More Than 20K Visitors Expected to Attend DeepFest at LEAP 2024 in KSA for AI Innovation

DeepFest, the premier meeting place for the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem, is expected to attract upwards of 20,000 attendees this year.

Co-located with LEAP, a leading tech event, DeepFest will attract global thought-leaders, change-makers, data scientists, innovators, enterprises, academia, start-ups, and entrepreneurs across four days of live-demos, innovation sessions, sector-dedicated tracks, trainings, start-up pitches, and an exhibition that features the world’s top tech companies.

Powered by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), the event will run from March 4-7 at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre in Malham, Riyadh, and is set to showcase more than 150 leading AI experts and 120-plus global AI companies.

“The constant evolution of the tech landscape, particularly AI, is paving the way for breakthroughs unlike anything we have seen before,” said Michael Champion, Co-Founder of LEAP and CEO of Tahaluf, the strategic joint venture between Informa PLC, Event Investment Fund (EIF), and the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), which organises LEAP alongside the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (MCIT). “As an event co-located with LEAP, DeepFest will take on increased significance this year, given the high-calibre talent we are hosting that is currently revolutionising the industry.”

DeepFest’s conference attendees will uncover the world of innovation through a themed programme journeying through the past, present, and future of Generative AI (GAI), where they will gain a comprehensive outlook on topics such as the evolution of AI and robots, creating value through data and AI, the impact of AI on society, and the future of work.

Featuring key advancements that have led to the current landscape of the industry, the opening day
of DeepFest will set the stage for understanding AI’s limitless potential, looking at the development
from Turing to GPT-4, AI’s foundational concepts, machine and deep learning, and key breakthroughs, including robotics.

The session will feature presentations, demos, and fireside chats from esteemed speakers, including Dr. Ramses Alcaide, President, and CEO of Neurable; Alvin Wang Graylin, China President, and Global VP of Corporate Development at Taiwan’s HTC; Gary Sorrentino, Global CIO at Zoom; Aku Srikanth, Director/Principal at Workday; and David Siegel, CEO at Meetup, among others.

Day Two of the conference will probe the hot topic of generative AI, challenges and ethical considerations of bias and privacy, defence, and the future of social AI systems. Included in the star-
studded list of speakers is Sanjeevan Bala, Group Chief Data and AI Officer at ITV, who will present
‘The Enterprise AI Playbook’ and explore how to create value from data and AI.

Adding to the day’s agenda will be Scott Penberthy, Managing Director of Applied AI at Google’s CTO Office, who will join David Penberthy, President of the Association of Community Cancer Centres, to investigate the technology’s impact on healthcare, including diagnostics, drug discovery, and personalised patient care.

The much-anticipated topic of GAI and its societal impact will fall to Thomas Oxley, CEO of Synchron
and a neurointerventionist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Oxley is helping build next-gen
brain-computer interface solutions and has released the first clinical data on the Stentrode – a
neural stent/electrode that can navigate blood vessels.

The conference’s third day will investigate the cutting-edge research and innovations shaping AI’s
future, including AI-powered robotics, quantum computing, natural language understanding, and
much more. Meanwhile, the final day of the conference will focus on collaborations, ethics, and
sustainability.

Day Four will also look at the societal implications of AI and how its potential can be harnessed
responsibly towards a future that benefits all of humanity. Some of the confirmed speakers include
Elizabeth Adams, Affiliate Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI, who will look at
embedding ethics and human-centricity in AI systems, and Ivana Bartoletti, Chief Privacy and AI
Governance Officer at Wipro, who will deliver a presentation on how responsible AI meets Generative AI.

Other discussions will focus on trending topics such as navigating the venture capital landscape for
AI startups and investigating a safer path for an AI-driven future.

With empowerment by MCIT, LEAP 2024 organisers anticipate breaking the event’s record turnout of 172,000-plus visitors in February 2023.