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  • Tuesday 15th
  • 08:00 - 09:20
    REGISTRATION
  • 09:20 - 09:25
    WELCOME InspiredMinds! Sarah Porter, CEO and Founder, InspiredMinds, UN Advisor LAWS, Former AI Advisor, Homeland Security
    • Sarah Porter, CEO and Founder, InspiredMinds, UN Advisor LAWS, Former AI Advisor, Homeland Security

  • 09:25 - 09:35
    WELCOME to Montréal Anne Nguyen, Chief AI Officer, Quebec Innovation Council
    Magda Popeanu, City councillor, Responsible for organizational performance, citizen participation and democracy, Ville de Montréal
    • Anne Nguyen, Chief AI Officer, Quebec Innovation Council

    • Magda Popeanu, City councillor, Responsible for organizational performance, citizen participation and democracy, Ville de Montréal

  • 09:35 - 09:40
    WELCOME and chairperson’s opening remarks Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    • Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!

  • 09:40 - 10:05
    HEADLINER: The Physical AI Revolution: Pioneering Autonomous Vehicles with Generative AI Professor Raquel Urtasun, Founder & CEO, Waabi

    The AI revolution is transcending the digital realm to reshape our physical world—with autonomous vehicles at the vanguard of this transformation. This new frontier demands innovative approaches to building AI systems that prioritize sustainability, efficiency and safety. In this keynote, Professor Raquel Urtasun will explore how Waabi is pioneering next-generation AV2.0 approach based on an end-to-end interpretable and verifiable AI model, powered by the industry’s most realistic neural simulator, beginning with autonomous trucking. These systems represent a critical breakthrough in Physical AI, enabling vehicles that adapt to complex environments with unprecedented reliability while dramatically improving the movement of goods and road safety.

    • Professor Raquel Urtasun, Founder & CEO, Waabi

  • 10:05 - 10:20
    EXCLUSIVE ANNOUNCEMENT: Quadrupling down on Montréal: AI investment announcements Stéphane Paquet, President and CEO, Montréal International
    Giovanni Iacovino, VP of Technology, Alexa Translations
    Marco Buchbinder, Founder & CEO, Ampliwork
    Loïc Juillard, CTO, SafelyYou
    Eric Pritchett, President & COO, Terzo

    Four cutting-edge artificial intelligence companies are investing in their Montréal teams. Come hear from them about their groundbreaking technologies, and what’s behind their current move to the city!

    • Stéphane Paquet, President and CEO, Montréal International

    • Giovanni Iacovino, VP of Technology, Alexa Translations

    • Marco Buchbinder, Founder & CEO, Ampliwork

    • Loïc Juillard, CTO, SafelyYou

    • Eric Pritchett, President & COO, Terzo

  • 10:20 - 10:45
    IN CONVERSATION Moderator:
    Fawn Hudgens, Chief Editor & Content Director, InspiredMinds!
    Speaker:
    Chandra Donelson, Author of The Data Detective and CDAO, USSF (United States Space Force)

    *Chandra Donelson is speaking in her personal capacity.

    • Moderator:

    • Fawn Hudgens, Chief Editor & Content Director, InspiredMinds!

    • Speaker:

    • Chandra Donelson, Author of The Data Detective and CDAO, USSF (United States Space Force)

  • 10:45 - 11:05
    REFRESHMENTS AND NETWORKING

    BOOK SIGNING! Chandra Donelson will be signing limited complimentary copies of her new book, The Data Detective at the Carnival

  • WORLD SUMMIT AI PLENARY: Chair:
    Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    • 11:05 - 11:35
      PANEL DISCUSSION: AI Safety and Governance: Navigating the Path to Ethical and Responsible Innovation Moderator:
      Alyssa Lefaivre Škopac, Director of AI Trust & Safety, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
      Panellists:
      Bill DeWeese, CTO, Airia
      Ashley Casovan, Managing Director, AI Governance Center, IAPP
      Pamela Snively, Chief Data & Trust Officer, TELUS Communications

      This panel will discuss best practice to tackle the pressing challenges and opportunities in the responsible development and deployment of AI

      • Ensuring AI Alignment with Human Values:
      • Regulatory Approaches to AI Governance:
        • Analyzing global and regional approaches to AI regulation (EU AI Act, US AI Strategy, etc.).
        • The role of governments vs. private companies in shaping AI policy.
      • Ethical AI in High-Risk Domains:
        • Addressing AI’s role in sensitive fields like healthcare, criminal justice, and national security.
        • Implementing safeguards to avoid harmful consequences in these sectors.
      • Collaboration Across Stakeholders:
        • Fostering collaboration between governments, tech companies, academics, and civil society.
        • Promoting international dialogue and agreements on AI safety and governance.
      • Moderator:

      • Alyssa Lefaivre Škopac, Director of AI Trust & Safety, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)

      • Panellists:

      • Bill DeWeese, CTO, Airia

      • Ashley Casovan, Managing Director, AI Governance Center, IAPP

      • Pamela Snively, Chief Data & Trust Officer, TELUS Communications

    • 11:40 - 12:00
      HEADLINER: Unlocking Trust: The Blueprint for AI Safety Pamela Snively, Chief Data & Trust Officer, TELUS Communications

      In a world where AI is transforming industries at lightning speed, how can organizations build trust while driving innovation? Join Pam Snively as she shares powerful insights from TELUS’ globally recognized journey in responsible AI and data enablement.

