December is a time for reflection and review, and I find myself thinking about the opportunities and activities that I have been lucky enough to be part of over this last 12 months.
This year was really kick-started by my listing in the IBM Watson Top 30 AI Influencers Globally, which recognised my work with Informed.AI and the Global Annual Achievement Awards for Artificial Intelligence which I founded in 2015. This then led to an article in the Guardian online newspaper.
In March I took a tour of America visiting a number of AI conferences and meetings, both on the East and West Coasts of the country, and met with many experts, researchers, and startups all working hard to advance the field of AI.
Throughout the year, I have had many opportunities to speak at conferences and be a panelist on a number of interesting discussions. This has included the opportunity to speak at international events in Switzerland, Belgium and most recently I was the International Keynote Speaker at the AI & RPA Conference in Melbourne Australian.
This also allowed me the opportunity to launch the Neurons.AI meet up group in Melbourne as well, which has now grown to include Sydney and New Zealand.
I have also enjoyed the opportunity to provide written evidence to All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence and pleased to have been listed as one of their Expert Advisors.
My career has now fully aligned with my passion for Artificial Intelligence. Moving from Credit Suisse, after spending 10 years at the firm was difficult, especially as I was helping to drive the Machine Learning adoption there, but my new role at Accenture allows me to focus completely on AI Delivery, Innovation and Strategy across multiple firms and industry sectors.
I am also pleased to have been included in a cartoon on Artificial Intelligence in the news and current affairs magazine called Private Eye.
I have also written a couple of articles on AI, specifically the The Five A’s Framework and more recently, The Continuum of Intelligence. The later I will be publishing as a book in 2018, so watch this space on that (or better still sign up to my newsletter if you aren’t already).
I am certainly looking forward to the AI challenges of 2018. As an Industry we still have a very long way to go, and we are only seeing the very beginning of what is possible with these technologies. The next few years will see an exponential improvement of the capabilities of AI implementations, but we must ensure we do so while keeping in mind a responsible and ethical adoption of AI, to facilitate a trusted and transparent approach to this globally impacting technology. All of our futures will depend on us taking a mature and intelligent approach to using this advanced technology.
In 2018 I aim to continue my mission to support the AI community and facilitate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in an Informed and Responsible way.