The immense growth and promising potential that AI has displayed in the last few decades surely deserve celebration, and where better to do this than Seattle, an emerging hotspot for AI development with several companies and start-ups putting AI to the most innovative uses (Read here: Top 12 AI Companies in Seattle)?

What is the Seattle AI week?

Seattle AI Week is a series of events held for a week around mid-June(beginning from June 10th till June 15th). It is hosted by the members of the Seattle AI community, to exclusively highlight AI innovation in Seattle and the PNW, to bring together members from local startups, investor communities, research and academia, etc., The event included presentations and panel discussions by industry experts and insights into the current developments and the future of AI.

Background/History of the event:

Nick Ellingson from the Washington Technology Industrial Association(WTIA-the organizer of the event) tells us about the birth of the idea to celebrate an AI week in Seattle. To highlight the world-class tech talents and enterprises driving global innovation that Seattle houses, the community of the WTIA came together to plan a week-long celebration of AI in Seattle. The initial funding was secured from Microsoft and the Dept of Commerce ICAP Programme. Growing from a team of merely 15 people who started the work in March 2024, the planning and membership grew to finally culminate in a public announcement on April 15th, 2024.

The vision behind the AI week in Seattle:

As apparent from the name, and mentioned earlier, the AI week was aimed at highlighting the innovation in AI technology and its increasing role in different sectors. But the idea of the community was also to largely provide a platform that would foster collaboration, and would help investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and scientists working with AI to share their knowledge and experience and also establish partnerships, etc., Besides this, it also aimed to–

• Encourage innovation- through the sharing of extensive research and findings among the participants
• Highlight Local Talent on a global scale- The event would receive media coverage and recognition thus providing a stage for the local talents to shine!
• Educate and Inform – To expand the intellectual horizons of the people within the community through exposure to expert talks, panel discussions, and seminars, and to educate non-industry people about the innovations in AI technology and its growing usage.

Now let us talk about the Seattle AI week as we go through the key events, speakers, and panelists of each day across this five-day event-

Day 1: June 10th (Monday)

Starting the week with AI Fundamentals, and the location set to the Seattle NFT Museum, the first event was a live recording of the Shift AI Podcast with around 200 engaged audiences. The event was hosted by Boaz Ashkenzy– the creator of The Shift AI podcast, which talks about the transformative impact of AI and machine learning on the modern world. The panelists included renowned names in the AI tech industry; including Oren Etzioni, the founder of TrueMedia.org and the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle, who was one of the key speakers of the event. Besides him, there was State Senator Joe Nguyen and Ryan Harkins, the Senior Director of Public Policy for Microsoft. The theme for the day was AI & Art

Another key event of the day was the Seattle AI Investor Summit and Showcase, held by the WTIA in collaboration with the Technology Alliance. It provided a platform to network with the best research institutions, investors, and startups in the AI industry.

Day 2: June 11th (Tuesday)

The second day saw other remarkable events taking place. These included– the Business Leader AI 101 Half-Day Workshop and the AI Startup Demo Day at the AWS Skills Center. The events followed a thoughtful trajectory, after showcasing the tech talent that Seattle had to offer at the Investors’ Summit the previous day, the Business Leader AI 101 taught the participants methods to implement AI into their businesses.The theme for the day was AI & policy, Ethics, Web3, and Space.

AI & Policy:

Meant to highlight how AI touches or has the potential to touch all facets of policy-making and can greatly exemplify opportunities in agriculture, maritime, aerospace, forestry, and, healthcare. The discussion included inputs from leading figures in Microsoft, Google, and Responsible Innovation labs on topics like privacy, competitiveness, security, etc.,

AI & Ethics:

The discussions on AI & Ethics were organized by Seattle University, wherein philosophy teachers from the University talked about the intersection of ethics, philosophy, and AI.

AI & Web3:

Seattle offers a conducive environment for the Web3 community and the WTIA has been actively involved in the development of the same. The discussions talked about the possibility of a collaborative future with Web3 benefitting from AI through incentive structures for sharing data.

