Ali Basheikh at Scottish AI Summit 2023

Inov8's Ali Basheikh joined Colin Greenshields at the recent Scottish AI Summit. Here are some of his thoughts and views on the event -

"I recently had the opportunity to attend the Scottish AI Summit. The event brought together experts, practitioners, and enthusiasts from around the world to share insights, discuss trends, and explore new possibilities in the field.

The summit featured several talks and discussions on the latest developments, trends, and challenges in AI and data science. For me, the recurrent theme from most of the talks is that although we are all excited about how AI is going to change the world for the better, we should also be sceptical of how data used to train the AI would be sourced and verified.

An area that I am particularly interested in is AI in medicine. During the conference I attended a talk on AI within precision medicine. Professor Sandosh Padmanabhan – Professor of Cardiovascular Genomics and Therapeutics at the University of Glasgow - explained that medicine is still an art because while medical knowledge and technology have advanced significantly, there is still much that is unknown about the human body and how it works. Physicians must often make complex and nuanced decisions based on incomplete information, and their ability to weigh the risks and benefits of different options requires a certain level of judgment and intuition that is often described as an art. Therefore, the role AI could play in bridging the gap from art to science could be extraordinary. For example, the Professor and the other panellists spoke of the fact that medical data sets are becoming larger and more complex, and AI could be used to create biomarkers for diseases conditions to help physicians with diagnosis.

Moreover, I also had the pleasure of talking and meeting representatives from canon who are utilising AI to help build three dimensional models of the human brain so that brain injuries could be identified and treated more effectively.

The speakers discussed how AI is being used to diagnose diseases, personalize treatments, and improve patient outcomes. However, they also touched on the ethical and legal implications of using AI in healthcare, including issues around data privacy and informed consent. Which ties into another talk that I attended and one of the main themes of the conference. The intersection of AI and ethics, and the importance of responsible AI development and deployment. Throughout the summit speakers emphasized the need for transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI systems to ensure that they do not perpetuate biases or harm individuals or communities.

Finally, as someone who has worked as a credit risk analyst banking in the past, I also saw the potential of the AI in the industry I used to work in. For example, as a credit risk analyst I would spend much of time running MI processes that could have been automated. Moreover, because I was working within a team that managed the portfolio of current accounts, we would often a spend lot of time looking at trends and movements within the portfolio and trying to explain them or trying to understand the correlation between them and said movements. Due to the repetitive nature of those parts of the job I believe AI could have been utilised to automate those processes.

In conclusion, attending the AI Summit was a valuable experience that broadened my perspective on the potential of AI and data science. The event reminded me of the importance of continuous learning and staying up to date with the latest trends and innovations in the field. I am fortunate that at inov8 continuous learning is heavily encouraged, therefore I was given the opportunity to attend the Scottish AI summit. However, I would encourage anyone interested in AI and data science to attend similar events and keep exploring the possibilities of these exciting technologies."