Announcing BootstrapLabs Applied AI Insiders Series: Applied AI and Intelligent Communities – Webcast

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Applied AI and Intelligent Communities

Today, startups are able to use AI to more efficiently and successfully engage, manage, and empower communities to deliver next-generation services and create new business models. From virtual hospitals managing thousands of lives in real time, to community-centric networks powering the internet of things at the edge, or more sustainable energy production and smarter consumption. Intelligent communities will no doubt be at the heart of our new digital society and AI will play a major role in accelerating this transformation.

BootstrapLabs Applied AI Insiders Series are quarterly, invite-only, networking events with thought leaders from our community sharing their latest insights and real-world applications of Artificial Intelligence across industries in which we invest. The fourth Industrial Revolution is already creating billions of dollars in opportunities and will impact people, corporations, and society in profound ways; the question is, what are you doing about it today?

Come join us to learn more about how Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize the very fabric of our society, and influence economic models by establishing the digital infrastructure to intelligently create, engage, and manage communities.

EVENT LOGISTICS UPDATE

Following precautionary measures surrounding the COVID-19 (Coronavirus), BootstrapLabs, together with its event space partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, has decided to cancel the physical gathering of this event, and instead would like to invite everyone to join this Applied AI Insiders Series via a webcast starting at 5:00pm PDT Wednesday, March 11, 2020.

The event will start a bit earlier than initially planned so people can join at the end of their workday, and will end shortly after 6:15pm PDT.

In an effort to facilitate present and future networking opportunities for webcast attendees, BootstrapLabs will share contact list information of all attendees with fellow live attendees who have opted-in.

Register Here

Or contact: events@bootstraplabs.com.

AGENDA

  • 5:00 pm – 5:05 pm | Greetings
  • 5:05 pm – 6:05 pm | Guest Keynotes + Q&A
  • 6:05 pm – 6:15 pm | Recap and Closing

SPEAKERS

Ben Levy, Co-Founder and General Partner, BootstrapLabs

Ben has been actively investing in technology startups and supporting BootstrapLabs’ portfolio companies. Born in France and living in Silicon Valley for the past 20 years, Ben is a repeat entrepreneur who launched, built and exited two startups in the financial technology space.

Earlier in his career, Ben was an Investment Banker who advised CxOs of Fortune 500 companies and startup founders on corporate strategy, financing, and M&A. His banking experience spans across firms like Lazard, SG Cowen, Houlihan Lokey, Wedbush Securities, and QuantumWave Capital.

Ben is also a member of AAAI (Association for the Advancement of AI), and a frequent keynote speaker on innovation, technology investing, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Natalia Olson-Urtecho, Chief Strategy,  Innovation Officer and Co-Founder, The Disruptive Factory

Natalia Olson-Urtecho is a serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience working with international, regional and local entities in Latin America, Central Europe, Asia and the U.S. She is an expert in smart cities, finance, government, international diplomacy, commercialization of technologies, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, mobility, public engagement and infrastructure. She is the Co-Founder of the Disruptive Factory and the COO of the RadicalxChange Foundation. She was appointed by President Obama as the SBA Regional Administrator managing yearly 35 billion dollars in government contracts and 8 billion in loans for SMEs. She was responsible for delivery and management of small business programs, development initiatives and financial assistance, overseeing 180 SBA offices. Natalia was appointed to Philadelphia’s Planning Commission and served as the Vice Chair of the Zoning Code Commission. She was appointed to the U.S. Innovation Advisory Board to advise Congress and the White House on competitiveness and innovation. She has been honored with numerous prestigious awards such as Woman of Distinction for her work in sustainable infrastructure & the green economy.

Simon MacGibbon, CEO and Co-Founder, Myia Health

Simon MacGibbon is the CEO and co-founder of Myia Health, a predictive and personalized health monitoring platform for virtual patient care. Myia uses machine learning to transform streams of real-world health data into timely and actionable clinical insights.Simon has 25 years of experience using technology to create data driven products and transform enterprise capabilities. Prior to co-founding and leading Myia Health, Simon co-founded the Boston Consulting Group’sDigital Ventures global team. At BCGDV, Simon led teams responsible for imagining, building, and commercializing new technology platforms to help some of the world’s most influential companies innovate like startups. Simon was formerly an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Co.and led CRM and analytics implementations with IBM. Simon’s belief in the applied benefits of physiological measurement surfaced in the 1990s, while studying neuro psychology and as an exercise physiology researcher and subject at Otago University. Simon has a BSc from Otago University in New Zealand and a BA (Hons) in Applied andIndustrial Psychology from the University of Canterbury.

