Artificial Intelligence is evolving beyond static models into dynamic, adaptable systems capable of real-time decision-making and autonomous interactions with the physical world. NVIDIA&rsquo;s recent announcement of a collaboration with Alphabet and Google marks a pivotal moment in the development of agentic AI and physical AI&mdash;systems designed to understand, learn, and act with minimal human intervention.

With advancements in large-scale reinforcement learning, real-world robotics applications, and advanced simulation environments, the collaboration is set to redefine how AI interacts with both digital and physical domains.

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/ckeditor/2025/03/21/655f4e7f2f083eb5c892dfd4_64b5521d79958afa88683f10_5ebbf58fa8ab23c7f82eb504_mitchell-luo-jz4ca36oj_m-unsplash-min.jpeg" style="height:501px; width:800px" />

<h3>The Rise of Agentic AI</h3>

Agentic AI represents a paradigm shift in artificial intelligence. Unlike traditional models that rely on static training data, agentic AI systems can self-improve, adapt to new challenges, and engage in goal-directed behaviour. NVIDIA&rsquo;s investment in AI accelerators and powerful compute infrastructure supports the development of AI agents capable of executing complex tasks with increased autonomy.

<h3>Physical AI and Robotics</h3>

Beyond digital intelligence, AI&rsquo;s evolution into physical systems&mdash;from industrial automation to autonomous robotics&mdash;signals a major breakthrough. The ability of AI to not only process information but also interact with the real world will have widespread applications in fields such as manufacturing, logistics, and autonomous vehicles. With Google&rsquo;s AI research contributing to the development of more efficient and generalisable models, this collaboration has the potential to significantly advance AI-powered robotics.

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/ckeditor/2025/03/21/electrical-technician-looking-focused-while-working-switchboard-with-fuses-min.jpg" style="height:533px; width:800px" />

<h3>Advancing AI Infrastructure with NVIDIA and Google Cloud</h3>

The latest advancements in AI infrastructure, such as NVIDIA&rsquo;s Blackwell GPUs and Google Cloud&rsquo;s AI Hypercomputer, are set to revolutionise the scalability and efficiency of AI-driven solutions. The introduction of NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 and RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell marks a significant leap in AI performance, enabling faster model training and more efficient inference for large-scale applications. Google Cloud&rsquo;s integration of these GPUs within its AI Hypercomputer ecosystem enhances accessibility for businesses, allowing them to leverage unprecedented computational power for AI research, predictive analytics, and automation.

Google Cloud&rsquo;s commitment to providing cutting-edge AI infrastructure ensures that businesses can access high-performance computing resources optimised for large-scale model training and AI deployment. The collaboration with NVIDIA also enables the optimisation of open-source frameworks such as JAX and MaxText, ensuring that AI developers can train and scale models efficiently. With the introduction of NVIDIA&rsquo;s GB300 NVL72 delivering 1.5x more AI performance than its predecessor and increasing revenue potential for AI-driven industries, the adoption of these advanced systems will shape the future of AI innovation.

<h3>Industry-Specific Benefits</h3>

<ul>
	<li>
	Healthcare: AI-driven drug discovery, as pioneered by Isomorphic Labs, enhances pharmaceutical research, accelerating the development of new treatments and improving patient outcomes. Advanced AI infrastructure ensures high-performance computing for complex biological simulations.
	</li>
	<li>
	Manufacturing: AI-powered robotics, including Intrinsic&rsquo;s adaptive AI for industrial automation, streamline production lines, reduce human intervention, and improve efficiency. NVIDIA&rsquo;s Isaac Manipulator foundation models enable flexible robotic grasping for various manufacturing processes.
	</li>
	<li>
	Energy &amp; Sustainability: AI-driven grid optimisation, as seen in the Tapestry project, helps enhance grid stability, integrate renewable energy sources, and plan infrastructure for increasing power demands.
	</li>
	<li>
	Retail &amp; Live Broadcast: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU improves AI-driven visual computing for content generation, live video processing, and immersive retail experiences.
	</li>
</ul>

<h3>How VECTOR Labs can help</h3>

As AI progresses towards greater autonomy, businesses must be prepared to integrate adaptive AI models that optimise workflows, enhance decision-making, and deliver measurable impact with higher computational power. At VECTOR Labs, we specialise in building custom AI solutions that help organisations harness the full potential of AI technology.

