NZ’s Pioneering AI Experts Speaking At Crucial Summit In Auckland

Many of New Zealand’s pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) experts will provide the latest news and outline new trends at the Aotearoa AI summit in Auckland on March 17.

One of the key speakers is a founder of AI company Soul Machines, Greg Cross, who lives in New Zealand but creates businesses that compete on the international stage.

Soul Machines is at the cutting edge of AI research and its unique Digital Brain, based on the latest neuroscience and developmental psychology research.

Another speaker is Isuru Fernando who helps bring the best of Google Cloud to New Zealand. Before Google, he was at IBM where he established and grew the IBM Watson business. He is an advisor to the World Economic Forum on AI ethics and human centred design.

AI Forum of New Zealand executive director Emma Naji says by next year, it's expected AI will produce 30 percent of all content on the internet.

“AI and associated emerging technologies are playing an increasingly significant role in modern life, offering unprecedented opportunities for human development and innovation. It is our duty to explore how we best apply these opportunities to Aotearoa.

“AI is projected to underpin $US15.7 trillion of global economic growth by 2030. The potential economic and social contributions of AI are significant, but New Zealand is behind its peers in building the ecosystem necessary for AI to be harnessed in a beneficial and equitable way.

“Our aim is for New Zealand’s businesses to be internationally recognised as developers of safe, innovative and creative AI that recognises the value of inclusion and diverse voices. This summit is so crucial to the future of AI in New Zealand,” she says.

Other speakers include AUT’s Professor Dave Parry; deputy government statistician Dr Craig Jones; Julie Cattiau a product manager at Google AI; Kallol Dutta, who leads digitisation initiatives for Spark; Mitali Purohit from Callaghan Innovation; and Christopher Mende, the corporate engineering leader for Google Cloud New Zealand.

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