      This compelling talk will equip leaders with the tools to foster trust inside and outside their organizations, design ethical AI frameworks that fuel innovation, and harness the true potential of data. With deep expertise in AI governance, data ethics, and privacy, Pam will reveal real-world strategies to navigate the complexities of AI safely, and explore the critical intersection of trust, technology, and responsible innovation in today’s AI-driven world.

      • Pamela Snively, Chief Data & Trust Officer, TELUS Communications

    • 12:05 - 12:25
      HEADLINER: From Lab to Launchpad - Overcoming Enterprise Adoption Hurdles Durga Kota, Chief Technology Officer, Fujitsu North America

      Can AI truly transcend the lab and revolutionize industries? This session challenges us to move beyond theoretical potential and confront the realities of applied AI. We’ll dissect the hurdles of enterprise adoption – data silos, workflow fragmentation, and the crucial element of trust – and explore how strategic partnerships can pave the way for real-world impact. But the journey doesn’t stop there. We’ll peer into the future of Agentic AI, questioning what it will take to unleash the power of autonomous agents within our organizations. Are we ready to redefine work itself, or will the path to agentless services remain a distant horizon? Join us to grapple with the transformative power of AI, from driving immediate value to shaping the very nature of enterprise operations.

      • Durga Kota, Chief Technology Officer, Fujitsu North America

    • 12:30 - 12:50
      HEADLINER: Unlocking the Power of Confidential Computing: Securing Data in Use Andrej Zdravkovic, SVP, GPU Technologies and Engineering Software & Chief Software Officer, AMD

      Confidential computing is transforming the landscape of data privacy and security by enabling the processing of sensitive data in a secure and isolated environment, even while data is actively in use. This capability is particularly critical for AI applications, which rely heavily on large volumes of sensitive data during training and inference. In this session, we will explore the key concepts and emerging technologies behind confidential computing, including trusted execution environments (TEEs), hardware-based security measures, and their real-world applications. You will gain an understanding of how confidential computing mitigates the risks of data breaches and ensures compliance with privacy regulations, empowering organizations to leverage sensitive data without compromising security.

      • Andrej Zdravkovic, SVP, GPU Technologies and Engineering Software & Chief Software Officer, AMD

  • TRACK 1: WORKSHOPS
    • 11:05 - 12:05
      WORKSHOP 1 – 60 mins: Say Whaaat?! AI Adoption In Your Company Does Not Need to Take Months and Cost Hundreds of Thousands of Consultant Dollars Patrick St-Amant, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Zetane Systems
      Guillaume Hervé, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Zetane Systems

      Many companies are being left behind in AI transformation because they are being pitched old, expensive, time-consuming schedules that do not guarantee results or employee adoption. Having completed over 40 industrial and business AI projects, the CEO and CTO of Zetane will share their real-world experiences and divulge how your company can save millions, and bypass traditional long-cycle AI projects, to achieve results, safely. Whether your AI strategy is to do it yourself, do it with a partner, or completely outsource it, you will see how months of development time can be saved by avoiding costly mistakes involved in the waterfall process of POC, MVPs, MLOps and Deployment. In this session, our team will walk you through the process to help demystify pipelines and explain a more efficient way of developing robust AI-powered tools that everyone in your organization will want to use.

      • Patrick St-Amant, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Zetane Systems

      • Guillaume Hervé, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Zetane Systems

    • 12:15 - 12:45
      WORKSHOP 2 – 30 mins: Next Gen LLMOps: Modern practices to operate Gen AI safely and efficiently Jérémie Farret, Chief Executive Officer/ Chief Technology Officer, Mind in a Box

      This workshop presents “Next Gen LLMOps”, modern LLM practices to operate your gen AI model safely and harmoniously with your data, either enriching its input (RAG) or generating new data from it (Deep Data). 

       

      With countless gen AI solutions emerging all over the world, the question of using these solutions safely and efficiently, as well as customizing them for a better fit with your operations, comes up more and more frequently. While terms like DevOps, DataOps, even MLOps have been coined over the years to refer to the rationalisation of practices linked to development, data processing or machine learning, LLMOps is an emerging term linked to Large Language Models practices. 

       

      LLMOps aims to solve difficulties ranging from aggressive user licenses all the way to geopolitics. This workshop will focus on presenting some simple, pragmatic solutions which can help overcoming these difficulties : from deploying on premise architectures to hybrid infrastructure, we will review how gen AI models can be put to use to your benefit, while minimizing the risks. Implanted, real world examples will illustrate these solutions.

