Published On: 2018-01-25

New Delhi, January 25, 2018: When Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to humanoid robot Sophia, most people didn’t know how to react to the fact that a life-size bot was ‘living’ among them, dressing up meticulously and talking about her aspirations of having a family. Bots have long been used to facilitate basic, repetitive jobs in many industries. In India, we may not have a bot as celebrated as Sophia, but bots are already serving food in a Chennai restaurant and helping customers in a Mumbai bank.

If you thought that AI is only helping the organised, urban sectors then take a look at conventional sectors like agriculture. All thanks to drones, many farmers now ‘keep an eye’ on their yield - and literally so – from afar.

All these facts came into light at an event held in Delhi recently. Organised by Times AI Hub in association with IIT Delhi on January 12, 2018, the event titled ‘Artificial Intelligence Conclave 2018’ brought together AI experts, enthusiast companies and interested students to discuss the uses of AI and the way forward. Times AI Hub is a web-based community, connecting professionals and students, and is powered by India’s leading recruitment portal TimesJobs.

The event was graced by industry leaders Ajay Shrivastava, CTO at Knowlarity and Prof Mayank Vatsa, IIIT Delhi. ( Head - Infosys Center for AI) as keynote speakers. It also featured a panel discussion where Anurag Verma, CEO at Math Logic, Ramathreya Krishnamurthi, Business Head at Times Business Soluions, Utpal Chakraborty, Lead Architect, AI & Cognitive at L&T Infotech, RamaKrishnan M, Co-founder at Intello Labs, Krupal Modi, Lead Machine Learning Scientist at Haptik shared  their views on AI leading the change in every industry.

“This event was a much needed start,” said Mayank Vatsa lauding the discussions held at the event. “We are already late in starting such activity but it’s better to be later than never. India has immense opportunities where AI algorithms can be utilised to make life better. We should tap on such opportunities,” he added.

The event was attended by more than 100 AI professionals, students, and researchers from IBM, Samsung, GAIL, NIC, Infosys, Deloitte, Wipro and AI start up co-founders. The discussions ranged from AI’s impact on jobs, new spheres where AI is making gradual inroads and precise pointers on which industries are using AI, and which others are new adopters.

Ramathreya Krishnamurthi, Business Head - TimesJobs & TechGig expressed his happiness at the turnout of the maiden event from the Times AI Hub stable. “TimesJobs recently launched ‘Times AI Hub’ with an aim to connect all - professionals, researchers, companies, start-ups – who are enthusiastic about Artificial Intelligence, on one platform. The initial idea was to facilitate knowledge sharing, building social connect and harnessing a collaborative. The success of this event has proven that the industry and academia fully support our belief and faith in AI and Times AI Hub is just here at the right time,” he said.

The response from the industry was phenomenal with many citing that panel discussion was insightful, precise and gave them food for thought. RamaKrishnan M from Intello Labs – who was one of the panellists - said, “This event is a great step to bring together AI enthusiasts; one thing I really liked was a mix of participants – start-ups, large firms, academicians et al.”

The students too were jubilant with the phenomenal industry turn out at the event. “We keep hearing news about new inventions in AI but it’s a different high when you hear so many experts talk about AI right in front of you,” said Deepak P, a student who attended the event.

“This is just the beginning and we will come up with more such successive events,” added Ramathreya Krishnamurthi. More details about Times AI Hub is available at http://www.timesaihub.com/