As these technologies evolve, VECTOR Labs remains committed to designing AI systems that are not only intelligent but also deeply integrated with business objectives. Our expertise in AI model development, infrastructure optimisation, and seamless AI integration ensures that businesses can take full advantage of breakthroughs in AI technology.

<h3>Looking Ahead</h3>

This NVIDIA-Google collaboration reinforces the importance of custom AI engineering so our team will continue to keep track of the latest developments and tendencies

Are you ready to explore how custom AI can enhance your business? <a href="https://vector-labs.ai/#contact-us">Get in touch with VECTOR Labs</a> to discuss how our expertise can help you navigate the future of AI, leveraging the latest advancements in AI infrastructure, such as NVIDIA&rsquo;s Blackwell GPUs and Google Cloud&rsquo;s AI Hypercomputer, to build scalable and high-performance solutions.

<a href="https://vector-labs.ai/#contact-us">Get in touch with us</a>

NVIDIA’s recent announcement of a collaboration with Alphabet and Google

NVIDIA’s collaboration with Alphabet and Google

NVIDIA’s recent announcement of a collaboration with Alphabet and Google marks a pivotal moment in the development of agentic AI and physical AI

Unprecedented Power and Speed: Inside the new initiative of NVIDIA, Alphabet and Google

AI-powered solutions are reshaping healthcare by turning complex challenges into opportunities for better patient care and improved system efficiency. At our company, we are at the forefront of this transformation, leveraging advanced technologies to drive impactful change. Here are some real-world examples illustrating how AI is making a difference across the industry.

<h2>AI-Driven Early Detection: Pioneering Preventive Medicine</h2>

One of the biggest hurdles in modern healthcare is shifting from reactive to preventive care. To address this, healthtech innovators are developing predictive models that assess risk factors for conditions like liver steatosis. These technologies enable:

<ul>
	<li>
	Physicians to make data-backed probabilistic decisions.
	</li>
	<li>
	Patients to receive early diagnoses and adopt lifestyle modifications.
	</li>
	<li>
	Healthcare insurers to manage costs effectively by detecting conditions early, preventing progression to more severe diseases such as steatohepatitis.
	</li>
</ul>

By identifying illnesses in their nascent stages, this approach not only reduces financial strain on healthcare systems but also significantly improves patient outcomes.

<a href="https://vector-labs.ai/case-studies/study/Application-of-AI-in-Medicine-lecture">Check out how the benefit can benefit from AI here</a>

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/ckeditor/2025/03/11/casestudy-website-headers-vectorlabs.jpg" />

<h2>AI Applications Across Key Healthcare Sectors</h2>

<h3>Enhancing Patient Care with Real-Time Predictive Models</h3>

Remote health monitoring solutions, powered by AI, enable the early detection of cardiac issues through personal ECG analysis. These tools assist doctors in diagnosing heart conditions with greater precision, allowing for timely intervention and reducing risks associated with delayed care.

See our <a href="https://vector-labs.ai/case-studies/study/AI-model-certification-for-cardiovascular-medicine">case study for an AI model and certification for cardiovascular medicine</a>, we built for a health tech startup

<h3>Revolutionizing Medical Imaging for Clinics</h3>

Computer Vision technology is revolutionizing radiology by improving the speed and accuracy of CT and PET scan interpretations. AI-powered imaging tools automate time-consuming tasks, assisting radiologists in detecting anomalies more efficiently and enhancing diagnostic accuracy.

<h3>Optimizing Hospital Resource Management</h3>

Predictive analytics are helping hospitals manage resources more effectively. AI-driven bed occupancy models ensure efficient patient flow, reducing bottlenecks and optimizing care delivery while maximizing resource utilization.