Micha Benoliel, CEO and Co-Founder, Nodle

Micha is a visionary and serial entrepreneur focused on building Nodle, a global and decentralized wireless network for connecting IoT devices to the internet. Prior to founding Nodle, he enabled Skype to launch Skype In and Skype Out and built several ventures and products in the space of telecommunications, networking and the Internet: Open Garden, FireChat, and PiperChain (Sold to RightMesh).

BootstrapLabs at Davos 2020

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Nicolai Wadstrom, Founder and CEO of BootstrapLabs, will be speaking on stage at the TechPark Davos Conference 2020, Global AI Thought Leaders Stream – Hyperconnected Humanity a side event in Davos, Switzerland during the World Economic Forum. 

With the perspective as Founder and CEO of the leading Venture Capital firm in Applied Artificial Intelligence, Nicolai will talk about how our world is going from Automation to Autonomous, and how that will impact people, organizations and society.

TechPark Davos 2020 Conference, the Strategic Council for Business and Economics brings hundreds of thought leaders, think tanks, tech & industry experts, and innovators together to focus on Artificial Intelligence, EduTech, MedTech, and Fintech, and turn these to societies’ best advantage worldwide. This conference, taking place parallel to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, offers a great opportunity to intensify the conversation around Artificial Intelligence on one of the highest global levels possible.

To sign up for our mailing list, click here.

BootstrapLabs To Speak at The SuperReturn US East Private Equity Venture Capital Conference

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BootstrapLabs Co-Founder, Benjamin Levy, will be speaking at the SuperReturn US East Private Equity Venture Capital Conference in Boston, on June 11th, 2019.

The conference will bring together over 450 of the leading players in Private Equity and Venture Capital from the West Coast, for an unparalleled opportunity to meet, learn, and create new business ventures.

Ben, along with other leading industry experts, will share their strategies and discuss key issues during a session called: A.I. will radicalize VC and PE.

More about Ben Levy:

Ben Levy is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of BootstrapLabs, a leading Venture Capital firm based in Silicon Valley and focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence. Ben is a repeat entrepreneur who launched, built, and exited two startups in the financial technology space. Praedea Solutions, a data mining and machine learning startup acquired by Mergent in 2006, and InsideVenture, an information portal for venture-backed pre-IPO companies and institutional investors, acquired by Second Market/NASDAQ in 2009.

Early in his career, Ben was an Investment Banker who advised CxOs of Fortune 500 companies. Over a period of 10 years, Ben helped his clients raise over $300M and close over $5B in M&A transactions. Ben worked at Lazard, SG Cowen, Houlihan Lokey, Wedbush Securities, and QuantumWave Capital.

Ben is a member of the AAAI (Association for the Advancement of AI), and a frequent keynote speaker on innovation, technology investing, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence in the US, Europe, and Asia.

 

AI, Geopolitics, and National Security:

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Your Information and Your Nation

Hacking is on the world stage again this week after Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested in London and accused by U.S. authorities of conspiring with former Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning leading to what is described as “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.” While some see Assange’s case as one strictly about freedom of speech and others see it as a question of security, his arrest brings the reality of hacking back into the spotlight, reminds governments and citizens alike about the potential vulnerability of the information they have stored digitally.

Experts suggest that this vulnerability can be pinned on the lack of attribution models, an integrated identity, and the complexity of establishing global privacy and ethical standards within the core building blocks of the Internet. While the general public watches tensions between super-powers mount on the international stage, trade tensions escalate, and the frequency and severity of cyber attacks amplify, what most don’t know is how artificial intelligence is playing an increasing role and intensifying what is at stake. This, of course, has not been lost on those in both the private and public sector who understand that how governments and the private sector engage with AI may very well dictate their future economic strength and security posture.  And yet, while many countries are active in AI, only a few have a planned national strategy for employing the technology.

As nations continue to invest in the implementation of AI, geopolitics will change irreversibly. But how remains to be seen. Experts from the United Nations and World Economic Forum explain what plans nations are already making at this year’s annual BootstrapLabs’ Applied AI Conference.

It is a critical time for nations as AI technology is rapidly developing and has already contributed to the exacerbation of state actors, terrorist organizations, and criminals’ political and ideologically motivated use of the internet for financial gain and power grabs. And when projecting into the future, some think things will only escalate, “Eventually geopolitics will no longer be territorial…but will reside mainly in the neuro- technological complex. We need to prepare ourselves for fierce power battles… plots, power grabs, secessions, manipulations, traitors and malevolence that will make the Wannacry and Petya viruses of spring 2017 seem harmless in comparison.”

But AI can also be applied as a method to not only alleviate such threats, but also strengthen our existing digital infrastructures and create stronger platforms for the future stability, economic prosperity, and security of our society, companies, and citizens. In a fireside chat at AAI19, specialists from U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Quantum Vault Inc., Atlas Organization, and MobiledgeX join to discuss what the industry can anticipate in the next few years across the security domains that AI will impact.

