More than 800 Kent students, staff and alumni attended our recent AI conference at Kent Business School (18 October), which set out to showcase the latest research on and applications of AI.
This included an exploration of the risks and challenges the technology poses, as well as its opportunities for the likes of education, research, healthcare, creativity and business.
Among those presenting or discussing AI were: Dr Bogdan Vrusias and Dr Anna Grüebler from Amazon Web Services; Ana Pessoa from AIREEN (AI Real Estate ENgine); Simon Hirschmann from SRO AG, Leitender Arzt, Lia Mkhitaryan from Eiva Arts Foundation, and Xavi Herce from Fermat.
Kent was represented by colleagues from the E-Learning, Employability and Library teams, Kent Business School, the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS) and the School of Computing. Matthew Bagura, Kent Union‘s Vice President Academic Experience, also gave a presentation on a student’s perspective on the use of AI in education. Professor Richard Reece, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Education & Student Experience, provided the welcome and chaired the panel on AI in education.
The event closed with a fascinating demonstration of live piano versus AI improvisation by pianist Dr Esther Fee Feichtner, a performance that left its mark on student Warawan Jongthan, who said: ‘I was very impressed by how musically talented the AI was. However, the pianist’s emotional expression was beyond that of the AI.’
Dr Phil Anthony, Head of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University, said: ‘This was a really exciting event that brought together a community of over eight hundred curious students, staff and alums, both in-person and online, who actively participated in the many important discussions throughout the conference. To me, this conference really highlighted the shared passion of a community, eager to influence and shape the future of generative AI, rather than just imagining it.’
Student Thet Htar Nyein added: ‘This event opened doors to a world of possibilities, and I can’t wait to explore what’s next.’
Missed out? Catch up on the various sessions on YouTube.
Empowering Tomorrow: Unleashing Creativity through Generative AI is an exciting frontier that holds immense promise for our future. The ability of AI to inspire, assist, and collaborate with us in creative endeavors is transforming the way we approach art, design, and innovation. It’s not about replacing human creativity, but rather augmenting it, allowing us to explore new horizons and push the boundaries of our imagination. Generative AI tools are becoming our partners in the creative process, helping us find new perspectives, solve complex problems, and bring fresh ideas to life. As we embark on this journey, we are witnessing the birth of a new era where technology and human ingenuity converge to empower us to create, dream, and innovate like never before.
Generative AI refers to algorithms and systems that are designed to generate new content, whether it be images, music, text, or even entire virtual worlds. Unlike traditional software, which follows predetermined rules and instructions, generative AI has the ability to learn from vast amounts of data and produce novel outputs that mimic human creativity.
One of the most intriguing aspects of generative AI is its capacity to inspire and augment human creativity rather than replace it. By leveraging the vast reservoirs of knowledge and patterns encoded in its algorithms, generative AI can assist artists, writers, musicians, and designers in exploring new ideas, generating unique concepts, and pushing the boundaries of their craft.