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After an almost five-year hiatus, we're thrilled to relaunch PyData Ann Arbor with an exceptional talk on speech AI using Python!

Talk Context Speech technology is revolutionizing how we interact with computers and automate communication. From voice assistants helping us navigate our daily lives to real-time transcription enabling better accessibility in virtual meetings, speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies have become fundamental building blocks of modern applications. These technologies power everything from customer service voice agents and automated meeting notes to audiobook creation and voice cloning for content creators.

Join us as we welcome Matthew Lightman, a Senior Machine Learning Engineer from Deepgram, a leader in speech AI technology right here in Ann Arbor. Deepgram has pushed the boundaries of speech recognition accuracy and efficiency, making them a cornerstone of the speech AI ecosystem. Their state-of-the-art models are used by companies worldwide for everything from call center analytics to media subtitle generation.

This talk will dive deep into the fascinating world of training speech models at scale, exploring the unique challenges and considerations that set speech AI apart from traditional language models. Whether you're interested in machine learning, audio processing, or the future of human-computer interaction, you won't want to miss this insightful presentation from one of the leading companies in the field.

Talk abstract: In the last few years, researchers have been able to create effective Large language models (LLMs) through self-supervised training on large quantities of text data from the internet. There are well studied scaling laws for the performance of LLMs as a function of the amount of training data, compute budget, and model size. Similar scaling laws apply in the domain of speech, including speech-to-text and text-to-speech model training. However, there are distinct considerations for training on speech data. For example: How are the ground truth transcripts for the speech produced? How do we make use of noisy versus clean speech? In this talk I will discuss such considerations, and how they impact training of speech-to-text and of text-to-speech models at scale.

P.S. They're hiring!

S1 Ep#33 Bridging Business and Data: The Art of Data Product Management The Data Product Management In Action podcast, brought to you by executive producer Scott Hirleman, is a platform for data product management practitioners to share insights and experiences. 

In Season 01, Episode 33, Amritha, our newest host, chats with Sagar Nikam, Head of Product at CK Delta. Sagar shares his journey from finance to data product management, highlighting the art of translating complex AI/ML models into actionable business strategies. He discusses the challenges of defining data products, the importance of clear communication, and why adoption often outweighs accuracy. Sagar also offers insights on handling uncertainty, setting success metrics, and the cross-industry applicability of data product management skills. Tune in for a deep dive into making data-driven decisions that drive real business impact.

About our host Amritha Arun Babu: Amritha is an accomplished Product Leader with over a decade of experience building and scaling products across AI platforms, supply chain systems, and enterprise workflows in industries such as e-commerce, AI/ML, and marketing automation. At Amazon, she led machine learning platform products powering recommendation and personalization engines, building tools for model experimentation, deployment, and monitoring that improved efficiency for 1,500+ ML scientists. At Wayfair, she managed international supply chain systems, overseeing contracts, billing, product catalogs, and vendor operations, delivering cost savings and optimizing large-scale workflows. At Klaviyo, she drives both AI infrastructure and customer-facing AI tools, including recommendation engines, content generation assistants, and workflow automation agents, enabling scalable and personalized marketing workflows. Earlier, she worked on enterprise systems and revenue operations workflows, focusing on cost optimization and process improvements in complex technical environments. Amritha excels at bridging technical depth with strategic clarity, leading cross-functional teams, and delivering measurable business outcomes across diverse domains. Connect with Amritha on LinkedIn.
About our guest Sagar Nikam: Sagar is the Head of Products at CKDelta, leading the development of AI-driven solutions, AI Agents, and intelligent applications that enhance decision-making and automation across industries. With experience in banking, utilities, and SaaS, he has successfully launched and scaled AI-powered products that drive real business impact. Sagar helps product teams seamlessly integrate AI, navigate challenges, and build solutions that are user-centric, explainable, and trusted. Connect with Sagar on LinkedIn.  

All views and opinions expressed are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect their employers or anyone else. 

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Join us for an exciting meetup where we dive into the latest innovations in data infrastructure and AI! Discover how industry experts from H&M have empowered data teams with self-serve infrastructure, reusable components, and automation to boost efficiency. Plus, learn from Kyndryl’s Olga Arvidson on overcoming the challenges of scaling GenAI. This is the perfect opportunity to network with fellow data professionals, gain insights, and explore cutting-edge solutions that drive business success. Don’t miss out—sign up now for this free event, with food and drinks provided by Kyndryl!

Agenda: 17:30 - 18:00: Doors open 18:00 - 18:10: Welcome 18:10 - 18:40: Empowering Data Teams: Self-Serve Infrastructure, Reusable Components & Automation 18:40 - 19:10: Break 19:10 - 19:40: Struggling to scale GenAI. You are not alone! 19:40 - 20:30: Networking

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Presentations:

Empowering Data Teams: Self-Serve Infrastructure, Reusable Components & Automation Mohinuddin Salahuddin & Rashidul Islam, H&M

In this session, we will explore how our organization has revolutionized its data landscape by implementing self-serve data infrastructure, automating processes using CI/CD pipelines, and building reusable components. Discover how these innovations have empowered our data teams to work more efficiently and independently, reducing bottlenecks and accelerating development cycles. We’ll delve into the tools and strategies that have enabled us to create a scalable, reliable, and agile data environment, ensuring high-quality data delivery and continuous improvement. Join us to learn how you can leverage these approaches to transform your own data operations and drive business success.

Speakers Bio: Mohinuddin Salahuddin is a tech professional with over 18 years of software development experience and 8 years in data engineering. He has successfully delivered solutions across various industries, blending technical expertise with a strong focus on business needs. Outside of work, he enjoys movies and spending time with his family, which fuels his creativity and passion for technology.