To further unpack the relationship between AI and national security, panelists from the Technology for Global Security, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Defense Innovation Unit discuss key topics covered in the annual unclassified US National Intelligence Report and what they are doing within their respective organizations to accelerate the discovery, development, vetting, adoption, and deployment of AI and other new technologies in service of protecting American lives and interests around the world.

Want to learn more about how to become engaged, what you can do, where you should look to get involved and have a broader impact, and how the Defense Innovation Unit and Department of Homeland Security are making it easier for companies to get engaged and navigate the federal marketplace? Then join us this Thursday at BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference.

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles:

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The Necessity of Real-Time Processing in Autonomous Vehicles

When thinking about autonomous vehicles, it’s easy to focus on driverless cars, how your commute to work will change, how your drives with the family will be filled with board games instead of “are we there yet?” The technology has been parodied in the HBO show Silicon Valley, is roaming the streets of San Francisco and Hamburg, and is the unforgettable protagonist in a vehicular accident that led to a man’s decapitation.

Whether you are trepidatious or excited, self-driving technology is inevitable. For the folks working to get the technology ready for wide-spread deployment, the trick is making sense of the road in real time, not if the driver’s seat can rotate to face backwards.

Ultimately, the concept of a driverless vehicle is simple, a vehicle that drives itself. But the mechanics of how that vehicle drives all by itself is where the challenge lies. In order to work without human intervention, driverless vehicles are “permanently surveying the road and sending relevant bits of information up to the cloud,” explains Christoph Grote, SVP of Electronics at BMW. But the trick is knowing and catching the “relevant” information. And this is not easy.

AEye, an artificial perception technology company, focuses their work specifically in the space of creating tech that is able to abstract and extract meaningful and necessary information from a car’s environment. Namely, they are creating AI-enabled sensors that enable vehicles to “think like a robot, perceive like a human” – seeing, classifying, and responding to an object, whether it is a parked car, or a child crossing the street, in real time and before it’s too late.

What AEye understood, is that in order to create technology that can perceive like a person and think like a robot they needed a rocket scientist (almost) literally. The Chief Scientist at AEye, Dr. Allan Steinhardt, serves this function. Dr. Steinhardt is an expert on radar and missile defense, including ground moving target indicator radars (so, a radar and missile scientist if you want to get nit-picky about the rocket analogy); space surveillance; and he is the former Chief Scientist for DARPA.

At this year’s BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference, Dr. Steinhardt delivers a keynote on how transportation AI is uniquely different from other applications of AI. In addition to exploring how AI is augmenting the collection and interpretation of environmental data the car must process, he will also address the very environments these autonomous vehicles will be driving in: the cities of the future.

It is easy to get fixated on the gadget. We are primed to want the newest artifact of technology, be it the newest phone, scooter-rideshare, or smart speaker. What is easily forgotten is the network that these technologies rely on. Up until now, the landscape of things needing internet connectivity has been able to rely on either WiFi or 4G. Autonomous vehicles, and the reams of data they are reliant on processing and distributing, require much more bandwidth. Christoph Grote explains that driverless cars are continuously gathering data from their environments, “generating a true, real-time map of a car that is pushed down to all the other cars…autonomous driving is not the capability of a car, it is really about swarm intelligence.” And in order to do this, autonomous vehicles will need to be able to connect to 5G.  

The cities of the future will be increasingly optimized to support automated functionality, including autonomous driving. But how, you ask? Join Dr. Allan Steinhardt’s keynote at AAI19 to find out.

Human Capital in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

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Will Your Job be Taken Over by Robots?

In 1589, a British inventor introduced his invention, the Knitting Machine, to the Queen of England expecting to be granted a patent. Instead, she replied, “Consider thou what the invention could do to my poor subjects. It would assuredly bring to them ruin by depriving them of employment, thus making them beggars.”

The fear that technology will displace workers is not a new fear—but it is certainly a trending-fear, with a web app to match. Workers are not unfamiliar with skepticism about how new technology will change their job or make it obsolete. But the true fear the workforce has about new technology, especially automation, is not about losing a job, but about having an employable skill set. And from there, it is a slippery slope to worrying about becoming destitute.  

In 2013, researchers at the University of Oxford estimated that 47 percent of US employment is at “high-risk” for complete automation within two decades. Should their estimations be correct, we can expect that roughly 65 million Americans will not only be out of a job, but will have been asked to leave their jobs because their skill set had become obsolete, taken over by automation. Given that these are conservative estimates, perhaps it is time to get worried.

But not so fast.

Despite the dreaded prediction, that over 500 million people worldwide will lose their jobs in the first wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to automation, experts agree that people, with their inherently human social savvy and creativity, will continue to remain the main drivers of innovation.

At this year’s BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference, experts from companies working to manage the transition to automation and insiders at companies like Facebook, Adobe, and Microsoft working internally to prepare for this upcoming shift in their workplaces, will discuss the Future of Work in the Age of AI.

