Human Made, a leading enterprise WordPress agency, is organizing a followup event to the community’s first ever AI for WordPress virtual conference that it hosted in May 2023. The second edition is called “AI: The Next Chapter” and will take place online on September 14, 2023, at 10AM EST.
The first event had 13 speakers and drew more than 600 attendees. It focused on WordPress and AI tools that people are building with the emerging technology. (Videos of all the sessions are available on YouTube.) This next edition will explore some of the wider societal, ethical, and tech issues related to the subject.
The keynote and intro will feature Matt Mullenweg on “AI and the future of WordPress,” along with Human Made CEO Tom Willmot. Dr. Eleanor Drage, a senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge and co-host of The Good Robot podcast, will be speaking about AI and gender. Open source LLM researchers from Georgian will also join for a panel discussion on why they believe open source AI is the best way for companies to leverage this technology.
Registration is free and participants can sign up on the event’s website. A confirmation email is sent out to registrants and more information will follow via email.
Human Made has developed a keen interest in fostering exploratory dialogue through these events, as the company is working on AI products and custom implementations for clients. At the first event, the agency showcased some early work in the Altis Accelerate plugin and have been working with clients to determine how AI can augment existing marketing and editorial workflows.
“The progress and innovation we’re seeing in AI is so rapid at the moment that it kind of demands you stay close to it, keep following what’s happening, and keep learning,” Human Made Marketing Director Alex Aspinall said. “AI is one of our core areas of focus, across all parts of the business, so we’ll definitely be building, sharing, and hosting more in the space in the months to come. Doing all this in the open is really important to us, so the events are a great platform.”
During the first event, Aspinall reports that Human Made saw registrations and participation across a wide range of business verticals and role disciplines, with conversations continuing months after the first event.
“While there are a few businesses and individuals building things, experimenting, and commercializing their work in the area, the vast majority are still finding their way through, figuring out how best to implement AI to deliver tangible benefit to their companies, their clients, their teams, and their day-to-day lives,” Aspinall said.
“Despite the level of advancement we’ve already seen, we’re still right at the start of this thing, which is really exciting. There’s a lot to learn, and considerable edge available for those experimenting and putting things in place. Imagine what we’ll be talking about this time next year!”
We’ve just finished minor workshops about AI at the place I work at. This looks like an interesting follow-up.