaced by robots and automised. So we must rise higher, leave the dirty work to them and head towards more creative & innovative endeavors.
LET’S indeed create a FUTURE WE ALL WANT TO LIVE IN!
ENTERING: Global Startup Weekend Artificial Intelligence
AI can influence and change health, wealth, jobs.. the world. Do we want to stand besides and take the risk of getting left behind or do you want be part and influence the change? We know we want to be part of the change! What about yourself?
This is why at @GlobalSWAI we believe that we need to help communities educate on the theme, democratize the AI concept and push them out of their comfort zone to build the better tomorrow.
It all started in Paris …
It’s been already more than 6 months that the first start-up weekend in the world dedicated to Artificial Intelligence has been organised in Paris with my wonderful friend Josse Blais as co-lead. In November 2016, during 54 hours, one hundred web developers, graphic designers, business experts, engineers, researchers and students interested in the entrepreneurial experience worked intensively on functional startup prototypes, presented to a panel of experts, investors and local entrepreneurs on the Sunday evening.
“The insights of PhD students and researchers are very valuable in the field of artificial intelligence”
Based on the fact that too few researchers transform their discoveries into real products and further on into real companies with business models, we partnered up with INRIA (French National Research Institute Dedicated to Digital Technology)to build a bridge between the institute researchers and the French entrepreneurial ecosystem. We believe that the insights of PhD students and researchers are very valuable in the field of artificial intelligence and they need to get closer to the entrepreneurial mindset to think beyond the technology, and into a practical business.
This first edition was such a great success that we came to realise that this need for researchers profiles is a global need and not limited to France, and several cities around the world soon started talking to us to bring SWAI (Startup Weekend AI) to their city. In addition, the theme of Artificial Intelligence appears to be one of the main challenges of the coming months, with the multiplication of natural interfaces interacting with computers, machine learning and all the benefits coming around in Med & Bio tech.
This is how the idea of a global startup weekend around the theme of artificial intelligence saw the light. At the end of September 2017 and during two weeks, startup weekends will flourish in more than 15 global capitals. Mexico City, London, Paris, Barcelona, Seoul, Cork and Hong Kong … a growing list of participating cities! This global initiative is more than a simultaneous event in several capitals around the world: it is federating a genuine community around artificial intelligence, democratising its use, and making it more diverse, inclusive and impactful by removing boundaries.
Awesome communities & startups are supporting this initiative. They will help merge communities interested in AI around the world to discover trends and knowledge on how to apply AI in products and services & steer collaboration in this field among startups, developers, corporates, investors and researchers.
“The problem with the AI space is that there is too much hype and too little collaboration in terms of sharing lessons learned. It’s time to zoom into the business value of AI, be transparent about the downsides and push relevant change. There is an incredible opportunity here, but AI is not a solution in itself. We forget thats its people who are shaping our future and we need a global community to enable more cross border sharing and collaboration.” say Mike Reiner and Christoph Auer-Welsbach / co-founders of CITY.AI
Snips backed SWAI last year and in the spirit of their community, they are going global this year with us. The Snips Voice Platform allows anyone to integrate AI powered voice interaction in their devices with ease and all teams participating in GSWAI will get to use the platform.
It’s gonna be legend.. Wait for it … !
We want to bring the communities together at Hello Tomorrow ( a global non-profit on a mission to accelerate the transfer of breakthrough technologies into real world solutions by highlighting, empowering and connecting the most promising deep-tech entrepreneurs across the globe with the right enablers).
Innovation will take place around the world and countries showcase their startup communities during GSWAI!
2 weekends for over 15 cities to organise a SWAI end of September.
Over 1000 entrepreneurs & researchers will come together for tens of events the two last weekends of September 21 and September 29, 2017 for Global Startup Weekend Artificial Intelligence!
We want to connect entrepreneurs, organising teams, and startup communities for innovation to take place around the world and countries to showcase their startup communities.
Join today and learn, connect and startup! http://www.globalswai.co/. Over 20 cities have applied already.