Industry thought leaders, like Oliver Brdiczka who is building Adobe’s AI assistant and Noelle LaCharite who is working to educate developers for Microsoft about AI, are dedicated to making AI understand and respond to human behavior. Rather than sacrificing human intelligence to the might of AI, as science fiction might have us believe is our inevitable future, they are focused on harnessing human intelligence. This new wave of AI, called Contextual and Conversational AI, trusts that artificial intelligence is hardly intelligent without human intelligence, cementing the future for human capital. In fact, valuing human intelligence aids in securing human capital’s place as the most valuable resource of any company.

And yet, even if human intelligence dominates work culture, the working landscape is still destined to change in the face of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology in the workplace. And it’s going to change fast. In fact, it is the industries that are most increasingly reliant on automated work, that will need to most-quickly consider how to adapt in stride with the developments of AI and how to rethink frameworks for sound management in a world of work supported by automation, lest failure. That’s where Dinkar Jain, Head of Machine Learning for Facebook Ads, is focusing his attention: the future of management and business practices in the Age of AI.

Despite the centuries-old hesitations of the labor force surrounding the adoption of new technology, historical data shows that technology has actually created more jobs than it has displaced or made obsolete.

But the big question in a time where artificial intelligence and machine learning are leading rapid developments in automation is: will it be different this time?

Find out from the experts, and learn how to prepare and transition today’s human capital into their roles of tomorrow at AAI19.  

 

Get your tickets today, For a limited time, get 50% off on registration using promo code: AAI1950Percent

Register Now

BootstrapLabs Applied AI Workshop: AI and Human Capital

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Date and Time: Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Location: San Francisco

Registration: This event is INVITE ONLY. You can request more information at events@bootstraplabs.com

Come join us to learn more about how Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize the enterprise of tomorrow, and how Applied AI solutions can help executives and leaders around the world better manage, attract and engage their employees and customers.

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds, companies are seeking to harness new and emerging technologies to reach higher levels of efficiency and compete on a global scale for innovation, customers, and talent.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, and will drastically change the way we do business and live. The economic and social impact of artificial intelligence technologies will ultimately depend on how quickly organizations and institutions are able to learn, adapt, control, and ultimately wield these powerful technologies for the greater good.

Over the last 30 years, the allocation of market capitalization value for corporations has shifted from 80% being assigned to tangible assets (machinery, plants, buildings, etc), to 80% being assigned to their intangible assets (brands, intellectual properties, trade secrets, business processes, and talent).

They are many opportunities and challenges ahead, and as a Venture Capital firm focused on Applied AI technologies, BootstrapLabs believes that the success of any business today, more so than any other time before, will ultimately be determinate by their ability to not only adopt AI solutions across their entire business but also, and maybe most critically, apply AI to known critical factors such as attracting, retaining, developing and managing their pool of Human Capital as well as delighting their customers.

Agenda:

  • 5:00pm – 5:25pm: Registration & Networking
  • 5:25pm – 5:30pm: Greetings and Introduction by BootstrapLabs
  • 5:30pm – 5:45pm: “Applied AI and Human Capital Investment Trends”, Ben Levy, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, BootstrapLabs
  • 5:45pm – 6:00pm: “Bringing AI in the Enterprise – Legal Considerations”, Natalie A. Pierce, Partner, Littler
  • 6:00pm – 6:20pm: “Scaling your Enterprise Conversational Knowledge”, Jonathan Eisenzopf, CEO, Discourse.ai
  • 6:20pm – 6:40pm: “Corporate Culture 2.0”, Sabrina Atienza, Co-Founder & CEO, Stealth Mode Startup
  • 6:40pm – 7:30pm: “Applied AI and Human Capital Panel + Q&A”, moderated by Debi Hirshlag, Advisor and former VP, HR at Workday, Flex, Trimble & Ariba
  • 7:15pm – 8:00pm: Networking Reception

Speakers:

Ben Levy, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, BootstrapLabs

Jonathan Eisenzopf, CEO, Discourse.ai

Natalie A. Pierce, Partner, Littler

 

Sabrina Atienza, Co-Founder & CEO, Stealth Mode Startup

Debi Hirshlag, Advisor and former VP, HR at Workday, Flex, Trimble & Ariba

Thank You To Our Host

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applied ai conference

The Best AI Conferences in 2019

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BootstrapLabs is pleased to announce that our annual Applied AI Conference has been selected by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, in the article “The 16 AI and ML conferences you should attend in 2019” as one of the top AI events to attend next year.

This recognition is the latest in a series of recommendations we have received from many AI experts, companies, and journalists, including Business Insider last year.

VC investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning doubled from $6 billion in 2016 to $12 billion in 2017 (Source. KPMG), and investments are at an all time high in the space.

