Birmingham AI Meetup - DevOps Society @Version 1

Our Birmingham AI meetup has arrived! We are delighted to be partnered with our hosts, Version 1, with an exciting duo of speakers lined up.

Format of the meetup event will be as follows:

6pm – 6:30pm - Networking on arrival coupled with food and drinks provided by ReVybe IT and Version 1.

6:30pm - 7:45pm - 2X 25 minute speakers lined up with 10-15 minute break in-between.

7:45pm onwards - Networking (carries on afterwards for anybody who wants to have a few drinks or just socialise at Flight Club)

Speaker #1 - Amy Kate Boyd - AI Developer Advocacy Lead @Microsoft

Amy Boyd, with a background in Computer Science and a focus on Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning, is a Principal Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. Her passion for AI and Machine Learning has led her to work on global cloud projects, engage with developer communities, speak internationally, and devise strategies for AI Developer community engagement. In her role, Amy not only creates and delivers content, but also shapes the Azure AI product experience for developers, drawing on her experience in the field.

Talk Title: From User to Creator: A Journey through Generative AI Technologies

Session Abstract: Generative AI is a branch of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as text, images, music, or code, based on existing data. In this talk, you will learn how you can use and build generative AI technologies for various purposes, depending on your needs and skills.
· Begin by using generative AI tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, to aid with search, writing, data analysis, and collaboration.
· Next, see how generative AI benefits developers through GitHub Copilot, assisting with code, comments, and best practices.
· Lastly, learn to build your own custom generative AI solutions using the many models available in Microsoft Azure and understand the advantages of doing so and how multi models will play a big part in agent architectures in the future

Speaker #2 - Akash Joshi - Senior Full-stack Engineer @Rocket Connect

A Senior Software Engineer at RConnect, Akash is a self-taught programmer who started his journey from playing video-games to developing them. Spending the last couple of years developing software solutions at trading firms as well as Meta.
Akash spends a lot of time experimenting with AI tools, using them in his day-to-day. He's constantly tinkering with text and voice based tools to build fun side projects like computer automation tools and better job searching websites.

Talk Title: "Crafting AI-Powered Command Line Tools in 2024"

In this talk, Akash will dive into the nitty-gritty of building a modern CLI tool using Node.js with AI capabilities. He will share his journey of creating "Howitzer," a GPT-powered command line assistant that interprets natural language queries and executes system commands.
Key insights include:
- How to leverage type-safety in JavaScript without build steps (no Typescript required!)
- Overcoming cross-OS compatibility challenges while building CLIs.
- Resolving edge-cases while building CLI tools in JS
- Integrating OpenAI's GPT API for natural language processing

P.S. Please provide full name and email address for access to the Version 1 building.

Address: 31 Temple St, Birmingham B2 5DB