<h3>Accelerating Drug Development for Pharma</h3>

Pharmaceutical companies leverage AI-powered analytics to refine clinical trial processes and navigate regulatory pathways. These insights expedite drug development, ultimately enabling faster market entry for innovative treatments and increasing accessibility to life-saving medications.

<h2>AI&rsquo;s Impact Across the Healthcare Ecosystem</h2>

From pharmaceutical giants to emerging healthtech startups and hospital networks, AI-driven innovations offer substantial benefits:

<ul>
	<li>
	For Healthcare Institutions: Improved cost efficiency, streamlined operations, and data-driven decision-making.
	</li>
	<li>
	For Clinicians: Advanced tools that simplify diagnostics and treatment planning.
	</li>
	<li>
	For Patients: Earlier diagnoses, personalized care plans, and better health outcomes.
	</li>
</ul>

<h2>The Future of AI in Healthcare</h2>

The integration of AI and human expertise is shaping a more intelligent, proactive healthcare model. By addressing key industry challenges and developing scalable solutions, AI is revolutionizing medical practices worldwide.

AI is more than just an auxiliary tool&mdash;it is a transformative force that empowers healthcare professionals, optimizes resources, and ultimately enhances patient care. As the technology continues to evolve, its role in building a more efficient, responsive, and patient-centric healthcare system will only expand.

<a href="https://vector-labs.ai/case-studies/study/Application-of-AI-in-Medicine-lecture#contact-us">Contact us to discuss your case and AI potential</a>

&nbsp;

AI-powered solutions are reshaping healthcare by turning complex challenges into opportunities for better patient care and improved system efficiency. At our company, we are at the forefront of this transformation, leveraging advanced technologies to drive impactful change. Here are some real-world examples illustrating how AI is making a difference across the industry.

Transforming Healthcare with AI

Growing needs for qualified personnel, slow adoption of modern technologies and difficult transition from reactive to preventive medicine and challenging drug discovery in pharma are just a few of the existing healthcare use cases, solvable with AI.

AI is transforming healthcare more than ever. Here is how

We&rsquo;re excited to share the news that Childish.AI has undergone a significant transformation and is now named VECTOR Labs. This rebranding reflects our commitment to providing even greater value and innovation in the field of Artificial Intelligence for our trusted partners and clients. We continue to advise, design, and deliver to our customers throughout their AI journey and help them turn AI into value.

&nbsp;

<h2>Why VECTOR Labs?</h2>

Our journey began in 2018 as a software development company focused on Python solutions. Over the years, we have significantly strengthened our AI capabilities, positioning ourselves as one of south-east Europe&rsquo;s leading AI solution partners and providers.

Our new name reflects our commitment to being a trusted and well-known technology partner, with the &ldquo;vector&rdquo; symbolizing both direction and magnitude in the value we create.

As we continue to evolve, we will stay true to our mission of creating substantial value through our expanding AI expertise. We take immense pride in our team and the diverse skills and capabilities we bring to the table.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>Introducing Our Research and Innovation Lab</h2>

In line with our commitment to pushing the boundaries of value creation through technology, we are excited to announce the establishment of our internal Research and Innovation Lab. This initiative encourages our team members to collaborate, explore new ideas and conduct research aimed at driving innovation.

&nbsp;

<h2>We Keep Our Social Cause</h2>

Changing our name will not change our commitment to <a href="https://vector-labs.ai/about-us" target="_blank">our social cause</a>. The <a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/" target="_blank">Give a Book/Podarete Kniga</a> Foundation will remain a rightful shareholder and will continue to grow with us.

We’re excited to share the news that Childish.AI has undergone a significant transformation and is now named VECTOR Labs. This rebranding reflects our commitment to providing even greater value and innovation in the field of Artificial Intelligence for our trusted partners and clients.

CHILDISH.AI becomes VECTOR Labs

We’re excited to share the news that Childish.AI has undergone a significant transformation and is now named VECTOR Labs. This rebranding reflects our commitment to providing even greater value and innovation in the field of Artificial Intelligence for our trusted partners and clients. We continue to advise, design, and deliver to our customers throughout their AI journey and help them turn AI into value.