      • Jérémie Farret, Chief Executive Officer/ Chief Technology Officer, Mind in a Box

  • 12:50 - 13:40
    LUNCH AND NETWORKING
  • WORLD SUMMIT AI PLENARY: Chair:
    Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    • 13:40 - 14:10
      PANEL DISCUSSION: What do AI ‘Distillation’ and the Emergence of Cost-Effective AI Models mean for AI development? Moderator:
      James Gatto, Partner and AI Team Leader, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
      Panellists:
      Dr Colleen Lyons, Ethicist, Large Government Agency
      Wendell Wallach, Semi-retired: Scholar/Author/Activist, Formerly: Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics & The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

      AI distillation and cost-effective models are reshaping AI development, raising crucial ethical and intellectual property (IP) questions. This panel explores the impact of model compression on transparency, fairness, and accountability, as well as the legal implications of deriving smaller models from proprietary or open-source systems. Who owns a distilled model? How do these processes affect original creators’ rights? Experts from AI research, law, and ethics will discuss these challenges and the safeguards needed for responsible AI innovation.

      • Moderator:

      • James Gatto, Partner and AI Team Leader, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

      • Panellists:

      • Dr Colleen Lyons, Ethicist, Large Government Agency

      • Wendell Wallach, Semi-retired: Scholar/Author/Activist, Formerly: Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics & The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

    • 14:10 - 14:30
      HEADLINER: Generalizable Autonomy in the age of Generative AI Animesh Garg, Senior Researcher, Nvidia Research; Stephen Fleming Early Career Professor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech

      Generalization in embodied intelligence, such as in robotics, requires interactive learning across families of tasks is essential for discovering efficient representation and inference mechanisms. Concurrent systems need a lot of hand-holding to even learn a single cognitive concept or a dexterous skill, say “open a door”, let alone generalizing to new windows and cupboards! This talk will present a perspective on how to build a stack of algorithms from low level control to high level reasoning. We will first talk about the use of Language Models to guide planning, then we will discuss how to build skills from imitation learning and reinforcement learning, and finally we will talk about a data generating platform to enable robot learning.

      • Animesh Garg, Senior Researcher, Nvidia Research; Stephen Fleming Early Career Professor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech

    • 14:30 - 14:50
      HEADLINER: Driving business value through ML and decision intelligence-enabled innovative solutions to provide enhanced services for the future. Ritesh Bansal, VP of Analytics Data, Insights and AI/ML Platform, Autodesk

      The integration of machine learning (ML) and decision intelligence is revolutionizing business operations by providing advanced, data-driven solutions that enhance service delivery and drive value. By leveraging ML algorithms for predictive analytics, optimization, and automation, organizations can streamline complex decision-making processes and unlock actionable insights. Decision intelligence frameworks, when coupled with ML models, empower businesses to improve accuracy, speed, and scalability of critical decisions in real-time. This session will dive into the technical aspects of how ML and decision intelligence are being used to build intelligent, scalable systems that enhance business outcomes, optimize resource allocation, and deliver high-performance services for the future. Participants will gain insights into the methodologies, tools, and architectures behind these innovations and how they can be applied to solve real-world business challenges.

      • Ritesh Bansal, VP of Analytics Data, Insights and AI/ML Platform, Autodesk

    • 14:55 - 15:15
      HEADLINER: Harnessing AI for Multimodal Data Analytics: Practical Applications in Health, Science, and Research Dr Helia Mohammadi, Chief AI & Precision Health Officer, Microsoft Canada

      Helia will explore the transformative potential of AI in harnessing multimodal data to drive advancements in health, science, and research,  delving into the research framework for AI, and emphasizing the importance of robust platforms and infrastructure to support AI innovation. The integration of multimodal health data analytics is highlighted, showcasing how AI can analyze diverse data types, including medical imaging modalities, to provide comprehensive insights and improve patient outcomes.

      Responsible AI practices and confidential computing are crucial in ensuring privacy and ethical use of AI. This includes transparency, accountability, AI safeguards, security and privacy, and bias mitigation to build trust and reliability in AI systems. Practical examples of AI applications in medical imaging and ambient voice analysis are presented, demonstrating how AI-driven analytics can enhance diagnostic accuracy, enhance preventive care, streamline clinical workflows, and reduce clinician burnout.

      • Dr Helia Mohammadi, Chief AI & Precision Health Officer, Microsoft Canada

    • 15:20 - 15:40
      HEADLINER: Secret Weapons Against AI Irrelevance: How to Reign Supreme with Giving Voice to Values and VUCA Voice  Dr Colleen Lyons, Ethicist, Large Government Agency
      • Dr Colleen Lyons, Ethicist, Large Government Agency

  • TRACK 1: AI IN ACTION USE CASES Chair:
    Alyssa Lefaivre Škopac, Director of AI Trust & Safety, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
    • 13:40 - 14:00
      AI IN ACTION USE CASE: Sustainable Data Centers with Waste Heat Utilization Scot Bryson, Founder, Orbital Farm

      As data centers scale to support the exponential growth of AI and cloud computing, the environmental impact of their operations is intensifying. A key but often overlooked issue is waste heat. This session explores how innovative heat recovery systems, integrating energy delivery and optimized for integrated applications, can transform communities & data center operations into sustainable, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible solutions.