With the AI market projected to grow over 20 fold in the next 10 years to $3 trillion annually, we believe Applied Artificial Intelligence represents one of the major wealth creation opportunities of this century.

If you want to increase your knowledge and connections in the industry, become an AI champion inside your organization, or find new career opportunities, the Applied AI Conference 2019 would definitely be a great event to attend. Discount tickets and more information are available on our conference web page – link here.

BootstrapLabs also has a limited number of sponsorship opportunities available for select partners; you can learn more about these opportunities and request more information at this link.

Below you can find the article from Hewlett Packard Enterprise:

The 16 AI and ML conferences you should attend in 2019

If you want to grow your career, consider attending one of these great artificial intelligence and machine learning conferences for IT pros. Whether you’re a manager, developer, or researcher, doing so will help you meet expert colleagues and improve your skills.

AI is as hot as a laptop with a broken fan—so scorching that some conferences promise to exclude recruiters. As such, there are plenty of organizations motivated to share AI and machine learning information. This overview aims to help you identify the conferences that are worth your time and meet your needs.

At first glance, you could use a background in data mining just to sort through all the events that have “artificial Intelligence” in their titles or include AI conference tracks. I winnowed down the offerings based on the quality of speakers, attendees, and networking opportunities. However, your own needs are the ultimate filter: Are you a programmer looking to increase your skills? An executive looking for competitive insights? A researcher looking to share ideas? A tech recruiter looking for prospects? A prospect looking to dodge recruiters? Some conferences are large and multifaceted enough that nearly anyone can get something out of them. Others appeal only to researchers in subspecialties.

The list below aims to give you enough details to make an informed decision. It is ordered by date, with gold stars for the conferences I think merit close attention. The conference list starts in late 2018, in part because few organizations have published details about fall 2019 events; the coming-soon events provide enough information for you to decide whether they should be on your schedule for next year.

Full article available at – https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/the-16-ai-and-ml-conferences-you-should-attend-in-2019-1811.html

BootstrapLabs is pleased to announce our next Applied AI Insiders Series event: Artificial Intelligence & Energy

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Artificial Intelligence & Energy, in partnership with the innogy Innovation Hub.

Date and Time: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 | 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Location: Galvanize, 44 Tehama Street, San Francisco, California 94105

Registration: This event is INVITE ONLY. If you did not receive an invitation you can request one below.

REQUEST AN INVITE

We stand in front of the 4th and largest wave of the industrial revolution, powered by AI and data. This is the biggest opportunity, so far, for innovation and entrepreneurship, and every single industry will be disrupted and redefined by companies that are not yet even born.

With the AI market projected to grow over 20 fold in the next 10 years to $3 Trillion annually, we believe Applied Artificial Intelligence represents one of the major wealth creation opportunities of this century.

Our energy system is changing rapidly – becoming more digital, decentralized and more democratic. For example, we are witnessing the rise of “prosumers” who are taking energy generation and management into their own hands. So what does the future energy systems look like?

We believe this future cannot be built by iterating on the status quo, but by carrying out radical innovation – including harnessing the ever-increasing amount of data and applying new technologies like AI. Artificial Intelligence will transform the way we produce, distribute, and consume energy – continuously collecting and analyzing data from millions of smart sensors, and making smart decisions on how, where, and when to allocate energy more efficiently.

Come join us to learn more about how Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize the energy industry.

BootstrapLabs and the innogy Innovation Hub are working globally to build the largest artificial intelligence community for energy ecosystems, and provide a combination of capital and support to Applied AI startups.

This is an INVITATION ONLY event with very limited capacity. BootstrapLabs reserves the right to cancel any tickets.

Contact events@bootstraplabs.com to request additional invitations.

AGENDA:

5:30 pm – 5:50 pm | Registration & Networking

5:50 pm – 6:10 pm | Welcome Message and Introduction by BootstrapLabs

6:10 pm – 7:40 pm | AI and Energy Keynotes

7:40 pm – 8:30 pm | Networking and drinks

SPEAKERS:

Ben Levy, Co-Founder, BootstrapLabs

Ben has been actively investing in technology startups and supporting BootstrapLabs’ portfolio companies. Born in France and living in Silicon Valley for the past 20 years, Ben is a repeat entrepreneur who launched, built and exited two startups in the financial technology space.

Earlier in his career, Ben was an Investment Banker who advised CxOs of Fortune 500 companies and startup founders on corporate strategy, financing, and M&A. His banking experience spans across firms like Lazard, SG Cowen, Houlihan Lokey, Wedbush Securities, and QuantumWave Capital.

Ben is also a member of AAAI (Association for the Advancement of AI), and a frequent keynote speaker on innovation, technology investing, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence in the US, Europe, and Asia.