We&#39;re excited to announce that our Chief Scientific Officer, Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, will be speaking at the upcoming <a href="https://lu.ma/re01bor0" target="_blank">AI Adoption</a> event organized by <a href="https://www.11.vc/" target="_blank">Eleven Ventures</a>. This is the last AI Adoption event before the official summer kickoff, happening on June 27th!&nbsp;

Event Details:

<ul>
	<li>Date: June 27th</li>
	<li>Time: 18:30 - 20:00</li>
	<li>Location: Polygraphia Office Center, Sofia</li>
</ul>

<h2>About the Event</h2>

AI Adoption Chapter 4: Data Analysis is part of a series designed to share AI knowledge and experience with founders, business leaders, and AI enthusiasts. This session will focus on data analysis, providing valuable insights on becoming more data-driven and understanding the impact of AI on business processes.

<h3>Highlights</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Expert Insights: Learn from industry professionals about the practical application of AI in data analysis, covering market trends, customer experience improvements, and internal process optimization.</li>
	<li>Hands-On Learning: Acquire practical strategies and knowledge to implement in your own business operations.</li>
	<li>Networking Opportunities: Connect with entrepreneurs, AI enthusiasts, and industry experts, and engage with our team and partners.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Featured Speaker</h2>

Georgi Nalbantov is one of the renowned data scientists and AI consultants in the region with over 20 years of experience in data science, with 80+ publications in renowned international journals on use cases of predictive analytics, NLP, computer vision and other areas of AI. He has research experience in multiple international universities, including Stanford and has co-owned a patent in DNA analysis. His consulting experience is focused in finance, banking and healthcare. For the last 8 years, he has been a lecturer for the Statistical Learning course at Sofia University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. 
 
During the event, he will share insights from an end-to-end healthcare project focused on developing AI models that learn from hospital data silos in a privacy-preserving manner.

<h3>Agenda Summary</h3>

<ul>
	<li>18:30 - 19:30: Panel discussion and use case presentations</li>
	<li>19:30 - 20:00: Q&amp;A session</li>
	<li>Networking and Drinks</li>
</ul>

Don&#39;t miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of AI and data analysis, and to connect with leaders in the field. You can register for the event via <a href="https://lu.ma/re01bor0">the link here</a>.

Childish.AI's Chief Scientific Officer, Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, will be speaking at the upcoming AI Adoption event organized by Eleven Ventures.

Meet Our Chief Scientific Officer at the AI Adoption Series

At the <a data-test-app-aware-link="" href="https://forbesbulgaria.com/events/forbes-healthcare-summit/">Forbes Bulgaria</a><a href="https://forbesbulgaria.com/events/forbes-healthcare-summit/"> Healthcare Summit 2024</a>, we delved into the challenges of Bulgarian healthcare, global issues, and the potential of new technologies. Our colleague and managing partner, Nick Nickolovski, discussed the impact and potential of AI in healthcare, addressing data, regulatory, and ethical aspects of AI-driven solutions. 
&nbsp;

AI is revolutionizing disease prevention and early detection. Despite GDPR challenges for AI training on existing data, innovative solutions enable us to harness AI without breaching regulations.

The next few years will witness the rapid adoption of AI in the global healthcare industry.

The Forbes Healthcare Summit brings together leaders in the healthcare sector who are redefining the future of healthcare. They are leveraging new opportunities to transform health care and improve our lives. We were delighted to be part of this event! 
<a href="https://forbesbulgaria.com/2024/06/05/zdraveopazvane-ot-badestheto-snimki/">See the event in photos here.</a>

Want to learn more about how we apply AI for early detection and prevention in healthcare? Read our case study on <a data-test-app-aware-link="" href="https://childish.ai/case-studies/study/AI-model-certification-for-cardiovascular-medicine" target="_self">ECG signal analysis for heart failure prediction for a health tech company</a>.

One disruptive innovation is federated learning when discussing data privacy and regulations. This distributed machine-learning approach enables collaboration and knowledge sharing while safeguarding sensitive patient data. <a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/federated-learning-in-healthcare">In our article here</a>, we can discover more about federated learning and its applications in healthcare projects.

