We finished the first quarter of 2023 with a bevy of important announcements and deep-dive webinars. In case you missed any of our exciting news and knowledge sharing, here’s your can’t-miss SparkCognition content from last month.
Upcoming and on-demand webinars
First up, we’ve got three excellent webinars coming soon. Register now to save your spot!
Renewables webinar
The Future of Renewable APM: How Intelligent Solutions and Changing the Game
April 20, 2023, at 2 pm CT
HSE webinar
The Future of HSE is Here: Stop Accidents in Their Tracks with Visual AI
May 2, 2023, at 2 pm CT
HSE webinar
From Good to Great: How Visual AI Turns You Into a Safety Superstar
May 9, 2023, at 8 am CT
As always, be sure to check out our on-demand webinar library, including these March additions:
- Visual AI 101: How Computer Vision Works and Why it Matters to Your Business
- AI Demystified: Transforming Industrial Operations With Deep Learning and Autoencoders
Announcing TMI23’s featured speakers:
Also coming up: we cannot wait for SparkCognition Government Systems’ Time Machine Interactive: AI & The Future of Defense (TMI23), which will take place on April 27 at HyperWerx. This special event will bring together more than 200 leaders across national security, government, and defense to discuss and explore real-world applications of AI and other emerging technologies in the industry today.
SGS has assembled a jaw-dropping lineup of featured speakers:
- Sec. Robert O. Work (32nd Deputy Secretary of Defense (Ret.), President & Owner, Teamwork, LLC)
- Admiral John Richardson, Usn (Ret.) (Chief of Naval Operations (Ret.)
- Schuyler Moore (Centcom Chief Technology Officer)
- Brigadier-General Edward Chen (Defense Cyber Chief at the Singapore Ministry of Defense)
- Maj. Gen. Lee K. Levy Ii (Retd.) (President and CEO, The Levy Group, LLC)
- Mr. Preston Dunlap (Former Chief Technology Officer ad Chief Architect US Space Force and Air Force)
- Samuel Bendett (Adviser With CNA Strategy, Policy, Plans and Programs Center (Sp3))
- Julie Angus (Openocean Robotics CEO and Founder)
- Dr. William W. Streilein (Chief Technology Officer, Chief Digital and AI Office of the DoD)
- Nathan Vanrheenen (Executive Director, Intelligent Solutions, Boeing)
- Captain Michael Brasseur (Retd.) (Founder & Former Commodore Task Force 59, Unmanned & AI Integration)
- Dr. Tacettin Köprülü (Havelsan Inc. R&D, Technology and Innovation Director)
- Michael A. Stewart (Executive Director, Unmanned Task Force (UTF))
TMI23 attendees will experience real-world, live demonstrations of AI in national security and defense missions, enjoy panel discussions and presentations from world-class experts covering modern defense, government, and national security topics, and network with influential leaders from across the globe.
SparkCognition’s generative AI announcements
We kicked March off with a bang: our groundbreaking launch of the first generative AI platform for industrials. From our press release:
SparkCognition’s Generative AI can autonomously augment data sets by generating high-quality content in the form of synthetic text, images, audio, and other signals. As a result, customers can apply AI to problems where they couldn’t previously. The SC Generative AI Platform enables a more comprehensive view of asset performance or an entire end-to-end process by enhancing low-fidelity data to provide high-fidelity insights and extrapolating low-resolution images to high-resolution views. It can also create imagery for use in simulated real-world environments, allowing organizations to analyze complex scenarios. These capabilities enable organizations to reduce the amount of foundational information needed to make informed decisions by a factor of 20X or more while executing in a fraction of the time.
To further enhance the value of its Generative AI Platform, SparkCognition is developing industry-specific large language models (LLM), deep learning algorithms that can recognize, summarize, translate, predict, and generate content from large unstructured datasets. The applications of this technology have broad implications on how organizations prioritize R&D investments, manage production, optimize supply, direct distribution, and more.
“SparkCognition’s Generative AI will allow us to leverage the power of LLMs for improved data-driven actions in our cement and textile operations,” said Waleed Saigol, Director, Maple Leaf Cement and Kohinoor Textile Mills. “It will be an order of magnitude better than our current approach and capabilities and will immediately impact our maintenance practices, labor productivity, and business decision-making across our 8,500 employees.”
We also shared the exciting news that SparkCognition Renewable Suite now features generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) capabilities, leveraging large language models (LLM) to intelligently interpret user inputs and return relevant information in a seamlessly intuitive experience. From the press release:
The capability minimizes cognitive load and time-to-value for operators by seamlessly analyzing the performance of their wind, solar, and storage assets and providing real-time insights to support key operational decisions—resulting in greater throughput and less downtime.. SparkCognition GPT allows operators to perform custom data analysis tasks quickly and efficiently and automate the workflow, enabling them to gain insights into their renewable energy assets’ performance. For instance, operators can ask GPT to summarize all cases of a component failure across the fleet, group by vendors, and send it in email as a report, all with simple prompts. SparkCognition GPT is being continuously retrained, ensuring it stays up to date with the latest industry trends.