      • Scot Bryson, Founder, Orbital Farm

    • 14:05 - 14:25
      AI IN ACTION USE CASE: Harnessing the Power of AI in Telecom Siham Himer Soufiani, Chief Technology Officer, Major Accounts, Ericsson Canada
      Brad Stimpson, Director, Wireless Technology, Bell Canada

      As the telecommunications industry undergoes rapid transformation, AI stands at the forefront, driving unprecedented changes in network infrastructure, customer experiences, and business models. This discussion brings together industry leaders from Ericsson and Bell to explore how AI technologies, including GenAI, are shaping the future of telecom networks.

      • Siham Himer Soufiani, Chief Technology Officer, Major Accounts, Ericsson Canada

      • Brad Stimpson, Director, Wireless Technology, Bell Canada

    • 14:30 - 14:50
      IN CONVERSATION: Unlocking Business Potential with Synthetic Personas: The Future of Data-Driven Decision-Making Karine Courtemanche, Executive Vice President and President of the Media Group, Plus Company Canada
      Veronique Dumas, Chief Marketing Officer, Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec

      Imagine on-demand, tailored AI focus groups, adapting to your every need. In this session, Karine Courtemanche, EVP at Plus Company Canada, will unveil a groundbreaking use case alongside Veronique Dumas, Chief Marketing Officer of the Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec, a frontrunner in tourism marketing innovation. They’re leveraging synthetic personas to revolutionize research, enhance tourism experiences, and transform marketing strategies. At the heart of this revolution is “Smart Persona,” a tool that facilitates authentic conversations with synthetic consumers, yielding continuous consumer insights that are reshaping the consumer research landscape. The “Canadian Traveler” case study demonstrates how AI is revolutionizing modern marketing, from product innovation and message positioning to scenario testing, all while adhering to stringent privacy and confidentiality standards.

      • Karine Courtemanche, Executive Vice President and President of the Media Group, Plus Company Canada

      • Veronique Dumas, Chief Marketing Officer, Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec

    • 14:55 - 15:15
      AI IN ACTION USE CASE: Engineering the Impossible: Building "It's What's Inside: The Game" for Netflix Luke Ballantine, Technology Director, AKQA

      AKQA built a world-first to support the release of Netflix’s new body swapping movie: It’s What’s Inside. This was the first video conference game in the world that allows players to train AI models on their voice and face, and allow players to randomly puppet one of their friends – in real-time!

      AKQA will unpack the creative journey behind ‘It’s What’s Inside: The Game’, developed over an intense six-week timeline. In this session, they’ll dive into the AI technology, design considerations, massive compute requirements, scaling challenges, and key insights that made this ambitious project a reality.

      • Luke Ballantine, Technology Director, AKQA

  • 15:40 - 16:00
    REFRESHMENTS AND NETWORKING
  • 16:00 - 16:25
    HEADLINER: Beyond the Illusion: Reclaiming Human Autonomy in the Age of AI Jason Snyder, Global Chief AI Officer, Momentum Worldwide

    AI is no longer just a tool for processing data—it’s a system that predicts behavior, influences decisions, and reshapes reality in real-time. This headliner session explores how AI is accelerating faster than governance, outpacing ethics and rewriting the rules of human autonomy. From the illusion of consent to the myth of fairness, Snyder will explain how modern AI systems scale bias, erode trust, and manufacture synthetic truths. But this isn’t a dystopian warning—it’s a design challenge. Through provocative insights and real-world examples, this talk makes a case for intentional, explainable, and human-centered AI design—before predictive systems start making decisions for us, not with us. Attendees will walk away with a new framework for responsible innovation that prioritizes alignment over attention, consent over convenience, and design over default.

    • Jason Snyder, Global Chief AI Officer, Momentum Worldwide

  • 16:25 - 17:00
    PANEL DISCUSSION: Future-Proofing with AI: From Adoption to Optimization - Insights from Early Adopters and Innovators Moderator:
    Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    Panellists:
    Dr Yannick Lallement, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Scotiabank
    Siham Himer Soufiani, Chief Technology Officer, Major Accounts, Ericsson Canada
    Andrej Zdravkovic, SVP, GPU Technologies and Engineering Software & Chief Software Officer, AMD

    The adoption of AI—both generative and analytical—continues to accelerate, with generative AI experiencing particularly rapid growth. Organizations are beginning to build the necessary frameworks and processes to unlock significant value from this technology. While many are still in the early stages of adoption, businesses are already redesigning workflows, strengthening governance, mitigating risks, and creating new AI-focused roles while reskilling their existing workforce for AI deployment. This panel will explore the opportunities and challenges of integrating emerging technologies, featuring insights from organizations that are well along in their AI journeys, offering valuable lessons on potential pitfalls and the substantial benefits to be reaped.

