AI Founders Spotlight: Journeys, Challenges, and Startup Pitches
Join us at The Toronto AI Practitioners Network event for a special evening highlighting AI founders as they share their personal journeys, challenges, and growth experiences. The event will also feature an open mic session for AI founders in the audience to pitch their startups, offering a platform to connect and receive insightful feedback. Don't miss this unique opportunity to deepen your knowledge and expand your network in Toronto's thriving AI community!
Speakers
Dr. Gennady Pekhimenko is a Co-founder and CEO of CentML, a pioneering AI optimization company launched in 2022. Under his leadership, CentML has garnered the support of industry behemoths like NVIDIA and Google, showcasing its groundbreaking advancements in AI technology. In addition to his professional success, Gennady Pekhimenko is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he also leads the EcoSystem research group, one of the world's leading AI innovation hubs. His research projects were financially supported by an array of esteemed organizations and corporations, including Amazon, Facebook, Huawei, Xilinx, NVIDIA, IBM, NSERC, and CIFAR.
Alex Cui is co-founder and CTO of GPTZero, the world’s leading platform for detecting AI-generated text. He believes in bringing people together to create an internet where authentic human content can thrive. Alex has also presented at Capitol Hill, Facebook’s Policy team, and the Department of State, about how we can use technology to counter disinformation and political polarization. Previously, he worked on a machine learning engineering team at Facebook, R&D at Uber’s self-driving division, and published in leading machine learning conferences on understanding how people interact.
Hang Chu is co-founder and CEO of Viggle AI, working on enabling the next revolution of content creation via controllable video generation. He did undergrad and masters at SJTU and Cornell, and was a PhD candidate at UofT machine learning group. He has previously worked at Google, Nvidia, Meta, and Autodesk.
Braden Ream is the CEO and cofounder of Voiceflow, a platform for product teams to build AI powered customer experiences. Voiceflow is used by hundreds of thousands of developers globally with thousands of customers including JP Morgan and Home Depot. They have raised $35M from Google, Craft Ventures, and other silicon valley investors.
Agenda:
5:30 Doors open
6:00-6:10 TAPNET Introduction
6:10-6:30 Open-mic startup pitch + Q&A
6:30-7.00 Lightening talks by speakers
7:00-7:10 Break
7:10-7:30 Panel discussion + Q&A
7:30-8:00 Open networking
Who Should Attend?
AI Practitioners who are:
Technologists
Researchers
Product leaders
Founders
Investors
Why Attend?
Join us to hear inspiring stories from AI founders about their journeys, challenges, and discover the innovative ideas of AI startups in Toronto. Meet and collaborate with other passionate AI professionals, gain valuable insights, and take part in our open mic session to pitch your own venture!
There will also be pizza and drinks provided at the event to keep the conversations flowing. So come networking with us for the night!
Sponsors
Borealis AI (https://www.borealisai.com/)