Around the web
Windpower Engineering & Development featured a fascinating article by Rob Budny, SparkCognition Vice President of Renewables, entitled AI: Wind Energy’s Paragon and Net-Zero’s Protagonist. Budny puts into context how global instabilities (e.g., the Russian invasion of Ukraine) and the world’s commitments to address climate change are thrusting wind power producers into a starring role in the 21st century and explains why operators that embrace AI-enabled asset management platforms built specifically for renewable energy will hold the advantage over their competitors.
At the 2023 NAG Convenience Conference, SparkCognition demonstrated how AI is transforming retail, particularly how convenience store owners and operators are marketing, merchandising, and addressing loss prevention while improving safety and security. Conference attendees also visited HyperWerx to learn more about Visual AI technology and visited a local TXB convenience store where SparkCognition Visual AI Advisor has been deployed. SparkCognition Chief Technology Officer Sridhar Sudarsan commented: “AI is at the heart of digital transformation occurring in C-stores, whether it’s understanding consumer behavior, improving store and forecourt experiences, or maximizing operational efficiencies, “said Sudarsan. “SparkCognition’s Visual AI Advisor is deployed at over 15,000 retail fueling stations enhancing KPIs on customer conversion, compliance, safety, operational efficiency, and reduced labor costs.”
We joined the chorus of applause for Bob Metcalfe, the newly announced Turing Award Winner, for his contribution to Ethernet’s invention, standardization, and commercialization. Metcalfe joined SparkCognition as a Research Fellow and Advisor in 2019. “Professor Metcalfe’s contribution to the development of Ethernet, one of the most profound inventions in the technology world, paved the way for the innumerable applications integral to our daily lives – including artificial intelligence,” said Bruce Porter, Chief Science Officer at SparkCognition.
And some quick hits from our travel adventures (conferences, speaking engagements, etc.) last month include:
- Stephen Gold, Chief Marketing Officer, spoke at the American Manufacturing Summit in Chicago on how visual AI transforms ESG and workplace safety.
- We shared a booth with NVIDIA at ISC West in Las Vegas. Great conference, as always!
- Don’t miss our founder and CEO Amir Husain’s recap of his recent visit to Lahore, Pakistan, in Forbes Magazine: Lahore’s Tech Renaissance: From Astrolabes to AI.
- Husain also wrote about the Tech Geniuses of Munich in Forbes
- FiveRivers Technologies and LUMS Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering hosted Three Generations of Artificial Intelligence, a public lecture by Dr. Bruce Porter, CSO SparkCognition.
Finally, check out KPRC2’s interview with Stephen Gold on how artificial intelligence can help improve school safety.
Our latest blogs
Our March blog highlights include a brief history of Bob Metcalfe’s legendary career, a review of the latest issue of Cognitive Times, a practical guide to improving HSE in workplace environments, and some perspective on the buzzy moment AI is having in the media today.
AI is Having a Moment – Four Enablers Driving it Forward.
AI is all the rage in the news today and with good reason. Did the AI engineers and data scientists suddenly discover the holy grail of machine learning? No. We are witnessing a continuation of a logical path for a phenomenally-high impact technology being scaled like never before by the convergence of big data, robust connectivity, more sophisticated algorithms, and powerful computers.
Honoring Bob Metcalfe: Turing Award Winner
In this article, we reflect on the milestones in the legendary career of Bob Metcalfe, who was recently awarded the A.M. Turing award for his contributions to “creating the foundational technology of the Internet, which supports more than five billion users and enables much of modern life.” SparkCognition celebrates this extraordinary honor for our friend and mentor.
AI as a Catalyst for Creativity: Cognitive Times Volume 19 is Here
The latest issue of Cognitive Times explores the theme of “AI as a Catalyst for Creativity,” bringing you perspective on some of the most exciting advancements in artificial intelligence today.
Visual AI for HSE: Creating a System of Improvement
There were over 4.2M work-related medically consulted injuries in 2021, including 4,472 preventable work deaths. What more can we do to proactively identify and address the root causes of these safety incidents to prevent them in the future? Learn how SparkCognition Visual AI Advisor enables HSE managers to quickly and reliably address procedures and behaviors causing risky situations, create a system of improvement, ease the safety burden on their employees, and simplify their HSE program improvements.
Stay plugged in
Will 2023 be the year your company starts an AI-enabled project? Contact us to discuss your questions. And be sure to follow us on social media to stay updated on company news and AI advancements.
