Recently, I was a panelist at the Gen AI Awadh Summit hosted in the city of Lucknow. The TFUG (TensorFlow User Group) Lucknow organized the event in association with Innovation Hub UP, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University and some other valuable partners. It was a real summit – for the mind as well as the senses.

The innovative fervor was in the air since I entered the AKTU campus. Students mingled with professionals. Entrepreneurs presented their ideas and AI experts were ready with knowledge bombs to change the world. The future was being built.

The talks did not fail to impress – it was a masterclass for the present and near future of generative AI. Ankit Pal provided a strong conceptual base which was followed by Madhurendra Sachan’s intense session on security implications. As someone deeply passionate about ethical development of AI, this topic struck a chord.

The summit however, appealed to all sensibilities beyond just theory. I personally loved the hands on workshops like the one on vision crafting by Prashant Shukla using Gemini, and the one on fine tuning of powerful language model Gemma by Abhishek Sahu.

The organizers indeed, went overboard to make it a memorable event. We, the attendees were showered with special gifts – Pens, notepads, keychains and stickers from the TFUG Lucknow! Pizzas and chilled Pepsi drinks were served to hydrate and energize our intense brains for the entire day.

The entrepreneurship panel chaired by the AKTU’s incubation cell was a personal favorite. It was inspiring to see young entrepreneurs present some bold ideas leveraging AI. It was more inspiring to hear the panel assure them of support in terms of funding and mentoring.

As I met my friends, who came with me to this wonderful summit, one thing got very clear – we are in the epoch making times for artificial intelligence. The debates about ethics and quantum computing computing were healthy, but the underlying zeal was to be the change.

My take home? A wealth of knowledge about the latest AI tools and resources which could help me streamline my workflow and open new avenues for creativity. I have already started experimenting with tools like Midjourney, Gemini and DALL-E and the results have been amazing. But more importantly, the zeal to explore this domain further and push my own limits.

All this would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of all the volunteers and hosts for this event. Their passion reflected in every detail flawlessly executed. A big shout-out to Abhishek Sahu who led the team of volunteers for this summit exceptionally well.

As I reached home with a whirlwind of thoughts, one prevailed – we are fortunate to be in the times where the artificial and the human intelligence is getting seamlessly integrated. The Gen AI Awadh Summit turned out to be much more than an event – it was a teasing preview of the future and a clarion call to leverage the potential of AI with prudence, ethics and imagination.