Sandjai Bhulai, full professor of Business Analytics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, took us on an engaging journey through time with his captivating talk titled “Artificial Intelligence – The Fourth Industrial Revolution.” From previous revolutions during the era of steam-powered machinery in 1784 to the advent of cyber-physical systems and artificial intelligence in 2015. He highlighted that the AI revolution is driven by Large Language Models (LLMs) and encompasses various areas of development, including computer vision, speech recognition, speech synthesis, music generation, image generation, and robotics. Sandjai emphasized the rapid adoption of AI by the public, exemplifying how it took ChatGPT only a few days to reach a billion users, compared to Netflix and Instagram, which took much longer. Furthermore, Sandjai explained that the performance of LLMs significantly improves when trained with vast amounts of data. The ability of LLM’s are emergent, since the capability of the models drastically improve by scaling up (100B examples). His insightful presentation left us inspired by the transformative potential of AI in shaping our future.

Lokke Moerel, New Technologies & Cyber specialist at Morrison & Foerster LLP, delivered an enlightening presentation on Responsible AI. She stressed the significance of accurate and unbiased data for making precise predictions, emphasizing that input determines output. Lokke highlighted the need for human oversight in decision-making, as AI models may not account for exceptions or other creative variations. She cautioned against assuming causation based solely on correlations found in datasets, underscoring the importance of understanding the complete story. She emphasized the risk and legal perspectives, stating that organizations must be accountable for algorithmic decision-making and mitigate potential harms. She underscored the need for organizations to comply with data protection rules, highlighting the principles of algorithmic accountability and privacy by design. Ethical considerations included human-centric deployment, human control and accountability, transparency in decision-making, and the right to review and appeal automated decisions. The GDPR was referenced as a framework for ensuring fairness, transparency, and accountability in AI systems. Lokke advocated for upskilling and reskilling across professions to manage the AI transition effectively.

Mathijs Pellemans, AI specialist at Pon and a PhD candidate at VU, talked about Generative AI by cutting through the hype and exploring its real impact on Pon. He illustrated the layers of AI, distinguishing artificial intelligence as the outer shell, machine learning as the middle shell, and deep learning as the innermost layer utilizing complex algorithms and deep neural networks. Generative models, such as ChatGPT, are within this inner layer. Mathijs highlighted the significance of generative AI in creating new digital content across text, images, audio, video, and code. He emphasized that generative AI will affect every department in the organization, from IT and HR to customer service, finance, and sales and marketing. The practical applications of generative AI include enhancing content quality and efficiency, personalizing experiences, improving productivity, revolutionizing customer service, streamlining operations, and fostering innovative product design. By embracing generative AI, Pon can leverage its capabilities to drive growth, efficiency, and innovation throughout the organization. Today, AI is a value addition. Tomorrow, it’ll be a norm.