At the Forbes Bulgaria Healthcare Summit 2024, we delved into the challenges of Bulgarian healthcare, global issues, and the potential of new technologies. Our colleague and managing partner, Nick Nickolovski, discussed the impact and potential of AI in healthcare, addressing data, regulatory, and ethical aspects of AI-driven solutions. Read the recap in the article.

VectorLabs.AI at Forbes Healthcare Summit 2024

At the Forbes Bulgaria Healthcare Summit 2024, we delved into the challenges of Bulgarian healthcare, global issues, and the potential of new technologies. Our colleague, Nick Nickolovski, discussed the impact and potential of AI in healthcare, addressing data, regulatory, and ethical aspects of AI-driven solutions. Read the recap in the article.

Highlights from Forbes Healthcare Summit 2024

Welcome to the latest edition of the Data &amp; AI newsletter, where we bring you the latest developments and news from the world of artificial intelligence and data science.

Some of this month&rsquo;s pickings include - OpenAI introduces Sora, a game-changing GenAI video model, while UC Berkeley opens the doors to a new era with the Large World Model (LWM). INSAIT launches Bulgaria&#39;s first open AI model for the Bulgarian language - BgGPT.&nbsp;

Plus, our managing partner Nick Nickolovski gave an insightful talk on &#39;AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey&#39; at the SME Banking Club&rsquo;s webinar.

Stay updated on AI&#39;s forefront with us. Explore further!&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://openai.com/sora" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">OpenAI announced Sora, a new GenAI video model for world simulation</a>

Sora&#39;s demos are impressive. It&#39;s a generative AI text-to-video model developed by OpenAI researchers to simulate the physical world in motion. However, OpenAI is a commercial operation, not entirely open about its research. Check out Sora&#39;s blog post and technical report titled &quot;<a href="https://openai.com/research/video-generation-models-as-world-simulators" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Video Generation Models as World Simulators</a>&quot; for more information.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://largeworldmodel.github.io/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">UC Berkeley open sources new Large World Model (LWM)</a>

Learning from millions of tokens of video and language sequences poses significant challenges due to the limitations of memory, computational complexity, and the scarcity of datasets. To overcome these challenges, a team of distinguished researchers at UC Berkeley has recently made LWM (a video model trained on multimodal sequences with millions of tokens) open-source. By releasing this model to the public, the researchers have opened up the possibility of developing even more sophisticated video models that can deeply comprehend human knowledge and the complex multimodal world. You can find the paper, model code, and demos at World Model on Million-Length Video and Language with RingAttention.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://bggpt.ai/blog/2024-02-18-launching-the-first-free-and-open-bulgarian-llm/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Launching the first free and open Bulgarian LLM</a>

INSAIT launched BgGPT-7B-Instruct-v0.1, the first free and open Bulgarian Large Language Model in the BgGPT series. BgGPT-7B-Instruct-v0.1 is now available for <a href="https://huggingface.co/INSAIT-Institute" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">download at HuggingFace</a> with the permissive and commercial-friendly Apache 2.0 licence. The model, which builds on Mistral-7B, already outperforms similarly sized models such as LLaMA2-7b and Mistral-7B on all Bulgarian language tasks. On many of these tasks, It also outperforms much larger models such as Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1 (about 6.5 times larger), which has been shown to have similar capabilities as GPT-3.5.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-15/apple-s-ai-plans-github-copilot-rival-for-developers-tool-for-testing-apps" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Apple Readies AI Tool to Rival Microsoft&rsquo;s GitHub Copilot</a>

Apple, racing to add more artificial intelligence capabilities, is nearing the completion of a critical new software tool for app developers that would step up competition with Microsoft. Read more on<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-15/apple-s-ai-plans-github-copilot-rival-for-developers-tool-for-testing-apps" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> Bloomberg&rsquo;s material</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/14/nvidia-passes-alphabet-market-cap-now-third-most-valuable-us-firm.html" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Nvidia passes Alphabet in market cap and is now the third most valuable U.S. company</a>

