Past events

Preventing Biases and Discrimination in Artificial Intelligence

In recent years, media, researchers, and governments became increasingly aware of the fact that Artificial Intelligence can lead to discrimination (e.g. of minorities) or reinforce biases (e.g. based on gender). Come listen to our panel of experts to learn what could be done to prevent them, with a special focus on the Belgian context.

This event is organized by FARI – AI for the Common Good Institute (ULB-VUB, Brussels) for the weKONEKT week. It will be animated by Carl Mörch (FARI), Laurence Renault (FARI), and Andres Algaba (VUB). Our panel of experts.

Life-on-Chip Conference 2022

Si vous êtes curieux d’en savoir plus sur les dernières innovations, vous devez certainement assister à la 4e conférence Life-On-Chip – Initiating Convergence in Health Technologies’ organisée par Smart Hub Flemish Brabant et flanders.healthTech, BioWin, imec, Antleron, VIB et EIT Health.

Avec plus de 200 participants venus d’Europe et d’ailleurs, cette 4ème édition promet d’être très riche avec des intervenants de haut niveau qui partageront leur expertise en couvrant 4 sessions thématiques : l’efficacité accrue du système de soins de santé par l’introduction de nouvelles technologies, des solutions pour des traitements spécifiques aux patients, des diagnostics et des thérapeutiques numériques, et le déplacement des frontières de la connaissance à l’avant-garde de la médecine et des soins de santé.

Souveraineté et autonomie

Le cycle Homo Numericus organisé par l’Ambassade de France en Belgique et AI4Belgium sera clos par une discussion inédite entre Henri Verdier, Ambassadeur français pour le numérique, et Mathieu Michel, Secrétaire d’Etat à la digitalisation, qui aborderont ensemble les enjeux politiques de l’ère digitale. Alors que l’Union Européenne entre dans la « décennie numérique », autonomie stratégique et souveraineté sont les maîtres mots des nouvelles politiques nationales et européenne. La France et la Belgique s’organisent pour garantir la sécurité internationale du cyberespace pour chaque citoyen, contribuer à la gouvernance de l’internet, promouvoir les droits humains et les valeurs démocratiques, et encourager le développement des futurs champions européens du numérique. L’Ambassade de France en Belgique, qui accueille l’événement, deviendra le lieu privilégié de cet échange franco-belge autour des problématiques de citoyenneté numérique et de souveraineté digitale.

AI4Belgium Cyber Security Working Group Launch

The digital transformation is changing our society and our economy. The number of devices connected to the Internet has surpassed 20 billion and this growth is expected to continue; these devices generate ever more data. This creates an opportunity for large-scale data analysis using sophisticated methods including Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Deep latent variable models for generative modelling

Deep generative models of all kinds have recently demonstrated high-quality samples in a wide variety of data modalities such as images, speech, or text. In this tutorial, we will study the family of deep latent variable models from the ground up. First, we will work through a derivation of variational autoencoders using variational inference. We will then generalize to hierarchical extensions and finally further expand to denoising diffusion probabilistic models. The tutorial will include both mathematical derivations and code demonstrations.

Séance publique de la Classe Technologie et Société : Face aux défis de l’intelligence artificielle

Accueil par Didier Viviers, Secrétaire perpétuel de l’Académie

Faire face aux défis de l’IA
Introduction par Isabelle Ferreras, Directrice de la Classe

Deux regards sur la mobilisation de l’intelligence artificielle et le rôle de l’Académie dans le débat
Interventions de Benoît Macq et Carine Doutrelepont, membres de la Classe

La vie quotidienne des humains au temps des algorithmes
Lecture par Benoît Frydman, membre de la Classe

Proclamation du Prix Charles Lemaire

DigitalWallonia4.ai 2 years event

Une keynote inspirante, un focus sur TRAIL, le programme structurant de la recherche en IA en Wallonie, des témoignages en binôme d’entreprises lauréates Tremplin IA, une présentation de l’offre des acteurs de l’écosystème IA belge et européen détaillant les produits et services disponibles pour faciliter l’adoption de l’IA en Wallonie. La soirée se clôturera par un cocktail dinatoire et networking.