AI & Space:

This was the most loved and popular event of the entire AI week, with over 150 participants, and SpaceNorthwest took the lead in the discussions.

Therefore, the second day was also decked with interesting and fruitful events centered around important themes. The evening also saw an open mic event (Pitch Open Mic night-AI edition), bringing together AI enthusiasts, founders, and Sharktank aficionados!

Day 3: June 13th, Wednesday:

Seattle as an enterprise town is a natural leader in AI enterprises; the third day of the AI week was the Seattle Enterprise AI Day with OneSixOne ventures. A thought-provoking discussion titled- The Future of AI: Applications in Industry with the Seattle Chamber and Starting a Career in AI with Parna Khot–a Software Engineering Executive who has launched multiple AI products at Amazon, also took place, wherein, she talked about how folks from technical and non-technical backgrounds can start upskilling themselves to leverage and build AI applications.

Christopher Kennamer of OneSixVentures said, “Seattle AI Week is a testament to the growing interest in Seattle’s ecosystem. With major players like Microsoft, Seattle is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves.”

Day 4: June 14th, Thursday

Day 4 saw a lot of folks fly in, and the events lived up to their expectations. The WTIA, Creative Destruction Lab, and UW CoMotion Labs organized a Founder-Investor Speed Meeting with 19 investors and 30 startups.

How can one miss a discussion on AI & Healthcare? The WTIA partnered with Life Sciences WA for a discussion on how AI is affecting healthcare and Aylin Kim from Life Sciences WA noted how the event “drew a diverse crowd of AI enthusiasts eager to learn more from experts in MedTech, biotech and digital health.

Other events allowed ample space for networking- including Seattle Startup Friends, Founders Live, and Happy Hour with Niftmint, Ascend, TF Labs, and WTIA. The Founders Live Seattle on Thursday also brought in a lot of pitches from teeming entrepreneurs.

Day 5: June 15th, Friday:

The final day saw more lively networking and a sneak peek into the AI Landscape Report that WTIA had been developing in partnership with Moonbeam– providing contextual data on the local startup ecosystem, government funding, and workforce development, highlighting strengths as well as areas for improvement.

The participants of the day were a true representation of the diverse mix that AI has brought together and included investors, entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, artists, and folks who just dipped their toes into AI following this week of hustle and bustle. The last day was a fitting end to the AI week which seemed to have more than achieved its objective of bringing together the tech community for a celebration of AI and fostering collaboration.

How to get the tickets?

The above-mentioned events were some of the highlights from each day of the Seattle AI week, you can check out this link for a full events calendar- https://lu.ma/Seattle-AI-Week-2024

As for the tickets, you can buy tickets from the official WTIA website, or other online ticket providers like https://www.eventbrite.com/, who sell tickets for each event so that you can attend those you wish to.

To sum up in the words of Trent Gillespie, the CEO of Stellis.ai(one of the participants) :

“Seattle AI Week was a smashing success, forging some strong connections across our community and accelerating AI innovation.”

Overall, the Seattle AI Week 2024 with its stellar events and active participation was truly reflective of the city’s passion for innovation and the curiosity of people from both tech and non-tech backgrounds to try and understand the uses and future promises of AI. With a deep dive into the best of the industry knowledge, amazing enterprises, new pitches, and meaningful panel discussions, the entire week was a perfect balance of collaboration, networking, education, and an occasional bout of fun with rooftop parties(with a robot, Rooftop Remix, produced by Mark Robinson, CEO of Brandtegic). It can be said without doubt that this event and many more to come, are laying down the path for innovations and new heights in AI technology in the future.

References: 

• Event calendar from- https://read.letterhead.email/techstars-seattle/lzp40pg4u
• https://lu.ma/Seattle-AI-Week-2024
• Recap of the Seattle AI Week by Nick Ellingson(from the WTIA team)- https://www.washingtontechnology.org/made-by-humans-a-recap-ofseattleaiweek/#:~:text=The%20first%20%23SeattleAIWeek%20just%20wrapped,and%20none%20were%20from%20Seattle.

• https://www.washingtontechnology.org/seattle-ai-week/