The hugely exciting WSAI 2023 brought together companies and individuals from all over the world to talk about what they’re doing with AI — and where AI is going next. We were proud to be sponsors of the event. The speakers all had a lot to say about the big questions in AI and their predictions for the future. Climate change, space exploration, ethics, education and finance were all on the agenda, and more besides. We were really happy to see a whole track dedicated to AI for Good! 👏👏
Speaking of doing good with AI… our team was out in full force to spread the message of AI for good with our food bank project! The Dutch Voedselbank and their 13,000 volunteers do great work, but we think AI could help them do more — reaching further and making an even bigger impact. So we’ve been developing AI tools to help them predict poverty in the Netherlands and reduce barriers to access the food bank. And at World Summit AI we were on a mission to show the world what we can achieve when we work together. 🤝
We ran an interactive workshop “Empowering Nonprofits: Data-driven strategies for the Dutch Food Bank”, where we were thrilled to engage with a room full of people working together and coming up with ambitious ideas.
The participants shared some fantastic suggestions: donating devices to food bank users who were facing barriers to access digital systems, creating personal profiles where users could express their allergies or dietary requirements (e.g. vegetarian or halal), and compiling lists of the top 10 most-needed foods for local food banks so that specific items can be distributed to locations where they’re in short supply.
The workshop was led by Kickstart AI Product Manager Jael Lopez Kochlin, later in the session she was joined by Rob van der Marck and Letty Broere from the Voedselbank for their expert input. We found the workshop deeply inspiring, and we hope it made a lasting impression on all the participants.
In the afternoon, Jael was joined by Kickstart AI CEO Sander Stomph in the WSAI NL lounge to share a closer look at our Voedselbank project. The audience was treated to a live, interactive demo of the multi-language AI food bank assistant, as well as a heartening insight into why we think this — and other projects with NGOs — are so important.
Sander explained, “NGOs solve problems for people facing personal emergencies, and we’re reactive as a community, nationally and internationally, when people are in need. But being reactive means we wait until people need help before we plan a course of action.
“AI can help us to predict when help will be needed, and it can also reduce barriers for accessing help. It means we can be ready to move quickly, and reach more people with support measures. If you’re a coder, I encourage you to use your passion for coding to help a non-profit you care about. And employers — give your employees space to do that.”
“use your passion for coding to help a non-profit you care about”
– Sander Stomph, CEO of Kickstart AI
Of course, there was much more to see at World Summit AI than we can cover here. We already said it was big, but here’s some scale for you: around 100 exhibitor booths, over 80 talks across 6 streams, roughly 20 interactive workshops, a booth where you could get an NFC chip implanted in your hand, and literally thousands of enthusiastic attendees! 🤩 It’s been epic. Fascinating. Fun. Inspiring. We’ve been overwhelmed — in the best way possible — with all the amazing people and projects we’ve discovered here. 🚀
While the international flavour of World Summit AI was amazing, we were delighted to have an opportunity to focus on the Dutch AI ecosystem too. We’re sincerely grateful to the NLAIC, and in particular Sandra Brandenburg, for their work in organising the NL lounge. 🙌 AI has massive potential to change life for the better in the Netherlands, and coming together to share ideas makes us stronger, as individuals and as a community.
We can’t wait to see how AI has progressed at the next World Summit in 2024. Until then we’ll be working on making AI a powerful force for good here in the Netherlands. The future of AI is orange! 🧡