AI & DATA Governance

Designing Data Governance that delivers value is high on the agenda of organizations. 

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of Data Governance?

What is the Role of AI in Data Governance?

How to switch from a Data-Governance Model based upon loosely followed guidelines to one that makes the most of innovative digital and analytics capabilities?

AI4Belgium Infrastructure Working Group

The AI4Belgium Working Groups are focused on several strategic topics, it is now time we launch the AI Infrastructure Working Group.

Just like office productivity software needs a computer to run, AI projects require a quality infrastructure to run and to handle large amounts of data.

That infrastructure can be physical like a datacenter for instance or can be virtual and sitting in the cloud, and definitely does include areas of consideration for today and for tomorrow.

The intention of the AI4Belgium Infrastructure Working Group is clearly to expand the coalition and the community, to work on expanding our human capital and to amplify on networking, ultimately improving our nation-wide position on AI.

Seminar on “Recommender systems: technological and societal aspects”

We are delighted to announce the launch of the TRAIL doctoral seminars. These seminars are half-day events primarily targeting PhD students doing research in AI. They will take place every first Friday of the month, in a hybrid mode (both on-site and online). Each seminar consists of an introductory course, followed by short research presentations given by voluntary attendees. 

Personal Data Processing & Privacy

In the digital society, customers and organizations have a need for better personal data processing solutions.

According to GDPR Article 5 personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.

Is there a safe and ethical way to unlock the value of personal data?

AI4 Your business Conference

On September 16, AI4Growth will give you the necessary insights to these questions, so that you can convert abstract theory into a concrete business case. Innovative and tech-driven companies can achieve a competitive advantage by embracing emerging AI and ML technologies. To accelerate this economic potential, the dissemination of knowledge and the growth of a local network are of strategic importance. With this mission in mind, AI4Growth will host an international conference AI 4 Your Business on September 16 to bring together AI and ML experts. Through this annual summit, we hope to put Flanders on the world map in the field of AI. 

AI Innovation Strategy / Public Policy Making

Join us as we launch our CLAIRE office in Brussels and celebrate the achievements of the AI community in Belgium. The theme for the launch is ” AI Innovation Strategy / Public Policy Making “, and we have invited representatives and actors from Belgium and the neighboring countries Netherlands and France, to present the state of AI Innovation Strategy Plans, collaboration across borders, collaboration between academia and industry, and how the EU Innovation Policy (e.g. launch of the EU Regulatory framework on AI) can contribute to a common European Strategy.

AI strategy for Financial Institutions : potential directions and impact of the new EU draft regulation

We will explain the key principles of the proposed new EU regulation and analyse why and how it will influence the activity for financial companies, today and tomorrow, in light with the current developments in AI for Finance.

Webinar: National AI strategies in Europe

In this webinar attendees will:

• Gain information about emerging trends in AI policy across EU countries in the context of building ecosystems of excellence and trust in AI
• Discover stakeholders’ views on the role of national AI policies in the development and uptake of trustworthy AI as well as on the opportunities and benefits of enhancing collaboration
• Learn about the work of the European Commission and the OECD to monitor and analyse national AI policies

Climate Change and Machine Learning

There’s a lot of impactful work going on at the intersection of climate change and machine learning, so it’s due time to organize an evening dedicated to this topic.

We’re welcoming Climate Change AI for the first talk of the evening. CCAI is a global non-profit organization that published a seminal paper on ML & climate change in 2019.

During the second talk of the evening, Thomas Vrancken from ML6 will enlighten us all about offshore wind energy forecasting by a case they’ve been working on recently.

In the last talk of the evening, we are welcoming Barak Chizi, PhD, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at KBC. We’ll learn social responsibility at KBC, and how they use AI to understand the carbon footprint of financial assets.