    • Moderator:

    • Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!

    • Panellists:

    • Dr Yannick Lallement, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Scotiabank

    • Siham Himer Soufiani, Chief Technology Officer, Major Accounts, Ericsson Canada

    • Andrej Zdravkovic, SVP, GPU Technologies and Engineering Software & Chief Software Officer, AMD

  • 17:00 - 17:20
    HEADLINER: Harnessing Generative AI for E-Commerce: Wayfair’s Practical Journey Fiona Tan, CTO, Wayfair

    Join Fiona Tan, CTO of Wayfair, as she shares a grounded perspective on how Wayfair is integrating generative AI into its core retail operations. From scaling personalization to improving product discovery, learn how Wayfair is applying AI-driven solutions in real-world scenarios—and the challenges and lessons learned along the way.

    • Fiona Tan, CTO, Wayfair

  • 17:20 -
    CLOSE OF SUMMIT DAY ONE
  • Wednesday 16th
  • 08:00 - 09:20
    REGISTRATION
  • 08:00 - 09:00
    JOIN US FOR BREAKFAST! - BREAKFAST BRIEFING: Mitigating Risk, Maximizing Trust: A Cybersecurity Roadmap for AI Hosts:
    Peter Hargitai, Partner, National Digital Risk Solutions Leader, PwC Canada
    Asif Qayyum, Partner, Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies, PwC Canada

    We know that robust cybersecurity is a critical link in building trust in AI systems. But it’s often easier said than done. Join this interactive breakfast briefing with PwC to gain practical insights into how prioritizing cybersecurity measures throughout the AI lifecycle can lead to more reliable, ethical and widely accepted AI applications. If your organisation is making an investment in AI, these factors are critical to ROI. Secure your spot at this limited-space breakfast – come ready with your questions!

    • Hosts:

    • Peter Hargitai, Partner, National Digital Risk Solutions Leader, PwC Canada

    • Asif Qayyum, Partner, Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies, PwC Canada

  • 09:20 - 09:25
    WELCOME InspiredMinds! Maisie Holder, Managing Director, InspiredMinds!
    • Maisie Holder, Managing Director, InspiredMinds!

  • 09:25 - 09:30
    WELCOME and chairperson’s opening remarks Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    • Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!

  • 09:30 - 09:50
    HEADLINER: Moral Machines and Moral Intelligence in the Digital Age Wendell Wallach, Semi-retired: Scholar/Author/Activist, Formerly: Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics & The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

    Implementing sensitivity to moral considerations and the capacity to factors these into choices and actions in AI is a profound philosophical and a critical practical challenge. Artificial moral agents will be required for agentic systems.  Since Colin Allen and I first outlined this challenge in 2008, much has occurred that questions whether we human have the moral intelligence to build such systems and whether the AI platforms already developed can ever be moral agents.  In my presentation I will propose a synergistic relationship between AI and humans for working through the kind of devilishly difficult dilemmas we are and will confront.

    • Wendell Wallach, Semi-retired: Scholar/Author/Activist, Formerly: Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics & The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

  • 09:50 - 10:10
    HEADLINER: Best Practices for Accelerating Your AI Journey with Secure and Powerful Agents Bill DeWeese, CTO, Airia

    Explore the evolving landscape of AI innovation, where deploying AI agents can revolutionize business outcomes with immediate impact. We will examine real-world examples of how advanced orchestration techniques enhance system efficiency and redefine workforce productivity while maintaining robust security controls. Discover how industry leaders in this field develop AI applications that are inherently secure, compliant, and risk-aware from the ground up.  Whether you are starting your AI journey or seeking to refine your current approach, this session provides strategic insights to harness AI’s transformative potential and empowers business leaders to drive sustainable business success.

    • Bill DeWeese, CTO, Airia

  • 10:10 - 10:45
    PANEL DISCUSSION: Will agentic AI revolutionize how we interact with technology and solve complex problems? Moderator:
    Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    Panellists:
    Aleksandra Faust, Research Director, Google DeepMind
    Bruce Stamm, Managing Director, Enterprise Data & AI (Retired) Air Canada
    Lewis Stott, Strategy and Business Operations Lead, Cohere

    This panel will explore the implications of agentic AI in reshaping human-AI interactions and its potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Experts will discuss the transformative capabilities of agentic AI, addressing questions around creativity, decision-making, and accountability. How can AI systems autonomously collaborate with humans to tackle global issues like climate change or pandemics? What role does trust play in these systems, and what safeguards need to be implemented to ensure ethical and equitable outcomes?

    Through this conversation, the panel will examine not only the technical and operational advancements agentic AI promises but also the broader societal and philosophical implications. The discussion will challenge attendees to think critically about how we prepare for a future where AI acts as both a collaborator and an autonomous agent, redefining the boundaries between human ingenuity and technological innovation.

