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Racing the Future: How (and Why!) Entrepreneurs and Professionals Must Engage with AI Today

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Event Summary

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, integrating AI into your daily workflow is no longer optional—it’s essential. As an entrepreneur or professional, you face a unique moment in time where AI can radically boost your productivity and give you an edge over competitors. But this window of opportunity is closing fast. In this talk, we’ll explore practical ways to engage with AI tools like ChatGPT right now, and discuss how understanding and leveraging AI today is key to staying ahead of the curve tomorrow. Learn how to harness AI for a competitive advantage today, and discover why those who fail to act now will struggle to keep up as the future arrives faster than ever.

Prior to the feature presentation, Mike Ignatowski (AMD) and Al Ford (Supermicro) will give a quick overview of the crucial role chips, servers, and data centers play in the explosion of AI adoption and usage. This overview will help attendees understand what makes the new era of generative AI tools possible—and how incredible engineering is ‘behind the curtain’ as we use these seemingly almost magical tools in our daily lives. Mike and Al will also moderate the Q&A session after Bryon’s presentation.

Speakers

  • Bryon Jacob

    Bryon Jacob

    CTO data.world

    Bryon Jacob is an AI expert dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and organizations apply cutting-edge technology to real-world challenges. He has a Master's Degree in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University where he focused on machine learning and knowledge representation. Bryon co-founded data.world as its CTO to help organizations organize their data effectively and harness the power of AI. He has over two decades of experience in the tech industry, including leadership roles at Trilogy Software, Amazon, and HomeAway (now Vrbo), where he played a critical role in scaling the company to its acquisition by Expedia. Bryon actively contributes to the tech community, advising startups and sharing insights at industry events.

  • Al Ford

    Al Ford

    Supermicro

    Al is in US Federal Sales for Supermicro, planning an approach for Supermicro to market and sell to US Government customers. As a trained Executive Presenter and Facilitator, he has been presenting and sharing Artificial Intelligence capabilities for the last 9 years. Recently, he has been involved in an Open Compute Project (OCP), High Performance Compute module (HPCm) group that is working to democratize compute. While researching, understanding, and participating in future AI capabilities, he attends conferences and events supporting US Intelligence agencies, National Labs, and Higher Education research organizations to help further AI capabilities in both datacenter and Edge computing environments.

  • Michael Ignatowski

    Michael Ignatowski

    Senior Fellow, AMD

    Michael Ignatowski is a Senior Fellow at AMD Research in Austin, where he leads the research work in advanced memory architecture for high performance computers. Mike was involved in AMD’s role in winning the bid for the Frontier Exascale system to be installed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory next year. Before joining AMD 10 years ago, Mike worked at IBM in upstate New York for 27 years in advanced development and research. Mike has a master’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Michigan State University.

    Outside of work, Mike serves on the board for Common Ground for Texans (CG4TX.org), a local group dedicated to promoting civil discourse among diverse communities and seeking common ground solutions toward a healthy democracy. He also serves on the board of 350-Austin, a local chapter of the international 350.org organization dedicated to reducing the threat of climate change. Mike is also the former president of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society.

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