 

Thomas Birr, SVP Innovation & Business Transformation, innogy SE and CEO, innogy Innovation Hub

Thomas is SVP Innovation & Business Transformation at innogy SE and CEO of the innogy Innovation Hub. Innogy is a leading European utility which mission is to create a future beyond the traditional energy business. The innogy Innovation Hub is building and co-creating new digital and platform-powered business models in partnership with the world’s most promising start-ups. Thomas is a strong believer that AI will change every industry – including Energy.

Sebastian Niestrath, SVP Infrastructure Platform Ventures at innogy New Ventures LLC

Sebastian Niestrath is a venture capitalist with innogy New Ventures in Palo Alto, California – part of innogy, one of Europe’s leading electric utilities. During his 12 years in the energy industry, Sebastian has gained extensive experience across the entire energy value chain, his area of expertise is energy markets and energy trading. Sebastian is passionate about working closely with startups that build the digital and decarbonized energy system of the future.

Michael Wara, Director, Climate and Energy Policy Program, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University

Michael Wara is Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Woods Institute for the Environment and research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford.

Wara’s legal and policy scholarship focuses on carbon pricing, energy innovation, and regulated industries. He collaborates with economists, engineers, and scientists in research on the design and evaluation of technical and regulatory solutions to climate and energy challenges. He is also an expert on international environmental law with a particular focus on the ozone and climate treaty regimes.
Wara received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Prateek Chakravarty, Head of Worldwide Sales, Bidgely

Prateek leads worldwide sales efforts at Bidgely, a software company bringing AI solutions to the modern utility and energy retailer.
Before Bidgely, Prateek worked in leadership roles at Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Schlumberger. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

The innogy Innovation Hub is the Accelerator and Venture Capital arm of innogy SE, Germany’s leading energy company.

innogy SE is Germany’s leading energy company, with revenue of around €44 billion (2016), more than 40,000 employees and activities in 16 countries across Europe. With its three business segments Grid & Infrastructure, Retail and Renewables, innogy addresses the requirements of a modern, decarbonized, decentralized and digital energy world.

Founded in 2008, BootstrapLabs is a leading Venture Capital firm based in Silicon Valley and focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence. We invest in founders that dream big and are solving today’s hardest problem by applying artificial intelligence to shape a better future.

We are pleased to announce that the annual BootstrapLabs Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference will return for the fourth year on April 18, 2019 in downtown San Francisco.

The BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference 2019 is a must-attend event for those involved or interested in the most current AI technologies and products.

The one day conference brings together the brightest and most experienced professionals in the field of AI for an immersive day of learning, discussion, and connection. This year’s agenda will focus on the latest trends and the future impact of AI applications and commercialization across a breadth of sectors, including Transportation, Logistics, Health, Energy, FinTech, the Future of Work (FoW), Internet of Things (IoT), and Cybersecurity.

A limited number of tickets are currently on sale at the Super Early Bird price ($1200 off)! Join thought leaders leveraging AI applications to build the future of enterprise, corporations, governments, and society as we know it. Register and learn more at this link.

Nicolai Wadstrom, UnConference, Berlin

BootstrapLabs Joins innogy Innovation Hub at UnConference

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Berlin, Germany – October 4, 2018 – Nicolai Wadstrom, BootstrapLabs Founder, CEO and Managing Partner, was recently invited by innogy Innovation Hub to participate in the fourth annual “UnConference” as a panelist to discuss digital disruption, Applied Artificial Intelligence, and the impact of technology on the Energy space.

Nicolai Wadstrom, UnConference, Berlin

During the Disruption Platform session moderated by Thomas Birr, SVP of Innovation & Business Transformation at innogy and CEO of innogy Innovation Hub, Nicolai and Tim Kock, Co-Founder at Jungle AI, weighed in on the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging technologies and their potential impact on the decentralized energy system of the future.

As leaders in the AI space, both Nicolai and Tim were asked to speak about why the unique combination of AI + Energy is so interesting, as well as subtechnologies that have the most potential to disrupt the traditional energy industry.

UnConference by innogy Innovation Hub provides a platform for innovators, startups, VCs, thought leaders, and experts to come together and jointly create the future of energy.

 

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BootstrapLabs Presents at US Navy’s HACKtheMACHINE

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Seattle, Washington – September 22, 2018 – Ben Levy, Co-Founder of BootstrapLabs was recently invited to present on the state of Applied Artificial Intelligence at HACKtheMACHINE, which was hosted by the Naval Sea Systems Command.

During his keynote, Ben spoke about the State of AI Technology and Tools, where he highlighted why advances in Applied AI are happening now and the impending impacts, opportunities, and challenges that lie ahead for businesses and technologists.

 

 

Ben also shared insights about current investment trends, data projections, and industry milestones that will help carve a path for those hoping to leverage AI’s transformative power.

