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Howdy, Arsians! Last year, we partnered with IBM to host an in-person event in the Houston area where we all gathered together, had some cocktails, and talked about resiliency and the future of IT. Location always matters for things like this, and so we hosted it at Space Center Houston and had our cocktails amidst cool space artifacts. In addition to learning a bunch of neat stuff, it was awesome to hang out with all the amazing folks who turned up at the event. Much fun was had!
This year, we’re back partnering with IBM again and we’re looking to repeat that success with not one, but two in-person gatherings—each featuring a series of panel discussions with experts and capping off with a happy hour for hanging out and mingling. Where last time we went central, this time we’re going to the coasts—both east and west. Read on for details!
September: San Jose, California
Our first event will be in San Jose on September 18, and it’s titled “Beyond the Buzz: An Infrastructure Future with GenAI and What Comes Next.” The idea will be to look at what generative AI means for the future of data management.
Updated: Here are our detailed panel descriptions and panelists for the event:
“Infrastructure’s Environmental Footprint: Navigating Impacts and Responsibilities”
As “the cloud” did before it, AI is spurring large infrastructure investments across the industry to support the compute resources required to leverage it. But more infrastructure means more energy use—lots more. Here we’ll explore energy usage in the new hybrid cloud, the energy intensive nature of AI, and the tricky business of accurately assessing ROI for compute-intensive generative AI tools.
Panelists:
- Jeffrey Ball, Scholar-In Residence, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy & Finance, Stanford University
- Subbu Iyer, Group Vice President, Data Science, Albertsons
- Joanna Wong, Solutions Architect, Storage for AI, HPC, IBM
- Moderator: Lee Hutchinson, Senior Technology Editor, Ars Technica
Identifying infrastructure vulnerabilities with today’s AI tools
AI can create programs, but it can attack them, too. The language-adjacent nature of coding means that AI tools can be used to ferret out vulnerabilities in source code with far greater precision than human code auditing might. And on the external side, threat actors equipped with generative AI tools can test your infrastructure quickly and more efficiently than ever before. In this panel, we’ll look at the ever-evolving threat landscape and how to keep your data safe.
Panelists:
- Patrick Gould, Director, Cyber & Telecoms Portfolio, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)
- Ram Parasuraman, Executive Director, Data & Resiliency, IBM Storage
- Stephen Goldschidt, Senior Staff Security Engineer, Box
- Moderator: Lee Hutchinson, Senior Technology Editor, Ars Technica
Infrastructure’s environmental footprint: Navigating impacts and responsibilities
Providing your company’s users with the tools they need to accomplish the business’s objective involves careful planning—but the real world doesn’t often consider careful planning and unplanned things happen. This panel will talk about how a secure and intentional infrastructure planning strategy requires both vision and flexibility, and how the journey toward being able to address any workload your customers can throw at you can be undermined by making the wrong assumptions.
Panelists:
- Pete Brey, Global Product Executive, IBM
- Anupam Singh, VP of AI & Growth Engineering at Roblox
- Moderator: Lee Hutchinson, Senior Technology Editor, Ars Technica
As a neat added bonus, we’re going to host the event at the Computer History Museum, which any Bay Area Ars reader can attest is an incredibly cool venue. (Just nobody spill anything. I think they’ll kick us out if we break any exhibits!) Skip to the bottom of the post for registration links.
October: Washington, DC
Switching coasts, on October 29 we’ll set up shop in our nation’s capital for a similar show. This time, our event title will be “AI in DC: Privacy, Compliance, and Making Infrastructure Smarter.” Given that we’ll be in DC, the tone shifts a bit to some more policy-centric discussions, and the talk track looks like this:
- The key to compliance with emerging technologies
- Data security in the age of AI-assisted cyber-espionage
- The best infrastructure solution for your AI/ML strategy
Same here deal with the speakers as with the September—I can’t name names yet, but the list will be familiar to Ars readers and I’m excited.
Update: For the venue, we’re going to be setting up shop at the International Spy Museum, surrounded by both real and fictional tools of espionage. I expect we’ll all be practicing our tradecraft and exchanging secret agent handshakes at the cocktail hour, but please, nobody bring any poison dart pens or anything!
Interested in attending?
While it’d be awesome if everyone could come, the old song and dance applies: space, as they say, will be limited at both venues. We’d like to make sure local folks in both locations get priority in being able to attend, so we’re asking anyone who wants a ticket to register for the events at the sign-up pages below. You should get an email immediately confirming we’ve received your info, and we’ll send another note in a couple of weeks with further details on timing and attendance.
On the Ars side, at minimum both our EIC Ken Fisher and I will be in attendance at both events, and we’ll likely have some other Ars staff showing up where we can—free drinks are a strong lure for the weary tech journalist, so there ought to be at least a few appearing at both. Hoping to see you all there!