prg?ai newsletter #39
What did the first month of 2024 bring, and what can you look forward to in February? Find out in our next newsletter. Check out what's new on the artificial intelligence scene (not only) in Prague.
???What’s new at prg?ai
The impact of AI on the labour market
Should we worry about AI taking over, or can we harness it effectively? After the publication of an analysis by the International Monetary Fund and Deloitte on the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market, prg?ai director Luká? Ka?ena commented on the situation for Studio 6.
A new partner on board
Building on last year's collaboration, including on Dny AI , we welcome ?SOB among our partners. As one of the significant bancassurance groups on the Czech market, ?SOB have been systematically implementing artificial intelligence since 2013. Their Data Science Competence Center delivers AI solutions including machine learning models and advanced data analytics. You may be familiar with their digital assistant Kate, money laundering detection models, or their subsidiary Discai.com. Furthermore, ?SOB has long supported startups that have AI in their blood (e.g. Resitant.ai, Green0meter.com or Igloo).
Echoes of the AI Days 2024
Hosted by our partners M Computers , the seventh edition of the AI Days 2024 technology conference took place at the end of January. Our director Luká? Ka?ena spoke at the conference and introduced our local AI scene and how to turn Prague into an AI hub.
AI for schools
Did you also miss a unified and clear database of AI education? Together with the Národní pedagogicky institut ?eské republiky , we are upgrading the Artificial Intelligence for Schools (AI do ?kol) project. This unique signpost directs you to courses, workshops or educational materials. You can also find the most common questions and answers from teachers about generative AI. The project is the result of collaboration of prg?ai, NPI ?R, AI dětem , Scio and Smíchovská st?ední pr?myslová ?kola a gymnázium .
Where can you meet us?
As a network partner, we invite you to the Masters of AI Meetup, an event for startups, founders and innovators interested in artificial intelligence. Simply for anyone who wants to learn more about AI, meet interesting people and expand their horizons. The packed program will kick off with a keynote by Michal Pechoucek , Chair of the prg?ai’s Executive Board. You can also look forward to a panel discussion with representatives of Rossum , DataSentics, an Eviden business , Zentiva and dream.jobs CZ | SK , moderated by our director Luká? Ka?ena and focusing mainly on practical applications of artificial intelligence in companies. Join us on 21 February at 18:00 in the CIIRC.
Club Unity is coming up with a three-day AI Conference 2024 packed with information and top experts from the world of artificial intelligence. Club Unity, a group of student societies, brings inspiring talks and hands-on demonstrations. Our director Luká? Ka?ena will be speaking on the opening panel. You will learn, for example, how to face the challenges of AI trends today and what role Prague can play as an AI hub. The conference will start on February 27 at 18:00 in the Rajska Building at the University of Economics. Do not miss this interesting event!
?? Local AI scene news that makes us proud
Test of Time Awards
Tomas Mikolov from Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics and his team received the Test of Time award at the NeurIPS conference for their revolutionary work that has significantly influenced the shape of current large-scale language models. The 2013 paper, "Distributed Representations of Words and Phrases and their Compositionality", has over 40,000 citations to date, and this work laid the foundation for the vector representation of words known as word2vec.
Trailblazers of AI
Michal Pechoucek , chairman of the executive committee of prg?ai, co-founder and director of Artificial Intelligence Center FEE CTU , and CTO of Gen , is one of the top 25 AI pioneers. The so-called Trailblazers were selected by the Sprytelabs platform from nearly 500 leading AI companies.
Czech footprint in India
Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics continues and expands its cooperation with the Indian university NIMS, where the Ma?ík Institute of Artificial Intelligence, named after the CIIRC's scientific director, is currently being built and prepared. The cooperation is of major strategic importance and is seen as opening the door for the Czech engineering community to prospective India, especially in fields such as software engineering and artificial intelligence.
Heartfelt news from Slovakia
IT specialist Maria Bielikova , with whom we have long cooperated, received a state decoration by Slovak President Zuzana. The founder of KInIT Kempelen Institute of Intelligent Technologies was awarded the Order of ?udovít ?túr II Class for her outstanding contribution to the development of the Slovak Republic in the field of science, technology and education.
Towards sustainable regional development
A new prestigious European grant, PoliRuralPlus, uses AI technologies to improve and promote the sustainability of regional development. The newly developed AI is to use data from the European Statistical Office, satellites, climate models or even data on soil composition. The nearly €6 million project has Faculty of Information Technology CTU in Prague as the main coordinator and involves a total of 20 European partners.
More than just ChatGPT
Watch the recording of the talk by Rudolf Rosa from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University. Rosa focused primarily on introducing the principles and capabilities of current AI tools.
Artificial Intelligence: the promise and the threat?
Petr Koubsky , columnist and analyst of information and communication media, opened the topic of artificial intelligence, its opportunities and threats, in a lecture at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University. Koubsky is a science and technology editor at Deník N and a prominent figure in the field of science communication and popularisation.
