Digilearing attended COGx this year an amazing conference founded to educate the world on Artificial Intelligence its many uses and benefits.
The CogX 19 event brought together over 15000 attendees and 500 speakers across 12 main stages! It took over Kings Cross in London and we were really grateful to be attending. Speakers from industry, government and academia all joined together for this event over the three days.
We had a fascinating time at CogX listening to the great advances in technology that have been happening within the AI space. There has been a major investment across the world in the development of AI technologies and academic interest has also increased majorly over the last few years. It is very true that AI is redefining the way we live, work and the way we do business. For the first time, machines are able to complete tasks that were previously just the reserve of human brains. In 2018 alone UK investment in the AI sector hit £1bn – more than the rest of Europe combined.
Listening to the talks was truly eye opening. One inspirational speaker was Mariéme Jamme the founder of I am the CODE. Marieme is the first African-led global movement aiming at mobilising governments, businesses and investors to support marginalised girls and young women to have access to STEAMD (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, and Design) education. Her goal is to empower 1 million young women and girls globally to become coders by 2030. A goal we know she will achieve and how amazing that will be.
Digilearning naturally was particularly interested in the future of work and education sections. It was very interesting to see how AI is being used within the Edtech space. Priya Lakhani spoke about cognitive neuroscience and how it works to offer personalised learning and real-time data to educators.
The whole event was totally inspiring. Our best bits by far was seeing the young people in the Meet the next generation section hosted by June Sarpong. June introduced us to a host of talent in this segment and truly made us believe there is hope for the future. I really enjoyed the IBM room where we got to race on a virtual Formula One track! It was really hard to control the car but I loved it. I found it really informative and enjoyable experience to find out what companies are doing in the world of AI.
It was clear this conference brought together cutting edge thinking from the brightest minds on the planet from industry, government and education. We will be back again next year.