New Artificial Intelligence Landscape Fuelled by Generative AI to be Explored at SFI ADAPT Centre’s Annual ADVANCE Conference

A conference taking place tomorrow (Wed, 7th June) will bring together artificial intelligence (AI) experts, academics, industry, and government representatives to explore leading research and trends in AI with a focus on generative AI and large language models.  

Titled Generative AI, Large Language Models and Beyond, this is the third year the ADAPT Centre, the world-leading SFI research centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology, is running its ADVANCE conference.  The event will take place in Trinity College Dublin and features a host of conference participants who will explore leading research and AI trends along with case studies of how organisations can build, deploy and manage generative AI at scale.  

The sold-out conference will focus on a number of key areas including the power of generative AI, its impact on our world, the models behind the technology and the legal implications of adopting AI-generated content.  

Highlights of the conference will include talks by experts in the field including:

• A first look at large pretrained language models: Professor Anya Belz, Professor of Computer Science at DCU and Principal Investigator at the ADAPT Centre.
• Leveraging large language models at scale, in Microsoft 365: Paul Barnes, Group Engineering Manager at Microsoft Europe Development Centre.
• Generative AI: Opportunities, challenges and future directions: Professor John Kelleher, Hamilton Institute Professor of Computer Science at Maynooth University and Principal Investigator at the ADAPT Centre.
• Large language models for the medical domain: Dr Cian Hughes, Clinical Research Scientist at Google Health.

Panel Discussions

In addition, two panel discussions will explore key challenges and opportunities arising from the recent widespread access to generative AI following the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November last year.  Chaired by Jonathan McCrea, host of Newstalk’s Futureproof, the first will look at the disruptive impact of this technology on industry.  Thought leaders and industry experts will include Shutterstock’s Director of Product, Generative and AI Tooling, Lúí Smyth; Head of Health Data and Analytics at Ernst & Young, Dr Mary Coghlan; and TU Dublin and ADAPT academic, Dr Robert Ross, who will delve into the various ways generative AI can revolutionise and shape the future of industries and consider its impact on society.  

The second panel will explore data, ethics, and AI regulation, a key area of focus for all industries. As data is used in increasingly sophisticated ways, organisations need to stop and consider how they can effectively use it within the parameters of current and impending legislation.  The panel will be made up of Ireland’s AI Ambassador, Dr Patricia Scanlon; Senator Malcolm Byrne; Chief Privacy Officer and Chief of Product Innovation at Truata, Aoife Sexton; and Head of Artificial Intelligence at Trinity College Dublin and Director of the ADAPT Centre, Professor Dave Lewis.  They will explore the opportunities and challenges faced by organisations and data sharers and discuss best practice for operating in an ethical way.

Speaking about the conference, Executive Director of ADAPT, Declan McKibben said: “We are at the start of a significant technological revolution that will be felt in every field of life. Many application domains will be disrupted by AI including medicine, finance, business, creative arts, and agriculture to name a few.  ADAPT is leveraging its world-leading expertise in AI along with the significant multidisciplinary strengths across its partners to lead Ireland’s charge in this new era of artificial intelligence.  During this conference we aim to consider the future of generative AI and demonstrate how it can be used to effectively and safely communicate and collaborate with people to augment their capabilities in every aspect of their lives.”