    • What safeguards are required to protect against misuse or breaches?
    • How do we ensure these systems make decisions aligned with human values, and can demonstrate explainable decision-making processes?
    • Who is responsible when an agentic AI makes a mistake?
    • What is the potential impact on the job market?
    • Moderator:

    • Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!

    • Panellists:

    • Aleksandra Faust, Research Director, Google DeepMind

    • Bruce Stamm, Managing Director, Enterprise Data & AI (Retired) Air Canada

    • Lewis Stott, Strategy and Business Operations Lead, Cohere

  • 10:45 - 11:05
    REFRESHMENTS & NETWORKING
  • WORLD SUMMIT AI AMERICAS PLENARY: Chair:
    Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    • 11:05 - 11:25
      HEADLINER: LLM explainability in autism health records: Some practical tools to get around theoretical problems Danilo Bzdok, McGill Professor & Mila, CIFAR AI Chair

      Efforts to use genome-wide assays or brain scans to diagnose autism have seen diminishing returns. Yet the clinical intuition of healthcare professionals, based on longstanding first-hand experience, remains the gold standard for diagnosis of autism. We leveraged deep learning to deconstruct and interrogate the logic of expert clinician intuition from clinical reports to inform our understanding of autism. By introducing an explainability strategy, our extended language model architecture could pin down the most salient single sentences in what drives clinical thinking toward correct diagnoses. Our framework flagged the most autism-critical DSM-5 criteria to be stereotyped repetitive behaviors, special interests, and perception-based behaviors, which challenges today’s focus on deficits in social interplay, suggesting necessary revision of long-trusted diagnostic criteria in gold-standard instruments.

      • Danilo Bzdok, McGill Professor & Mila, CIFAR AI Chair

    • 11:30 - 11:50
      HEADLINER: Building Trustworthy Medical Imaging AI Systems for Safe Clinical Deployment Tal Arbel, Professor, McGill University and Mila

      Rapid advances in modern deep learning applied to medical images are paving the way for tangible future improvements in patient care. This talk presents recent work on AI-driven personalized medicine, using medical imaging from patients with neurological disease, to guide tailored treatment decisions. In high-stakes applications like healthcare, however, deep learning models must be safe, robust, and trustworthy. In this talk, we describe how uncertainty-aware models convey the confidence in deep learning predictions and highlight the power of Vision-Language Foundation Models to deliver detailed, patient-specific explainability. We further demonstrate how these models can expose and mitigate complex image-based biases, improving algorithmic fairness and supporting more reliable and equitable clinical adoption.

      • Tal Arbel, Professor, McGill University and Mila

  • TRACK 1: WORKSHOPS
    • 11:05 - 12:05
      EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE, INVITATION ONLY – 60 mins: Scaling with AI: How to unlock the value and shape the next phase of AI driven transformation Krish Banerjee, Managing Director, Data & AI Canada Lead, Accenture
      Hadi Skalli, Managing Director, Data & AI Lead Montreal, Accenture
      • Krish Banerjee, Managing Director, Data & AI Canada Lead, Accenture

      • Hadi Skalli, Managing Director, Data & AI Lead Montreal, Accenture

    • 12:10 - 12:55
      WORKSHOP 3 - 45 mins: Building with Open Source AI: A Crash Course Cedric Clyburn, Senior Developer Advocate, Red Hat
      Legare Kerrison, Developer Advocate, Red Hat

      We’re seeing the usage of Generative AI in all forms, from application development to enterprise usage and personalized customer experiences. It enables more efficient solutions and better-informed decisions, though the journey can feel overwhelming. Which foundation model should I use? How do I keep my data private and minimize cloud lock-in? How do I connect my model to existing databases, services, and more to get true value from AI?

      The key to navigating this emerging path is adopting the flexibility, transparency, and collaboration of open source that many of us are familiar with. Join us for this workshop as we discuss the right practices and knowledge to approach common problems with generative AI. You’ll learn the leading tools for use cases such as model serving and scaling, agentic workflows, prototyping, fine-tuning, experimentation/evaluation, and more- built on Linux and Kubernetes! With live demos, you’ll see how to build with open source models and control your AI journey!

      • Cedric Clyburn, Senior Developer Advocate, Red Hat

      • Legare Kerrison, Developer Advocate, Red Hat

  • 12:40 - 13:35
    LUNCH & NETWORKING
  • WORLD SUMMIT AI AMERICAS PLENARY: Chair:
    Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    • 13:35 - 13:55
      KEYNOTE ENTERPRISE STORY: AI at Riot: Smarter Play, Stronger Creativity Wesley Kerr, Head of Tech Research, Riot Games

      AI’s role in gaming is evolving beyond NPCs and scripted behaviors. In this talk, Wesley will share how Riot Games is exploring AI across two key fronts: Game AI and Generative AI. Riot’s portfolio of high-skill, session-based multiplayer games presents a perfect testbed for AI that learns, adapts and deepens our understanding of competitive play—unlocking new possibilities for gameplay, balance, and beyond. On the creative side, generative AI serves as a tool to support our artists, amplifying their unique human creativity rather than replacing it. While we’re still in the early stages, our goal is to build AI systems that enhance both player experience and developer creativity.

