Christchurch Artificial Intelligence

When AI works for you, it shouldn't work against you. Diego Ramirez will demonstrate practical automations that quietly run your business, and Emma Humphrey will share essential strategies for navigating the real risks of AI, from deepfakes to data leaks.

Meet your local AI community on the First Monday of November at EPIC Innovation:

• 5:30-6pm - Drinks and networking
• 6-6:45 - Practical AI Automations with Diego Ramirez
• 6:45-7:30 - AI Self Defence with Emma Humphrey
• 7:30-8pm - Drinks and Open Q&A

This month’s First Monday Meetup will feature both hands-on automation and practical risk defence, showing how to make AI work smarter for you—without leaving the door open to new vulnerabilities.

Practical AI Automations — Diego Ramirez
AI can help you save time and grow profit, if you have practical automations. This session shows you how to spot good tasks to automate, rank them with a clear score, and decide what to tackle now (or later). We’ll cover risks, data, tools, testing, and rollout through live demos of real workflows. You’ll see how to chain AI tools into practical automations that quietly run your business in the background, freeing you up to focus on high-value work.
Whether you’re new to AI or already building complex systems, you’ll leave with a step-by-step checklist and a worksheet to score your own ideas. This talk is designed for people who are ready to turn inspiration into action.
Bring your laptop if you want to implement an automation from a provided template during the demo. You’ll go through a step-by-step checklist to create a simple email filtering automation you can set up on your laptop in minutes.

AI Self Defence — Emma Humphrey
From deepfakes to job market shifts, artificial intelligence is reshaping our world, and it’s essential to understand the new risks it brings.
​Join Emma, an AI researcher and consultant for the UK Home Office, for a practical, beginner-friendly introduction to understanding and protecting yourself in the AI era. She’ll cut through the confusion to illuminate the genuine challenges posed by current AI technologies, including algorithmic bias, privacy threats and digital deception.
​This talk will share tools and provide a brief overview of the current governance frameworks designed to keep AI accountable. You don’t need to be an expert to understand the rules of the road.

1. How many risks are there? An intro to AI Risk Databases and addressing why AI could become smarter than humans
2. Case studies - a selection of risks to demonstrate the various ways AI and specifically LLMs are being used
3. Solution Signposting - for businesses, individuals and developers

When: Monday, 3 November, 5:30-8:00pm
Where: EPIC Innovation, Christchurch
Bring: Your laptop (optional, for the automation exercise)

Sponsored by Agentic Intelligence

Explore brain-inspired AI and high-performance prompting at December’s First Monday Meetup. Andy Masters will introduce Hierarchical Reasoning Models—small, fast systems you can run locally—then Caelan Huntress will lead a hands-on session to sharpen your prompting skills across multiple LLMs. Drinks, demos, and practical takeaways included.
Meet up with your local AI community on the First Monday of December at EPIC Innovation:

5:30–6:00 pm — Drinks & Networking
6:00–6:45 pm — Hierarchical Reasoning Models — Andy Masters
6:45–7:30 pm — Prompt Like a Pro — Caelan Huntress
7:30–8:00 pm — Drinks & Open Q&A

This month’s First Monday Meetup dives into brain-inspired reasoning models and high-performance prompting. You’ll explore small, fast-learning AI models you can run locally, then level up your prompting skills through live demos and hands-on practice.

Hierarchical Reasoning Models - Andy Masters
Getting hands-on with HRMs (Hierarchical Reasoning Models). HRMs are small, fast-learning, and can tackle niche problems that frontier LLMs often fumble.
In this session, Andy will:

• Introduce HRMs and their inspiration from the brain’s fast/slow thinking systems
• Work through example “grid-style” problems like mazes and Sudoku puzzles
• Show how to run an HRM on your own machine—either through code or, for non-technical users, via Excel

Prompt Like a Pro — Caelan Huntress
This high-energy, hands-on session is all about getting more out of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Caelan will teach the PILLARS framework for reliably great prompts while you follow along and practice live.
You’ll learn how to:

• Distill long PDFs in minutes
• Create a Custom GPT that mirrors your voice
• Compare models side by side
• Use Advanced Voice Mode to rehearse tough conversations

Bring a laptop if you want to participate, or simply watch and learn. You’ll leave with reusable prompts, templates, and a sharper creative process.

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When: Monday, 2 December, 5:30–8:00 pm
Where: EPIC Innovation, Christchurch
Bring: Your laptop (optional, for hands-on exercises)

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