&ldquo;Nvidia shares are up over 221% over the past 12 months on robust demand for its AI server chips that can cost more than $20,000 each. Companies like Google and Amazon need thousands of them for their cloud services. Before the recent AI boom, Nvidia was best known for consumer graphics processors it sold to PC makers to build gaming computers, a less lucrative market.&rdquo;

 
&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

🔍 <a href="https://therecursive.com/hungarian-colossyan-raises-22-m-series-a-to-enhance-its-presence-on-the-ai-driven-video-production-market/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Colossyan: Outstanding $22M investment boosts AI-driven video production</a>

Colossyan, a Hungarian-founded and UK-based startup focusing on AI-driven video production, has recently closed its Series A funding, raising an impressive $22 million round &ndash; an outstanding amount for the region. This round, led by the UK-based Lakestar, along with continued support from existing investors such as LAUNCHub Ventures, Day One, Emerge, Oktagon, and various angel investors, marks an important step in the company&rsquo;s development. Read more at <a href="https://therecursive.com/hungarian-colossyan-raises-22-m-series-a-to-enhance-its-presence-on-the-ai-driven-video-production-market/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">TheRecursive&rsquo;s article</a>.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

 
&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/webinar-recap-ai-driven-nextbestaction-banking" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Webinar: AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey</a>

Recording available&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Our managing partner, Nick Nickolovski, was a featured speaker at the SME Banking Club&#39;s webinar on February 27th. Nick led a captivating discussion on the evolving landscape of AI-driven decision-making in banking, titled &quot;AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey.&quot; In this webinar, he delved into the practical implications of Artificial Intelligence on personalised interactions within the financial industry. 
 
&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIIOiTKwRdI&amp;list=PL3vkEKxWd-ut4FJbuFzm_1JrLhdsFec3-" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Online Conference: AI in production</a>

Recordings available

 
The MLOps community organised an online conference where practitioners discuss topics such as cost optimisation, latency requirements, trust in output, and debugging techniques. Dive deep into discussions on graphs and language, fine-tuning Llamas, reliable AI, the current state of production ML in 2024, and more. Hear directly from experts in the field on how they navigate these challenges.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 <a href="https://insait.ai/explorer/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">INSAIT Launchеs AI Excellence Fеllowship Program to Support Talеntеd Bulgarian High Schoolеrs</a>

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology &ndash; INSAIT, part of Sofia University &ldquo;St. Kliment Ohridski&rdquo; announced the launch of <a href="https://insait.ai/explorer/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">EXPLORER</a>, an Excellence Program in Technology and Research aimed at talented high school students, specialising in the area of computer science and AI.

 
&nbsp;

Thanks for reading our monthly digest! Have you enjoyed this newsletter?

Share it with friends and colleagues who might benefit from it.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Data & AI newsletter, where we bring you the latest developments and news from the world of artificial intelligence and data science.

Some of this month’s pickings include - OpenAI introduces Sora, a game-changing GenAI video model, while UC Berkeley opens the doors to a new era with the Large World Model (LWM). INSAIT launches Bulgaria's first open AI model for the Bulgarian language - BgGPT.

Data & AI newsletter - Q1 2024 edition

We&#39;re thrilled to announce that our managing partner, Nick Nickolovski, will be a featured speaker at the upcoming <a href="https://smebanking.club/">SME Banking Club</a>&#39;s webinar on February 27th.

Nick will lead a captivating discussion on the evolving landscape of AI-driven decision-making in banking, titled &quot;AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey.&quot; In this webinar, he will delve into the practical implications of Artificial Intelligence on personalized interactions within the financial industry.

According to Accenture&#39;s research report &ldquo;<a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/banking/top-10-trends-banking-2024" target="_blank">Top 10 banking trends for 2024</a>&rdquo; the rise of Generative AI is expected to bring substantial benefits to banks, including projected productivity gains of 20-30% and a 6% increase in revenue. To capitalise on these advantages, banks are urged to prioritise meaningful customer interactions through a combination of both generative and traditional AI, particularly in personalised pricing.

