IT Experts from across the Globe participated in the Fifth Edition of The Odisha Artificial Intelligence Conference 2024 held recently. Hosted by California based voluntary organisation Odisha AI, the 32 hours long convention was in hybrid mode on both online and offline platforms. The convention having theme entitled "Gen AI Now, What's Next ? “ witnessed the presence of hundreds of IT professionals, Information scientists, research scholars, budding innovators and AI enthusiasts both at physical and virtual venues. The much sought after IT Fiesta was declared open by Col Prof. Aditya Parida from Sweden, when Japan woke up with the first Sunlight of the day. The curtain fell on the marathon summit, while American Samoa was bidding goodbye to the setting sun of the day. The physical locations of the conclave at California , Stockholm,London, Abudhabi, Tokyo, Johannesburg,Bengaluru,Chennai,Berhampur and Bhubaneswar experienced unusual interest, unexpected enthusiasm and unprecedented excitement among the participating young community members.
The spectacular AI meet commenced with the insightful Audio Visual presentation by the talented team from Japan led by Anup Sahoo. This was followed by a brilliant talk on Angel Investing 101 delivered by Noted Investor Raj Mrutiny from the Bay Area of California.
The Conference broadly deliberated on the latest advancements, eventual challenges and prospective opportunities in the field of AI. The unique feature of the Mega Event was the diverse lineup of speakers such as leading scientists, noted entrepreneurs and top notch policy makers.
The major attraction of the conference was the power point presentation on the future perspectives of Generative AI by the chief scientist of Google Jeff Dean. Jeff deliberated on key trends such as the development of multimodal models that can seamlessly process diverse data types, including texts, code, images and videos. He emphasised on the transformative potential of AI models capable of reliably completing complex multistep tasks.
Shedding light on the history of bringing two reputed science research institutes like NISER and IISER to Odisha, Prof. Dr Chitta Baral appealed to youngsters to keep pushing for the digital advancement of the state.
Dwelling on his critical innovation "InterConnect", Intel Senior Fellow and Co-GM of memory and IO scientist Dr. Debendra Das Sharma elaborated on the crucial role of interconnects in achieving power efficient performance and ultimate success in AI era through properly navigating the environment of exponentially increasing demand of compute. Former President of Odisha Society Of Americas Kuku Das advised the community members to use AI in a positive and constructive manner for the betterment of the society. An AI wizard and MP from Jajpur Dr Rabindra Narayan Behera complemented the organisers for their sincere commitments towards popularisation of AI and pledged his firm support towards the noble initiative.
Chairman NIST, Berhampur Dr. Sukanta kumar Mohapatra,Deputy VC of G.E.I.T. A.V.N.L. Sharma, Prof. Banshidhar Majhi and Founder of Sarvam AI Dr. Pratyush Panda shared their expertise and visions regarding utilisation of AI to address social issues including the AI solutions in the space of Indic languages. Prof Jay Lee focussed on the fast changing landscape of Industrial AI. Presenting their viewpoints during the occasion Editor Sambad Tanaya Patnaik, Sailendra Panigrahi, Rashmita Panda, Dr. Priyadarshan Patra, Dr. Raj Dabre, Sukanta Sahu, Debendra Nath Rout, Om Mohapatra and Sunil Sabat highlighted the importance of evolution and collaboration of AI for a bright future.
The Conference concluded with a clarion call by the core team of organisers to the participating members to act unitedly for ensuring the use of AI for the overall welfare of mankind and society. The entire arrangements of the Odisha AI Conference-2024 was smoothly conducted and successfully executed with the active and able supervision of the members of the core committee consisting of Convenor Research scientist at Google DeepMind Dr. Swaroop Mishra, Founder Anjan Kumar Panda, Col. Prof Aditya Parida, Soumendra Kumar Sahoo, Kumarika Mohanty Panda, Subhendu Biswal and Santosh Panda alongwith a support team of volunteers led by Ravindra Jena.
The conference was attended by AI Chapter heads from Odisha, community leaders, prominent social influencers,functionaries at Ground Zero and activists from nook and corners of the World.