Digital innovation in the Czech literature
The Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics of the MFF UK launches the EduPo project. The aim of the project is to create an interdisciplinary educational tool that will provide a modern interactive introduction to Czech poetry and automatic text generation, and provide new opportunities for digital education in the current media environment.
One step ahead?
Scientists from Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague have developed an AI system for detecting gunfire, determining the shooter's position and estimating the type of weapon with a 99% success rate. The system, based on a large-scale database of gunshots and neural networks, is designed for military and civilian use, including schools and cities.
How to encrypt network traffic
What is network traffic encryption, what are its drawbacks or tools to monitor it? What is DNS or the Encrypted Client Hello protocol? Find out all this in the latest episode of the Ones and Zeros (Jedni?ky a Nuly) podcast with Karel Hynek , a member of the Department of Digital Design at Faculty of Information Technology CTU in Prague .
From Turing Machine to ChatGPT
How did AI start and where has it gone? A cross-section of important AI milestones, key definitions and figures in the field, to the phenomenon of AI manipulation and deepfakes. You can read all this in Matfyz's article.
Rock high school entrance exams with AI
Educational AI chatbot, EDU AI assistant, offers free preparation for high school entrance exams. The project by Charles University and other partners allows students to chat with AI that guides them through the Czech and maths curriculum.
Words as a tool
As part of the Breakthrough Technologies of the Future programme of the AV 21 Strategy, researchers from the Institute of Information Theory and Automation created a lecture block "Words as a Tool: How Artificial Intelligence Enters Our Lives". The lecture is ideal for educators, students, technology enthusiasts and anyone interested in the future of education and the role of AI in it.
Successful expedition to Guatemala
A Czechoslovak archaeological team discovered the ancient Mayan city of Yax Balam in Guatemala using AI and LiDAR aerial imaging. With the support of artificial intelligence and neural networks, the scientists managed to obtain detailed visualizations of palaces, statues, ritual remains and astronomical observatories. Sara Polak , a researcher in history within the context of AI technologies at Faculty of Information Technology CTU in Prague , was also part of the expedition.
Brain in a Can
?eská televize has come up with a short documentary Brain in a Can (Mozek v plechovce), hosted by Milos Cermak with the help of a chatbot. Find out how artificial intelligence is changing various fields and whether it can also create documentaries. Featuring Michal Pechoucek , Tomas Mikolov , Josef Sivic , Jan Faigl , Radko Sáblík or Prof. Ing. Vladimír Ma?ík .
Bilance by Czech Television
A retrospective of the year 2023, marked by the boom of artificial intelligence, was well covered in Bilance by ?eská televize . The creators delved into the phenomenon of generative AI, weighing its advantages and disadvantages and addressing concerns about its impact. Guests included Daria Hvizdalova , David Grudl , Tomas Mikolov , Radko Sáblík , and representatives from Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics , JALUD Embedded and KROUPALIDé .
What to expect this year?
Predictions and summaries of 2023 have appeared across the media. Lupa covers the exaggerated expectations, Forbes ?esko writes about the predictions of multimodality of AI systems. Ondrej Vlcek , Miroslav Svoboda and Michal Pechoucek spoke to Hospodá?ské noviny about trends for 2024. ?eská televize also had a special on the fact that AI will turn into a bigger threat and opportunity this year. Ond?ej Vl?ek, President of Gen , then predicts the ultimate cyber fraud and other challenges associated with artificial intelligence for CT24's 90'.
The best startups
CzechCrunch has compiled a list of the most interesting startups to follow. It included E2B , Filuta AI , Resistant AI , Rossum and Apify , among others. Also Forbes ?esko has created a ranking of the best AI healthcare startups for 2024. It includes, for example, Aireen , Carebot or MAIA LABS .
Beautiful numbers in art
Qminers founder Petr Zahradnik talks about his love of math and music and art. He and Qminers develop algorithms through which trillions of crowns are traded on stock exchanges around the world. Thus, they are no longer a small player and show that even a Czech company can compete with the established world leaders.
AI in healthcare
Floxgen software accelerates genomic data processing and facilitates the diagnosis of genetic diseases. DNAi is also behind the project, read about the role of AI in healthcare in an interview with CEO Pavel Wimmer .
Cognitive Assistant
Artificial intelligence and the use of large language models was the topic of Science 24. Pavel Klinger from DNAi spoke on the show about the development of a cognitive assistant that brings a new level of communication with customers.
LLMs in the spotlight
Pavel Kordik , co-founder of Recombee , shares AI predictions and developments for 2024, focusing on large language models (LLMs). Pointing out that LLMs will evolve to plan, generalize knowledge, and handle new tasks across various fields, bringing forth many digital personas and assistants. Efforts will focus on improving human-machine interfaces due to current hesitancy in human engagement with natural language interaction with machines.