Ben Levy, Co-Founder, BootstrapLabs, Artificial Intelligence, U.S Navy, HACKtheMACHINE

The discussion on Applied AI, which was part of the Designers Executive schedule, also included presentations by Mr. Kumar Venkateswar, Product Team Lead at Amazon SageMaker and Mr. Andrew Kim, Public Policy and Government Affairs at Google AI.

HACKtheMACHINE is the US Navy’s premiere digital experience for building a community of practice in maritime security.

WANT TO JOIN US AT THE NEXT BOOTSTRAPLABS APPLIED AI EVENT?

Sign up for our newsletter list to receive updates, subscribe here.

 

City of Malmö Hosts BootstrapLabs’ Founder Nicolai Wadstrom

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Malmö, Sweden – May 8, 2018 – BootstrapLabs Founder and CEO, Nicolai Wadstrom was honored to be invited to speak at Malmö’s legendary Palladium during the city’s 07:07AM quarterly Breakfast with Entrepreneurs.

During Nicolai’s session “AI, Silicon Valley and Malmö!“ he shared his unique insights in what is happening within Artificial Intelligence, why it is happening now and what lies ahead. He also provided some guidelines on how business leaders can prepare their organizations for the technology shift.

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The business community in Malmö was hungry to learn more about AI and BootstrapLab, the organizers opened up extra tickets and ended up with 500+ registered attendees.

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07:07 am is a forum where entrepreneurs meet other entrepreneurs and share knowledge and experience. Each meeting has a theme and hand picked speakers for that particular topic. 07:07 am is also an opportunity to meet Malmö city politicians and civil servants.

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Announcing the BootstrapLabs Applied AI Insiders Series: Human and Computer Interaction – Moving Beyond Touch

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BootstrapLabs is thrilled to announce the Applied AI Insiders Series: Human and Computer Interaction – Moving Beyond Touch.

Event Summary:

  • Date and Time: Thur, May 31, 2018| 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm
  • Location: The Google Launchpad Space, 345 Spear St 5th Floor, San Francisco, California 94105
  • Registration:this event is INVITE ONLY. If you did not receive an invitation you can request one below.

 

Request Invitation

 

Event Description

Topic: Human and Computer Interaction – Moving Beyond Touch

We stand in front of the 4th and largest wave of the industrial revolution, powered by Artificial Intelligence and Data. This is the biggest opportunity so far for innovation and entrepreneurship, and every single industry will be disrupted and redefined by companies that are not yet even born.

With the AI economic impact projected to reach $15 Trillion by 2030, we believe Applied Artificial Intelligence represents one of the major wealth creation opportunities of this century.

The interaction between Humans and Computers has been in constant evolution. Until the invention of touch screens, our connection with these devices was indirect and relied on additional equipment like a keyboard, screen, stylus, and mouse. It was only a matter of time until AI would be leveraged to radically change that connection, and move us closer to what Dr. J.C.R. Licklider, the pioneering psychologist and computer scientist, forecasted in 1963, a human-computer partnership.

During our May Applied AI Insiders Series event, we will explore practical ways AI is being applied to different Human/Computer interfaces, moving us beyond touch and closer to how we interact with other humans – using speech, gestures and even body language. Sensors that can understand our unique appearance, gestures, emotions or vital signs, voice-enabled interfaces that can hear and “understand” what we say, and even prosthetics that can interact with the electrical impulses our brains uses to control our body, are just some examples of where we’re heading.

We will explore the added benefits of these interfaces, but also share thoughts on some of the biggest challenges facing broader adoption of this technology. To get us to the next phase in human-computer collaboration, these systems must gather and analyze countless information on users, but how do we ensure privacy and secure that sensitive data?

As a VC focused on Applied AI, BootstrapLabs looks beyond the hype and has assembled an extraordinary panel of speakers to take you through the current state of AI and Human Computer Interaction. Read more.

Speakers

Ben Levy, Co-Founder, BootstrapLabs

Ben spent the last 20 years in Silicon Valley building and exiting two FinTech startups to Mergent and NASDAQ, investing in disruptive software technologies, and advising CxOs of Fortune 500 Telecom, Media and Technology companies on corporate strategy, financing and M&A.
Ben is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), an Ambassador of La FrenchTech, as well as a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences on innovation, technology investing, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, and globalization in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Igor Jablokov, Founder, Pryon

Igor is founder and CEO of Pryon, a stealth startup in the field of artificial intelligence. He also serves as an EIR for Blackstone NC, an initiative to accelerate the commercialization of academic research. He was awarded the Eisenhower and Truman National Security Fellowships to research the connection between government and venture capital in fostering innovation.