Explore the impact of AI on decision-making in banking further through the webinar, where our expert Nick Nickolovski delves into practical implications, strategies, enhanced customer experiences, and innovation for customer loyalty.

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>Who Should Attend?</h3>

This webinar is tailored for professionals in the banking and financial sector seeking valuable insights into the transformative potential of AI.

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>How to Register</h3>

Don&#39;t miss out on this enlightening webinar! Mark your calendars for February 27th at 3 pm CET and secure your spot by<a href="https://smebanking.club/february-27-ai-driven-next-best-action-in-the-customer-journey/"> registering here</a>.

Stay ahead of the curve and gain invaluable insights into the future of banking with our expert-led webinar. We look forward to seeing you there! 
&nbsp;

We're thrilled to share that our managing partner, Nick Nickolovski, will be a featured speaker at the upcoming webinar on AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey on Feb 27!

Upcoming webinar: AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey

Data science in healthcare has emerged as a pioneering force, fundamentally altering the way the industry operates. It's no longer just about diagnosing and treating patients; it's about predicting, preventing, and providing proactive and personalised care.

Data Science in Healthcare: Applications and Case Studies | VectorLabs.AI Blog

Data Science in Healthcare: Applications, Innovations, and Case Studies

As we transition into 2024, it&#39;s evident that the world of artificial intelligence witnessed groundbreaking advancements in the previous year. Let&#39;s take a moment to reflect on some of the standout achievements that shaped the landscape of AI in 2023.

&nbsp;

<h2>OpenAI Unveiled GPT-4</h2>

OpenAI announced the arrival of GPT-4, the successor to the widely popular GPT-3. This powerful language model is geared towards producing human-like text, language translation, summarization, and creative writing, further advancing AI chatbot capabilities.

&nbsp;

<h2>Google&#39;s Multimodal Gemini</h2>

Google launched Gemini, a multimodal AI that seamlessly understands and combines different types of information, including text, code, audio, image, and video. This development showcases Google&#39;s commitment to creating versatile and adaptable AI systems.

&nbsp;

<h2>Bloomberg&#39;s Financial Language Model - BloombergGPT</h2>

Bloomberg introduced BloombergGPT, a large language model tailored for the financial sector. Trained on massive amounts of financial data, BloombergGPT is set to revolutionize natural language processing activities in finance. 
 
&nbsp;

<h2>Microsoft&#39;s AI-Powered Bing</h2>

Microsoft revealed a new AI-powered version of Bing, utilizing GPT technology to understand questions and generate natural language answers. The integration of advanced language models enhances user interactions with the search engine.

&nbsp;

<h2>Meta&#39;s Llama 2</h2>

In collaboration with Microsoft, Meta introduced Llama-2, the next generation of generative text models optimized for assistant-like chat use cases and various natural language generation tasks.

&nbsp;

<h2>Amazon&#39;s Trainium2 Cloud AI Chips</h2>

Amazon Web Services unveiled Trainium2, the second generation of chips designed for training AI systems. The improved speed and energy efficiency mark a significant stride in the evolution of cloud AI infrastructure.

&nbsp;

<h2>IBM&#39;s Watsonx Platform and AI Alliance with Meta</h2>

IBM launched the watsonx platform, featuring products for foundation models, data storage, and governance, aimed at accelerating and scaling AI workflows. Additionally, a new alliance with Meta was formed, advocating for an open-science approach to AI development.

&nbsp;

<h2>EU AI Act: Pioneering AI Regulation</h2>

In a historic move, the European Union passed the EU AI Act, marking the world&#39;s first dedicated law on artificial intelligence. This groundbreaking legislation establishes a robust regulatory framework ensuring safety, legality, trustworthiness, and the protection of fundamental rights within AI systems.

&nbsp;

<h2>AlphaFold 3: Revolutionizing Protein Folding</h2>

Since its release in 2020, AlphaFold has revolutionized how proteins and their interactions are understood. Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs have been working together to build the foundations of a more powerful AI model that expands coverage beyond just proteins to the full range of biologically-relevant molecules. DeepMind made waves in the scientific community with the release of AlphaFold 3, a powerful AI system capable of predicting protein structures with remarkable accuracy. This breakthrough has profound implications for drug discovery and our understanding of biological processes.

