AI SPECIAL
AN AI COMMUNITY FOR CAMBRIDGE
Belle Taylor, director of Camb.ai, introduces Cambridge's new artificial intelligence network, designed to connect and push forward the AI community in the city
amb.ai is a recently launched network to connect the AI community in Cambridge. But
and failed analysis techniques, or debating how to minimise biases in AI data sets: there are few problems in AI that someone else won’t have met in some capacity before. It is therefore in everyone’s interest to meet people beyond their immediate workspace. By forging more connections, people have access to more knowledge, resources and support. From that, who knows what great things will happen? While Cambridge does not lack cool AI events and initiatives, it is hard to keep on top of them without trawling websites and signing up to a million mailing lists. Camb.ai aims to be a central resource for local AI related events with our website, newsletter and social media highlighting AI events or workshops happening locally. This, we hope, makes finding and signing up to cool events – and meeting like-minded, interesting people in the process – that much easier. Additionally, Camb.ai runs its own programme of events. But, with the very real possibility of ‘event fatigue’, we try to ensure that they add to the conversation without overwhelming them happen! One of our most recent events, in partnership with World AI Week, brought together an eclectic panel – a science and tech journalist, an AI philosopher, a machine learning engineer, a doctor-turned-CSO and a decision-making researcher – to talk about the impact of AI in business and academia (this will be released as a it. We consult our members as to what events they’d like to attend, and then we do our best to make
does Cambridge really need a(nother) AI network? What do we hope it will achieve? And how do we hope people will get involved? There are so many exciting and interesting companies and people doing great things with AI in Cambridge, but they often don’t have a chance to talk to each other and share their experiences. The aim of Camb.ai is to create spaces — both on and offline — where people can meet, learn from and collaborate with other people in the AI community. Camb.ai is a not-for-profit initiative started by Cambridge Cancer Genomics (CCG.ai). As an AI start-up in Cambridge, CCG.ai benefits hugely from the vibrant tech and life science ecosystem locally. However, with the explosion of AI around us — including huge companies like Microsoft, Apple and Amazon, and much smaller start-ups operating out of labs and shared workspaces — we find that it is increasingly difficult to make meaningful connections with all our neighbours. AI is a field that benefits hugely from communication. Whether sharing new research, discussing successful
The aim of Camb.ai is to create spaces – both on and offline – where people can meet, learn from and collaborate with other people in the AI community"
ISSUE 04 18
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