      • Wesley Kerr, Head of Tech Research, Riot Games

    • 14:00 - 14:20
      HEADLINER: How Spotify AI powers discovery, context and novel experiences Tony Jebara, VP of Engineering and Head of AI and Machine Learning, Spotify

      From personalized playlists to AI-powered listening experiences, we reveal how AI is transforming the music experience for over 600 million users, opening doors for artist and creator discovery worldwide. Learn from Spotify’s AI journey and how Large Language Models add personalized context to recommendations across surfaces… and personalized narration in AI DJ to help users discover new tracks to listen to. LLMs are also driving Spotify’s Agentic capabilities which allow users to not only converse with Spotify but also to generate code and API calls that create the perfect AI Playlist based on that conversation. Finally, AI models offer the opportunity to learn from what works: to produce better and better explanations, conversations and action sequences… with the ultimate goal of driving more content discovery and consumption

      • Tony Jebara, VP of Engineering and Head of AI and Machine Learning, Spotify

  • TRACK 1: INNOVATION INSIGHTS Chair:
    Alyssa Lefaivre Škopac, Director of AI Trust & Safety, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
    • 13:35 - 13:55
      INNOVATION INSIGHT: Machine Learning for Augmented Decision-Making in Postoperative Settings Abdallah El-Falou, CTO, FluidA Medical

      Each year, tens of millions of general and gastrointestinal surgeries are performed worldwide, with 15% of patients experiencing complications. The current standard of care relies on subjective observations and delayed detection, leading to higher mortality, longer hospital stays, and rising costs.So how can AI  change that? Abdallah El-Falou, CTO  of FluidAI Medical,  has led the development and deployment of Stream™ Care, an AI-powered platform for clinical decision support that empowers surgeons to stay ahead of complications. This session will explore the potential of AI and machine learning in transforming healthcare, reshaping clinical workflows, and driving innovation across the ecosystem.

      • Abdallah El-Falou, CTO, FluidA Medical

    • 14:00 - 14:20
      INNOVATION INSIGHT: Collaborating with Corporate Venture Capital Marc Silberman, Partner, Comcast Ventures

      From NVIDIA’s reported 40+ startup investments last year to recent AI-focused fund announcements from companies like Cisco, Salesforce, Databricks and IBM, corporate venture capital teams are more “in the mix” than ever. In this session, we’ll provide a background on the corporate venture ecosystem, current themes, and how a corporate investor can accelerate a startup’s journey. A specific focus will be on AI and how early-stage AI startups can leverage corporate capital as a way to grow their GTM activity, secure key POCs and more.

      • Marc Silberman, Partner, Comcast Ventures

    • 14:25 - 14:45
      INNOVATION INSIGHT: AI and Robotics at Work: Prioritizing Worker Well-Being While Unlocking the Benefits of Automation Shalaleh Rismani, Executive Director, Open Roboethics Institute

      While robotics has long been a key part of automation, the integration of AI into robotic systems is accelerating, making them more autonomous, adaptable, and capable of working alongside humans in complex environments. From AI-assisted industrial robots to autonomous logistics and service systems, these technologies have the potential to enhance job quality, improve safety, and boost productivity, but only if they are designed and deployed responsibly. Without thoughtful integration, AI-powered automation risks exacerbating job insecurity, skill gaps, and worker distrust.

      AI-driven robotics is not just about automation, it is about building a future of work that is safer, more inclusive, and economically sustainable. This talk will provide practical insights into how businesses, policymakers, and labour organizations can ensure that AI-powered robotics leads to better work, not just more automation.

      • Shalaleh Rismani, Executive Director, Open Roboethics Institute

  • 14:45 - 15:00
    REFRESHMENTS & NETWORKING
  • WORLD SUMMIT AI AMERICAS PLENARY: Chair:
    Matthew Blakemore, CEO, AI Caramba!
    • 15:00 - 15:20
      HEADLINER: How AI is Shaping the 21st Century Space Race Alicia Kavelaars, CTO, Orbital Outpost X

      With the emergence of AI technologies at the forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution, space as the next frontier is becoming a reality. A growing ecosystem of space startups and government players is developing solutions that will affect every aspect of life on Earth, and expand human’s footprint beyond a single planet species. In this talk we will explore how AI is shaping this 21st Century Space Race, and in particular how it will enable a paradigm shift from deep vertical infrastructure, generally government led, to multi-stakeholder infrastructure where secure and resilient access will be essential.

