[ONTOUR] October 2024

November 11, 2024

Introduction

Do you also sometimes get tired of remote work? I definitely do. Wanting to verify if this is really the case, I decided to attend a few events in October and talk to people. Maybe it's just an illusion that sitting in a basement in the countryside is no longer for me. Let me share a brief summary of the events I visited last month.

1/ AI Summit • Warsaw • 9.10.2024 • https://aisummitpoland.pl/

Many interesting people, a wide range of presentations. The atmosphere was a bit stiff. You could feel that many companies simply wanted to sell themselves there. Short summaries of selected presentations are below.

/ Dariusz Standerski • Ministry of Digitization

/ Jakub Borowiec • PWC

  • discussion of the report "Ready for Artificial Intelligence" which can be downloaded here: https://www.pwc.pl/pl/publikacje/gotowi-na-sztuczna-inteligencje-raport.html,
  • "The results of our study are clear. Polish consumers are ready for AI. Over 60% of them have heard of artificial intelligence, and most of them are already using this technology in their daily lives. And although consumers pay attention to privacy and data access issues, they intend to actively use the benefits that AI brings. Interestingly, over 80% of respondents expect these new technological tools to improve procedures in the public sector. Polish companies are responding to changing trends. Over 75% of them have started using AI in practice: from process automation to improving customer contact."

/ Kamil Konikiewicz • Allegro • Panel on calculating ROI in AI

  • it is problematic to calculate to what extent AI improves productivity, for example, of an office worker,
  • a broader view of the process in which AI is supposed to help is needed, rather than point implementation of technology, perhaps the areas we are trying to improve are not necessary at all, and the process should be redefined with AI playing a significant role,
  • first, good quality data, then AI,
  • the need to accept possible failure in the implementation of AI projects, the development and implementation process is different compared to classic projects,
  • difficulties in cooperation with legal/compliance departments.

/ Tomasz Gawron • XTB S.A.

  • emphasizing the role of rapid prototyping of AI solutions,
  • three main pillars of AI-driven organizations: Personal productivity, AI applied in products, Process automation,
  • how AI helps XTB - examples: fraud detection, software development, forecasting, customer support,
  • highlighting the role of multimodality, not just text, but also audio analysis,
  • the most interesting thing for me was that XTB invests heavily in internal people, regularly training and improving qualifications in the areas of Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI instead of building completely new teams. Nice!

/ Piotr Mieczkowski • Digital Poland Foundation

  • discussion of the State of Warsaw AI 2024 report available here: https://biznes.um.warszawa.pl/-/state-of-warsaw-ai,
  • it can be summarized by the statement: there is potential. "Warsaw, as a dynamically developing AI center with highly qualified staff and growing investments, has the potential to become a significant technological hub in Europe, provided it effectively leverages its strengths and overcomes challenges related to international recognition."

I think a good summary of this conference will be a situation from lunch. I approached one of the participants (admittedly in a rather sophisticated way) asking why he was here and what conclusions were forming in his mind halfway through the conference. The answer was roughly: I'm from a tax office, everything they're talking about is nice, but how to implement it effectively and sensibly in daily work. That's right, how. I'm still working on the answer to that question.

2/ Poznan Entrepreneurship Days - Join the AI revolution! How to responsibly implement AI in an organization • Poznan • 15.10.2024 • https://www.poznan.pl/mim/wortals/wortal,325/-,p,53964.html

An intimate meeting, very pleasant atmosphere. Selected presentations:

/ Barbara Sobkowiak • Rossmann Poland

  • key elements when deploying to production: monitoring, scaling, costs, infrastructure,
  • AI is not a solution for everything,
  • unrealistic business expectations,
  • problem with Explainable AI (XAI) - how to explain why the model responds one way and not another.

/ Krzysztof Jędrzejewski • Pearson

  • LLM vs classic models like BERT,
  • example strategy for tool selection: if we can do something programmatically, let's do it, GenAI in our own infrastructure only with very high utilization,
  • in specific cases, smaller and specialized models are better and cheaper,
  • safeguarding - preventing, for example, jailbreaking using Lakera or Azure AI Safety,
  • the necessity of monitoring AI systems and legal support to ensure we can meet all requirements (especially in the case of high-risk systems according to the EU AI Act).

3/ Poznan Data Horizon: Talks #7: Lego i Airflow • Poznan • 17.10.2024 • https://www.meetup.com/poznanski-horyzont-danych/events/303748380

Piotr Rybak is a figure I wasn't familiar with before. I was impressed by his Lego brick recognition project. If you're a fan of this iconic brand, I encourage you to test Piotr's application: https://brickognize.com/. Without going into too much detail, the author clearly demonstrated the model training process, methods for boosting key indicators (Accuracy@1, Accuracy@10), what worked well, and what didn't yield the expected results. It was strongly emphasized that input data is crucial. In these types of projects, it's worth spending time to prepare and clean the data properly.

4/ Startup Community Poznan • Poznan • 24.10.2024 • https://www.meetup.com/startupcommunitypoznan/events/303481296/

It was an interesting event that combined two presentations and networking. The second part was particularly great, where we could share our projects, bounce ideas off each other, and discuss doubts. Presentations:

/ Bartosz Burek • jakdojade.pl

  • about relationships with investors and how to acquire them,
  • advantages of having an investor: ability to fully commit to the project, business support, "opening doors",
  • mistakes: lack of seeking alternative financing in the first stage, excessive concessions in equity distribution, poor estimation of company value.

/ Joanna Nowak

  • about pitching - the statement that stuck with me the most was that a pitch should be our ticket to the next conversation; we need to convince the listener about us, not our idea. I'll test this in practice.

5/ Conference "The Whole Truth About Polish LLMs" (Data on Campus #2) • Poznan • 26.10.2024 • https://www.meetup.com/poznanski-horyzont-danych/events/301657579/

The creators of Polish language models appeared at the conference. It was a strong dose of knowledge and details about the process of creating such products. There were also several practical examples of AI implementation in enterprises presented by the UAM Artificial Intelligence Center. All lectures can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHqGfF79LBPXn09bptxc0R-fzGw-O-HXG. I recommend Michał Domański's presentation on developing technology in the Baltic countries and how Poland compares. The news isn't good. Do you know what impressed me the most during my trip to Finland? The library in Helsinki, I recommend taking a look: https://oodihelsinki.fi/en/. This could be one of the answers to why they're doing better in terms of technology development and innovation.

6/ AI for Product & Growth • Wroclaw • 30.10.2024 • https://lu.ma/jfyoyy5z?tk=DEvT9N

The meeting format consisted of two presentations + a panel discussion + networking. My first impression was that the technological vibe is more palpable in Wroclaw. Many people from well-known companies like Text (formerly LiveChat). During the presentations, Karol Kłaczyński described the use of AI in private life and at Brand24, emphasizing that it's still just a tool that should be used wisely and where it actually brings value. Meanwhile, Mike Taylor touched on the topic of trend tracking and growth hacking, encouraging the creation of cool things and sharing them publicly.

Final word

Answering the question posed at the beginning: I definitely stayed at home for too long. Such meetings add power, show that you can do interesting things, and encourage risk-taking. I recommend it! Here's a great page where you can follow meetups in Poznan: https://lu.ma/poznan_ai_tech. Have a good day!

SOURCES