Rashidul Islam is a Product Manager at H&M building the next generation data platform to leverage the data for AI and analytics. His team is building a platform for enabling other teams to harness the data from different sources and make them AI and analytics friendly. He is passionate about making life easier for data engineers and analysts by providing improved developer experience.

Struggling to scale GenAI. You are not alone! Olga Arvidson - Customer Partner, Kyndryl

In this session Olga will give us a brief history of why gpt became big, and why there’s still a lot that needs to be done to get it adopted (with a bonus)

Speakers Bio: Olga Arvidson is a Customer Partner at Kyndryl, where she excels in driving customer success and fostering strong partnerships. Olga has worked with the biggest hyperscalers (Microsoft and Amazon Web Services) and has been instrumental in shaping clients navigate their digital transformation journeys. Covering the strategy to implementation life cycle and has a wide industry spread. She leads the retail segment in the region as well as focused on how data can shape strategy.

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About the event: Tickets: Sign up required. Anyone who is not on the list will not get in. The event is free of charge. Capacity: Space is limited. If you are signed up but unable to attend, please change your RSVP 2 days before the event. Food and drinks: Food and drinks are sponsored by Kyndryl. Questions: Please contact the meetup organizers.

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Code of Conduct

The NumFOCUS Code of Conduct applies to this event; please familiarize yourself with it before attending. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Code of Conduct, please contact the organizers.

Important: register on the event website for admission (due to room capacity and building security, it is REQUIRED to register on AICamp website for admission)

Description: Welcome to the monthly AI meetup in Paris. This time we are joining forces with our friend from Weaviate and Koyeb to bring the full power of LLMs in production to you.

Join us for our event on building with AI as we tackle how you can navigate scaling your AI-Native applications. This is an event series designed to guide AI practitioners, engineers, and business leaders through the seemingly complicated journey of scaling AI-Native solutions. Be prepared for a night of deep technical talks, food/drink, networking with speakers and fellow developers.

Agenda: - 6:00pm\~6:40pm: Checkin\, food and networking - 6:40pm\~6:45pm: Welcome\, Community update - 6:45pm\~8:15pm: Tech talks and Q&A - 8:15pm\~9:00pm: Open discussion\, Mixer and Closing.

Speakers/Topics: Tech Talk: What they don't tell you about using Vector Databases Speaker: Daniel Phiri (Weaviate) Abstract: Cool, I have a Vector database, now what? This talk answers this question, as get into implementation details that can help you scale your project and make the best out of the technology without burning a hole in your pocket.

Tech Talk: Simply (auto)-scaling high-performance LLMs with serverless deployments Speaker: Yann Léger (Koyeb) Abstract: Learn how to automatically scale LLMs in production, optimize your resource usage, and improve performance for your AI-driven applications.

Tech Talk: LLMOps Speaker: Dan Constantin (Chainlit) Abstract: coming soon

Stay tuned as we are updating speakers and schedules. If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: Submit Topics

Sponsors: We are actively seeking sponsors to support AI developers community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or cash sponsorship. Sponsors will not only speak at the meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 10,000+ AI developers in Paris or 400K+ worldwide.

AICamp Community on Slack/Discord - Event chat: chat and connect with speakers and attendees - Sharing blogs\, events\, job openings\, projects collaborations

The rapid rise of generative AI is changing how businesses operate, but with this change comes new challenges. How do you navigate the balance between innovation and risk, especially in a regulated industry? As organizations race to adopt AI, it’s crucial to ensure that these technologies are not only transformative but also responsible. What steps can you take to harness AI’s potential while maintaining control and transparency? And how can you build excitement and trust around AI within your organization, ensuring that everyone is ready to embrace this new era? Steve Holden is the Senior Vice President and Head of Single-Family Analytics at Fannie Mae, leading a team of data science professionals, supporting loan underwriting, pricing and acquisition, securitization, loss mitigation, and loan liquidation for the company’s multi-trillion-dollar Single-Family mortgage portfolio. He is also responsible for all Generative AI initiatives across the enterprise. His team provides real-time analytic solutions that guide thousands of daily business decisions necessary to manage this extensive mortgage portfolio. The team comprises experts in econometric models, machine learning, data engineering, data visualization, software engineering, and analytic infrastructure design. Holden previously served as Vice President of Credit Portfolio Management Analytics at Fannie Mae. Before joining Fannie Mae in 1999, he held several analytic leadership roles and worked on economic issues at the Economic Strategy Institute and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the episode Adel and Steve explore opportunities in generative AI, building a GenAI program, use-case prioritization, driving excitement and engagement for an AI-first culture, skills transformation, governance as a competitive advantage, challenges of scaling AI, future trends in AI, and much more.  Links Mentioned in the Show: Fannie MaeSteve’s recent DataCamp Webinar: Bringing Generative AI to the EnterpriseVideo: Andrej Karpathy - [1hr Talk] Intro to Large Language ModelsSkill Track - AI Business FundamentalsRelated Episode: Generative AI at EY with John Thompson, Head of AI at EYRewatch sessions from RADAR: AI Edition Join the DataFramed team! Data Evangelist Data & AI Video Creator New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile appEmpower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business

The Data Engineer's role amidst the rise of big data, cloud computing, and AI-driven analytics has shifted. This panel chat explores the ever-changing landscape of essential skills and the automation of outdated ones. With a myriad of architectural options available, we'll dissect how organizations navigate the complexities to tailor solutions to their specific needs. Let's unravel the intricacies of building scalable data systems, pinpointing common breakpoints and strategies for efficient scaling. Come along as we delve into in constructing the foundation of the data-driven future.