Previously, Igor was founder and CEO of Yap, a VC-backed startup that pioneered cloud-based speech recognition. It was acquired by Amazon to act as the nucleus of AI-related products such as Alexa, Echo, and Fire TV. He holds over two dozen patents issued and pending and was named an industry luminary by Speech Technology Magazine. Igor holds a BS in Computer Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from The University of North Carolina.

Mark Nitzberg, Executive Director, Center for Human Compatible AI – UC Berkeley

Dr. Mark J. Nitzberg is currently Executive Director of the Center for Human Compatible Artificial Intelligence as well as head of strategic outreach for the Berkeley AI Research Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in late 2016, the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence (CHAI) aims to reorient the field of AI towards creating systems that are provably safe and beneficial to humans.

Dr. Nitzberg is also the co-author of “Solomon’s Code” and also serves as Principal & Chief Scientist at Cambrian.ai, as well as advisor to a number of startups. Most recently he was Director of Computer Vision Products at A9/Amazon following their acquisition of The Blindsight Corporation, where he was founding CEO. An entrepreneur, scientist, and seasoned organizational leader, Dr. Nitzberg has built companies and products in the areas of computer vision, machine learning, financial portfolio optimization, workflow efficiencies, online commerce, development aid, data capture, analytics, film, and theatre.

Dr. Nitzberg began studying AI with Marvin Minsky as a stowaway student at MIT in the “expert systems” wave of the early 1980’s, and wrote his Ph.D. on Computer Vision and Human Perception in 1991 under David Mumford at Harvard University.

Omar Abdelwahed, Head of Studio, SoftBank Robotics America

Omar Abdelwahed is a producer, engineer and currently the Head of Studio at SoftBank Robotics America. Omar has more than 15 years experience leading teams for large video game publishers including Ubisoft and 2K; independent developers like Mighty Play and PLAYSTUDIOS; and retailers such as Best Buy. Omar’s work includes the free-to-play shooter, “Ghost Recon Phantoms,” and the NBA video game franchise, “NBA2K”. Omar founded the independent games developer, Agent Disco, where he published his first mobile game, “The Null Society”.

Thank You To Our Host and Partner

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Applied Artificial Intelligence Newsletter

Applied-AI-Digest

Applied AI Conference 2018 – Thank You

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The BootstrapLabs team would like to thank you for attending the Applied AI Conference 2018 and helping us make this event possible. We hope you were as excited as we were with the day of learning, inspiration, and networking.

This was our third annual Applied AI conference and we want to make sure we continue to improve in our future iterations, which is why we wanted to hear your valuable feedback.

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Please take a minute to complete this survey and tell us what you thought worked and what didn’t. Thank you! – Link here. Everyone who responds will be entered in a drawing for free tickets to next year’s conference!

Stay connected with the BootstrapLabs AI Community:

  • AI News: Stay up to date on Applied AI news, by signing up for our weekly Applied AI Digest at this link.
  • AI Events: If you want to continue to engage with the BootstrapLabs community, apply to be an AI Insider here. These events are invitation-only, but we extend invitations to new qualified AI experts.
  • BootstrapLabs Applied AI Conference: We are working to make the conference sessions, interviews, and other content available on our Youtube Channel soon, and we’ll notify you as soon as they are posted. In the meantime check out this highlight article about AAI18 on Fortune Magazine.

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A special thanks goes out to our incredible team, community partners, speakers, and sponsors who contributed to make our conference run smoothly and enjoyable for everyone. Stay tuned for the next Applied AI Conference and other BootstrapLabs events.

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Artificial Intelligence and the 4th Industrial Revolution Webinar

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BooststrapWebinar600x100We’re excited to partner with AI World and AI Trends to bring the free “Artificial Intelligence and the 4th Industrial Revolution” webinar this Friday, March 16th (1:00pm ET).

Today we stand in front of the 4th and largest wave of the industrial revolution, powered by artificial intelligence and data.  The deep Learning model has taken the tech industry by storm. These models require huge amounts of computing power and the latest developments and applied AI systems are pushing the limits of what current chips can support.  Join us for an executive armchair discussion with BootstrapLabs’ Co-Founder, Ben Levy, one of the most active investor in Applied AI software technologies to learn how software and hardware infrastructures will evolve to support the acceleration and adaption of Deep Learning Models in every industry.

Register Now

 

About Ben Levy

Ben Levy is Co-Founder and Partner, Bootstrap Labs. He is a Husband & Father, AI eats Software believer, Tech Investor, Startup Builder, Biz Dev, Funding, M&A Expert, Windsurfer and Snowboarder. In his previous life he was a Technology, Media, and Telecom Investment Banker who advised startup founders and CxOs of Fortune 500 companies on corporate strategy, financing, and M&A. Ben has helped clients raise over $300M from institutional investors and close over $5B in M&A transactions.

 

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Early bird tickets for the Applied AI Conference have sold out. Don’t miss the chance to connect with the World’s leaders in AI!

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