LEAP 2024: Over 20,000 visitors expected to attend DeepFest

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DeepFest, the Middle East region’s premier artificial intelligence (AI) event is expected to attract more than 20,000 visitors.

Co-located with LEAP, DeepFest will attract global thought-leaders, change-makers, data scientists, innovators, enterprises, academia, start-ups, and entrepreneurs across four days of live demos, innovation sessions, sector-dedicated tracks, training, startup pitches, and an exhibition that features the world’s top tech companies.

The event, which is powered by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), will run from March 4 to 7 at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre in Malham. It is set to showcase more than 150 leading AI experts and 120-plus global AI companies.

DeepFest’s conference attendees will uncover the world of innovation through a themed programme journeying through the past, present, and future of generative AI (GenAI), where they will gain a comprehensive outlook on topics such as the evolution of AI and robots, creating value through data and AI, the impact of AI on society, and the future of work.

“The constant evolution of the tech landscape, particularly AI, is paving the way for breakthroughs unlike anything we have seen before,” said Michael Champion, co-founder of LEAP and CEO of Tahaluf. “As an event co-located with LEAP, DeepFest will take on increased significance this year, given the high-calibre talent we are hosting that is currently revolutionising the industry.”

The opening day of DeepFest will set the stage for understanding AI’s limitless potential, looking at the development from Turing to GPT-4, AI’s foundational concepts, machine and deep learning, and key breakthroughs, including robotics.

DeepFest key speakers

The session will feature presentations, demos, and fireside chats from esteemed speakers, including Dr Ramses Alcaide, president and CEO of Neurable, Alvin Wang Graylin, China President, and global VP of Corporate Development at Taiwan’s HTC, Gary Sorrentino, global CIO at Zoom, Aku Srikanth, director/Principal at Workday and David Siegel, the CEO at Meetup.

The second day will probe the hot topic of generative AI, challenges and ethical considerations of bias and privacy, defence, and the future of social AI systems. Speakers on the second day of DeepFest include Sanjeevan Bala, group chief data and AI Officer at ITV, Scott Penberthy, managing director of Applied AI at Google’s CTO Office and David Penberthy, president of the Association of Community Cancer Centres.

Thomas Oxley, the CEO of Synchron and a neurointerventionist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York will spotlight the trends in GenAI GAI and its societal impact. Oxley is helping build next-gen brain-computer interface solutions and has released the first clinical data on the Stentrode – a neural stent/electrode that can navigate blood vessels.

The conference’s third day will investigate the cutting-edge research and innovations shaping AI’s future, including AI-powered robotics, quantum computing, natural language understanding, and much more.

Meanwhile, the final day of the conference will focus on collaborations, ethics, and sustainability. It will also look at the societal implications of AI and how its potential can be harnessed responsibly towards a future that benefits all of humanity.

Confirmed speakers include Elizabeth Adams, an affiliate fellow at Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI, who will look at embedding ethics and human-centricity in AI systems, and Ivana Bartoletti, chief privacy and AI Governance Officer at Wipro, who will deliver a presentation on how responsible AI meets GenAI.

Read: Unlocking the potential of AI across industries: Hear it at DeepFest 2024