Artificial Intelligence Summit to Convene Thought Leaders and Trainers in New York

BROOKLYN, New York – On October 30 and 31, the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Future Labs will bring together leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) at the Future Labs AI Summit to discuss the most important drivers of the technology. Speakers will address the newest AI research, including progress in quantum computing; explain how the largest companies in the world are using AI; dive into AI ethics and governance; and outline some of the best AI investments.

Speakers include Corinna Cortes, head of research at Google New York; Davide Venturelli, the research scientist in charge of surveying scientific investigations at NASA’s Ames Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; and the University of Toronto’s Richard Zemel, recognized for his foundational AI research.

During the first day of the Future Labs AI Summit, guests can take courses in machine learning, deep learning, and game theory AI from experts at Intel, Amazon Web Services, and academia.

In addition to assembling some of the brightest influencers in AI, the AI Summit aims to drive awareness of the growth of the AI industry in New York and the work of the AI NexusLab, an accelerator program within NYU Tandon’s Future Labs developed with ff Venture Capital (ffVC), a leading early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City. The AI NexusLab helps early-stage AI companies grow via technical support, venture development, and more. The conference will mark the debut of the AI NexusLab’s second cohort of AI startups, which will demo their products on stage.

"The Future Labs AI Summit gathers among the foremost multidisciplinary experts in the field of artificial intelligence and serves as a key moment in time to bring together New York City's AI community. Importantly, today also offers the chance for the AI NexusLab companies — representing some of the most exciting early-stage startups using applied artificial intelligence — to tell their stories and showcase their products after months of hard work," said John Frankel, ffVC founding partner.

“The success of the first AI Summit — and that of the first cohort of AI NexusLab companies — is a testimony to the importance of bringing together leading academics, industry experts, and startup founders to help establish New York as a growing hub for AI innovation,” said Kurt Becker, vice dean for research, innovation and entrepreneurship at NYU Tandon. “AI has the potential to become a platform for a wide range of technology areas similar to nanotechnology’s progression.  Our ability to manufacture things at the nanoscale and control their properties has resulted in nanocomposite materials of unprecedented mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties; in nanocrystals of incredible hardness; in sunscreens made of nanoparticles whose surfaces can be coated to be extremely efficient absorbers of UV light — to name just a few."

Typical accelerator programs run for three months and have upwards of 15 companies in each class, with only a few achieving sustainable growth. The AI NexusLab, which is the first accelerator of its kind between a university and a venture fund in the United States, hosts far fewer, vets applicants more vigorously, runs in two stages over seven months, and merges resources and guidance from New York University with ffVC’s expertise in propelling early-stage technology companies. The goal is to help these early-stage ventures grow to the size and strength of the companies in the Future Labs, which have remarkable survival rate of nearly 90 percent for graduates of its program. Examples include Clarifai and Geometric Intelligence, which was acquired by Uber and now serves as its central AI lab.

This year’s exhibiting AI NexusLab’s companies, which represent major sectors of the New York economy — marketing, education, healthcare, and communication sectors — include:

• Bitesnap – an app that uses deep learning to analyze photos of food to help consumers make better diet decisions. Able to recognize more than 1,300 types of food, Bitesnap tracks eating habits, quantifies a meal’s nutritional value, and recommends healthier alternatives.
• Bowtie – an AI-powered CRM messaging platform. When customers call a Bowtie business and no one answers, the Bowtie bot texts to help with their request automatically, converting customers who would have been lost. Customers can also message the bot to book appointments, buy products, and ask questions.
• Mt. Cleverest – an online, open-education platform that uses natural language processing to instantly convert web content into a quiz for students and teachers. The company tracks every interaction with a quiz and feeds data into a neural net that improves the quiz for the next person, so each quiz is different and better.
• SecondMind – a patent-pending AI assistant for voice conversations that enables you to visualize what another person is saying as they speak. For example, if during a conversation someone mentions a painting, SecondMind immediately shows an image of the painting.

Applications for AI NexusLabs’ third cohort will open in 2018.

Note: Images available at http://dam.engineering.nyu.edu/?c=1985&k=e3bdc29ec2

About the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Future Labs
NYU Tandon created one of the first technology incubators in New York City in 2009 with support from the NYC Economic Development Corporation and the first cleantech incubator in New York City, funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Today, the Future Labs support a wide variety of entrepreneurial outreach programs in addition to more than 40 startup companies in three locations: a data-focused incubator on SoHo's Varick Street, another in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn focused on digital technology, and a third in Downtown Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center with a focus on clean-energy technology. To date, 74 companies have graduated from the program, 15 through acquisition, and they have generated some 1,500 jobs and an estimated economic impact of $500 million. Notable portfolio companies include CB insights, Clarifai, Bounce Exchange, Honest Buildings, and United Wind. For more information visit 
engineering.nyu.edu/business/future-labs.

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, the country’s largest private research university, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.

About ff Venture Capital
ff Venture Capital (ffVC) is the most engaged early-stage venture capital firm in New York City. ffVC invests in some of the strongest growth areas to date, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, drones, enterprise cloud software, and crowdfunding, and identifies and invests in technology and technology-enabled companies at their inception — across geographies and emerging industries. With five partners and an acceleration team of 20-plus investment and operations professionals, ffVC actively participates with founders to develop products, target markets, and accelerate growth. Since 2008, ffVC has invested in over 90 companies and has helped to create companies with aggregate market value exceeding $4 billion. For more information, visit ffvc.com.