Jul 25, 20193 min read

WaiTALK: "AI applications & problem solving" in Melbourne

[WOMEN IN AI LAUNCH IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA]

Despite the torrential Melbourne weather, 90 individuals braved the cold excited to gather for the first Melbourne WaiTALK on July 17th. Despite the dreary weather outside, the venue packed a bright punch. WeWork gets full credit for the ambience of the space; they were kind enough to sponsor our event with the use of their beautiful venue. The vibe was relaxed, chairs scattered around their colourful lounge decor.

The crowd was a mix of industry members and curious individuals looking to learn more about AI.

Our MC Jess Leondiou opened the evening with a personal tale about industry diversity and her experiences in Berlin. The moral? Diversity is not only crucial but a powerful multiplier when it comes to teams and creativity.

Before the presentations began, a challenge was set for the crowd. Each person was to remember one fact or one idea from the presentations which they found remarkable. Why? As a way to begin networking! The idea was; everyone would to share their fact with someone they had never spoken to as an icebreaker.

We had an exceptional line up of speakers to explore how to approach problem-solving with AI:

The event opened with Emma Liversidge from Deloitte. In her role, she solves complex problems for businesses - approaching them from the top down, using human-centred design thinking.

Her insightful presentation was titled: "Artificial Intelligence - There is nothing more human." Took us through the history of human evolution and se explained that understanding the past is an essential part of realising how technology may shape the future. Her content was full of insights. Not only about AI but humanity as a whole. She sees the biggest challenge in the future of AI being humanity itself.

A memorable fact from her presentation? "Only 0.5% of data will ever be analysed and used to make decisions."

Next up was Andi Chatterton from Ingenious AI. Her company has been building chatbots for almost 3 years using their own chatbot CMS platform. They work with organisations such as Victoria Police, NAB, Coles, World Vision, Bupa, and Monash Health.

She explained some of the different technologies used to create chatbots:

- Natural Language Processing (NLP): the ability of computers to recognize words and attempt to understand them. Natural Voice Generation: being the ability to convert text into a natural, human-sounding voice.

- Speech Recognition: a tool that has evolved to understand the English language to 95% accuracy, just shy of a human’s ability!

She explained that despite technological advancements, AI still faces some challenges, including uncommon fields, accents, and words being used in an unusual context. Our take away question was "How do we teach AI to use public data without using the worst part of humanity istelf?".

The final speaker was Jessica Glenn. Her career packs an exciting punch. A veteran within the startup world, she's worked across the globe executing three tech startups, failing at another, and building technology from napkin to IPO.

One of the funniest stories she shared was how she avoided being bombarded by customer service calls. To get around the attack, she created an AI! Something to take her place to assist the people who needed tech support. Tech problem-solving at its finest!

She used this example as a way to pull back the curtain and explain to us the thinking that goes behind developing an AI stepping us through her process.

After the presentations, the audience chimed in with lots of questions before we broke for networking, and everyone shared the different insights they had gained with the other people in the room.