Efficient public transport with AI
Startup Citya has transformed public transport in the regions, according to Forbes ?esko . The company provides alternative solutions for municipalities where conventional public transport falls short. In addition to the savings, the project is bringing public transport to people who didn't have access to it thanks to AI.
Not enough AI specialists in companies?
From the importance of AI for the public space, through its implementation with clients, to ethical challenges and strategies for successful integration of AI into corporate structures. Find out all this in an interview with Michal Ambler , AI Lead at consulting firm 安永 .
We read you Seznam Zprávy
It's not just for podcast fans that The MAMA AI is perfecting article reading for Seznam Zprávy. The collaboration kicked off last spring, when MAMA AI provided SZ with the synthetic voice of the robot Jana. Currently, SZ have several voices of their own and are aiming to create 30-40 audio articles per day.
The next-generation AI
Rossum launches next-generation AI 'Rossum Aurora' for better document understanding and complex automation. The system is built on a proprietary transactional large language model (T-LLM), whose main purpose is to learn faster and achieve higher accuracy.
领英推荐
How to tackle bank statement fraud?
In their article, Resistant AI presents the issue of bank statement fraud and what the consequences can be if you fall for fake bank statements. Introducing also effective strategies for detecting and preventing bank statement fraud.
A new AI colleague?
A new report from KPMG Czech Republic provides a list of steps to achieve better business results with AI. The survey also offers actionable guidance on implementing AI in your firm.
AI implemented by one third of EU companies
Data fuels our partner 亚马逊 's research activities and they don't keep it to themselves. In a recent independent report, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Strand Partners chart the adoption of AI in European companies. The report presents the economic potential of using AI, the digital skills of Europeans, or perhaps the obstacles faced by SMEs in particular.
How to integrate AI in companies?
Blindspot AI co-founder Ondrej Vanek was a guest of the latest episode of the Adastra podcast. He spoke on how large companies should approach working with AI, what it can achieve and what its limitations are, or how to integrate AI in your company.
Danger recognition with AI
JALUD Embedded offers AI-enabled sound detectors for security cameras that can detect screams, shattering glass, gunshots or explosions. This enables a quick response to emergencies.
Blindspot AI has a new CTO
Since January, Petr Zelenka is the new CTO of Blindspot AI . But he is no newcomer, Petr has been part of the team for seven years and has gradually worked his way up from software architect to one of the lead positions.
?? Events we’re excited about
12 Feb - Artificial Intelligence in Journalism - Václav Moravec's talk will explain what artificial intelligence can bring to modern journalism.
13 Feb - ML Meets Machine - Luká? Hodec and Marek ?ebo will discuss how to design industrial inspection robots that can detect defects in industrially produced goods.?
14 Feb - For those interested in Ph.D. studies FIT CTU has prepared Ph.D. DOD - online Open Day.
20 Feb - Mastering Generative AI: ChatGPT's Business Revolution - Webinar on how to master generative AI. Ji?í ?ermák will guide you through the world of generative AI.
20 Feb - data+vis meetup -? Talking about data, its visualization and communication. Once every two months, in Brno.
20 Feb - GoodMeetup #4: The Modern Frontend: UX, AI, and Beyond - Learn about the relationship between front-end development and UX or how to integrate generative AI from a front-end developer's perspective.
22 Feb - The Art of Smart - Full-day program of presentations, panel discussions and personal meetings with top experts in the field of artificial intelligence, data and business.
22 Feb - DATA mesh #18 by Apify - Another in a series of DATA mesh meet ups, this time hosted by Apify.
23 Feb - Are you interested in studying at FEE CTU? The Open Day is an ideal opportunity for you to find out what studying at FEE is really like.
26 Feb - IT Evenings: what's new in AI and what's coming in 2024 - Want to be prepared for what's coming in artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024? Come to Pavel Kordík's lecture.
27 Feb - KPMG Business Breakfast - What security threats does AI pose? Come to the regular KPMG business breakfast, this time on the topic of security.
29 Feb - FIN (R)Evoluce 2024: AI and data in the world of finance - AI in the world of finance, digitalization of the financial sector, security risks and cybersecurity, technology and new trends in payments.
29 Feb - HPE Data Science & AI workshop - Practically oriented workshops to help you understand the challenges and solutions to successfully implement AI projects in your organization.
29 Feb - On-line open day for those interested in Master's studies at FEL CTU.
5 Mar - Truesdays - regular meetups for tech & business - every first Tuesday of the month.
You can find all the events we find interesting in our Google Calendar.
?? Stuff that interests us
Contemporary Translation
I write about science
Green light for AI
?? Community calls
Kickstart Prague with us again!
Literary competition
The AI-BOOST deadline is coming up!
Start-it @ ?SOB
Technology Olympiad
?? Open job positions