The AIBE Summit London: Demonstrating KOMPAS to innovators, entrepreneurs and artificial intelligence specialists
On the 4th February, we had the opportunity to exhibit at the AIBE Summit in London. This conference, on artificial intelligence in business and entrepreneurship, considers itself as the largest of its kind, hosting up to 800 people passionate about artificial intelligence and its future impact on society. Their mission is to help London become recognised as one of the leading capitals for the future of AI, while educating people on the influence AI will have on society, not only of its builders, but for students, and professionals alike. An event created by the LSE Entrepreneurs Society, it was the first of it’s kind, and brought together companies including IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Amazon. We were one of the first companies to be invited to showcase our technology, and explain how we’re utilising the power of artificial intelligence to leverage our software into the hands of travellers and city-explorers alike.
We arrived early and set up our stall, waiting to talk about what we’ve been up to since building the technology. As the day set in, we met professionals in the space, fellow startups and a host of students of all ages, and KOMPAS was very warmly received by those who came over. Many thought our application of Machine Learning was not only very intuitive, but also well placed in the market, and something that they could very much see themselves using. Some then proceeded to download the application, with a few coming back throughout the day, and explaining that they found our app very useful. We even had one person come back and explain that he’d used our application to go and find lunch, and was very happy with the outcome. He said he could never have expected to have found the place if it wasn’t for our application, so was impressed with what we have built. We were also looking for specialists in the field to provide feedback on the tools and technology we’ve used to build the application, and the general feedback was positive. We’ve been able to reach out to a few potential candidates interested in joining the team, and as we are currently recruiting, this is something that we were very happy about.
Speakers at the event included Ed Newton-Rex, the Founder of Jukedeck, and Calum Chace, one of the best-selling authors on works about artificial intelligence. Topics included the ethics of artificial intelligence, the threat of AI on humanity, and how AI is expected to affect businesses at all levels as it develops, including startups. One talk that captured me in particular, was by Dr. Daniel Hulme, talking about Big Data, and the Future of AI. He spoke of data visualisation, and how machines are trained to interpret data. Take the picture below for example. By simply switching the numbers 12 and 14 with A and C, we would interpret the number 13 as the letter B. How do we train a computer to do the same? Something that we have to consider, is not only how we capture big data, but how we analyse, interpret and act on that data. He considers that a machine is only ever artificially intelligent, if it is able to interpret, take action on and adapt to data that it is being fed. It’s exactly this that we attempt to build with KOMPAS. Something that’s certainly not easy to do, however as machines become more intelligent, we as a society are beginning to make the move from artificial narrow intelligence, towards a general intelligence able to carry out a wider set of tasks. Some scientists and leading experts, would argue that the step between general intelligence and super intelligence, is fairly small, compared to the step between narrow and general intelligence. Only time will tell how quickly we are able to reach that point of general intelligence.
The day itself, was well co-ordinated, and brought together some of the most influential people in the field of deep technology, and artificial intelligence in particular, and for the first year of the event, we were not only impressed with how everything was run, but were honoured to be a part of it. We’ve made some useful contacts, and we’re looking forward to following up with people that were, and continue to be interested in KOMPAS, and also hope that we will continue to be a part of a well executed event. If you’re looking to join the team, or want to find out more about the background of KOMPAS and its use of AI, please do reach out to us, as we’d love to hear your thoughts! To everyone that came over and said hello, thank you for your kind words, and we hope to see you at next years event. Finally, to Camin, a big thank you for inviting us to be a part of your event, and for giving us the opportunity to be a part of the first AIBE Summit in London! Don’t forget, you can find out more about KOMPAS here.