      • Alicia Kavelaars, CTO, Orbital Outpost X

    • 15:25 - 16:00
      PANEL DISCUSSION: Intelligent Learning: How AI is Redefining Education Moderator:
      Dr Nadia Naffi, Associate Professor and Chair Holder, Université Laval
      Panellists:
      Dr Kevin Jones, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning and Associate Professor, Indiana University Columbus
      Monika Lionaite, CEO, Chief Innovator & Founder, Openhack 2020 Australia
      Dr Colleen Lyons, Ethicist, Large Government Agency
      Loni Mahanta, Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel, The AI Education Project (aiEDU)

      The promise of “AI for all” must be that everyone can take advantage of the technological revolution under way to ensure AI does not widen the technological divides within and between countries. So what is AI’s role in addressing current inequalities regarding access to knowledge and research?

      We will explore the transformative role of AI technologies in reshaping the landscape of both traditional education and learning at work. From personalized learning experiences and adaptive teaching tools to automating administrative tasks and enhancing accessibility, AI is paving the way for a more democratic, inclusive, efficient, and effective educational system across schools, universities, and workplaces. Our panel of experts will dive into the challenges, opportunities, and ethical considerations associated with integrating AI in both formal education and corporate learning environments. Join us for an engaging conversation about how AI is not just supporting, but revolutionizing the way we learn, teach, and develop skills in the 21st century.

      • Moderator:

      • Dr Nadia Naffi, Associate Professor and Chair Holder, Université Laval

      • Panellists:

      • Dr Kevin Jones, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning and Associate Professor, Indiana University Columbus

      • Monika Lionaite, CEO, Chief Innovator & Founder, Openhack 2020 Australia

      • Dr Colleen Lyons, Ethicist, Large Government Agency

      • Loni Mahanta, Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel, The AI Education Project (aiEDU)

  • TRACK 1: INNOVATION INSIGHTS Chair:
    Alyssa Lefaivre Škopac, Director of AI Trust & Safety, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
    • 15:00 - 15:20
      INNOVATION INSIGHT: The next generation of biological foundation models based on a global biodiversity data supply chain Dr Philipp Lorenz, Chief Technology Officer, Basecamp Research

      AI in the Life Sciences is currently limited by a data wall given that the vast majority of life on earth remains undiscovered. Basecamp Research has built a global biological data supply chain from 5 continents, building a database of life on earth orders of magnitudes greater and more diverse than public datasets. Using this data advantage, the team has built new state of the art deep learning models. The company shares benefits with the stakeholders who originated the data in order to support our planet’s biodiversity.

      • Dr Philipp Lorenz, Chief Technology Officer, Basecamp Research

    • 15:25 - 15:45
      INNOVATION INSIGHT: Optimizing the AI Stack for the Age of Inferencing Yujing Qian, VP of Engineering, GMI Cloud

      This talk dives into four key topics: We’ll cover how good practices for hardware acceleration and dynamic resource management create scalable AI systems. Discover hybrid retriever optimization to boost search relevancy and retrieval efficiency. Inference optimization techniques that balance speed and throughput, ensuring efficient model performance. And uncover the power of context-aware caching, demonstrating how tailored caching strategies can address specific use case challenges and reduce latency. Each topic is intended to explore an aspect of optimizing the AI stack for AI developers to maximize infrastructure utility and deliver on inference services

      • Yujing Qian, VP of Engineering, GMI Cloud

  • 16:00 - 16:25
    HEADLINER: Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks: Can Scientist AI Offer a Safer Path? Yoshua Bengio, Canada CIFAR AI Chair; Full Professor, Samsung AI; Professor, Université de Montréal; Scientific Director, Mila & IVADO

    The leading AI companies are increasingly focused on building generalist AI agents — systems that can autonomously plan, act, and pursue goals across almost all tasks that humans can perform. Despite how useful these systems might be, unchecked AI agency poses significant risks to public safety and security, ranging from misuse by malicious actors to a potentially irreversible loss of human control. We discuss how these risks arise from current AI training methods. Indeed, various scenarios and experiments have demonstrated the possibility of AI agents engaging in deception or pursuing goals that were not specified by human operators and that conflict with human interests, such as self-preservation. Following the precautionary principle, we see a strong need for safer, yet still useful, alternatives to the current agency-driven trajectory. Accordingly, we propose as a core building block for further advances the development of a non-agentic AI system that is trustworthy and safe by design, which we call Scientist AI. This system is designed to explain the world from observations, as opposed to taking actions in it to imitate or please humans. It comprises a world model that generates theories to explain data and a question-answering inference machine. Both components operate with an explicit notion of uncertainty to mitigate the risks of overconfident predictions. In light of these considerations, a Scientist AI could be used to assist human researchers in accelerating scientific progress, including in AI safety. In particular, our system can be employed as a guardrail against AI agents that might be created despite the risks involved. Ultimately, focusing on non-agentic AI may enable the benefits of AI innovation while avoiding the risks associated with the current trajectory. We hope these arguments will motivate researchers, developers, and policymakers to favor this safer path.

    • Yoshua Bengio, Canada CIFAR AI Chair; Full Professor, Samsung AI; Professor, Université de Montréal; Scientific Director, Mila & IVADO

  • 16:25 -
    CLOSE OF WORLD SUMMIT AI

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