<h2>Microsoft&#39;s Maia AI Chip</h2>

Microsoft announced the Maia AI chip, a powerful processor manufactured on a 5-nanometer TSMC process. Specifically designed for the Azure hardware stack, it promises to fuel some of the largest internal AI workloads running on Microsoft Azure.

&nbsp;

<h2>LMQL: Revolutionizing Language Model Interaction</h2>

The release of LMQL, a novel open-source programming language and platform for language model interaction, adds a new dimension to the capabilities of language models like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and future models. Its declarative, SQL-like language simplifies multi-part prompting flows and supports high-level, logical constraints.

 
&nbsp;

As we venture into 2024, these milestones set the stage for even more profound innovations in the world of AI. We at CHILDISH.AI are excited to contribute to this evolving narrative, continuing to shape the future through data science and AI.&nbsp;

Let's take a moment to reflect on some of the standout achievements that shaped the landscape of AI in 2023.

AI in 2023 | VectorLabs.AI Blog

As we transition into 2024, it's evident that the world of artificial intelligence witnessed groundbreaking advancements in the previous year. Let's take a moment to reflect on some of the standout achievements that shaped the landscape of AI in 2023.

AI in 2023: A year of developments

As the festive season approaches, we're thrilled to reveal the latest batch of AI and Data news.

Data & AI Newsletter - Winter edition 2023 | VectorLabs.AI Blgo

In this newsletter’s edition we compiled a wealth of the most recent news, including the EU's groundbreaking AI Act, Google's latest language model, Gemini, and Amazon Web Services's generous support for INSAIT.

Data & AI Newsletter - Winter edition 2023

Concluding a fantastic 3-day AI bootcamp held at our office in CampusX, where learning, collaboration, and AI took centre stage!

On November 11 and 12, a group of talented bootcamp participants delved into the vibrant landscape of artificial intelligence, immersing themselves in knowledge and gaining hands-on experience in creating real-world models. The culmination of this experience occurred on November 19 when our participants took center stage to showcase their work. The session transformed into a lively forum for discussions and engaging Q&amp;A, highlighting the passion and dedication each participant brought to the table.

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/ckeditor/2023/11/20/sm-ai-bootcamp-banner-1.jpg" style="height:450px; width:800px" />

A resounding applause is due to every participant for their commitment to the learning journey! 👏 We extend our deepest appreciation to our outstanding lecturers, our Head of Data Science - Georgi Nalbantov and Chief Data Scientist - Svetoslav Ivanov, whose expertise and guidance paved the path to success.

In the spirit of collaboration, we were honoured to host a guest lecture by our partner IBM Bulgaria, enriching our understanding of the latest industry insights, and technological advancements, and shedding light on AI governance.

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/ckeditor/2023/11/20/ibm-ai-bootcamp-banner.jpg" style="height:338px; width:600px" />

Thank you to our IBM guest lecturer for sharing invaluable perspectives and contributing to the breadth of knowledge explored during the bootcamp.

To add a delightful touch to the conclusion, we marked the occasion with cupcakes, savouring the sweetness of success and the camaraderie and connections forged during this transformative learning experience. 🧁 As we bid farewell to this chapter, the quest for knowledge persists. 
&nbsp;

Dive deeper into the insights shared on our <a href="https://childish.ai/news">blog </a>and stay informed with our <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7044295791124832256" target="_blank">data and AI newsletter</a>. 📰 Keep an eye on upcoming learning opportunities as we actively engage in shaping the endless potentials of AI together!

&nbsp;

On November 11, 12 and 19, a group of talented participants took part in the hands-on AI Bootcamp, organized by VectorLabs.AI.

AI Bootcamp by VectorLabs.AI - The Highlights

Concluding a fantastic 3-day AI bootcamp held at our office in CampusX, where learning, collaboration, and AI took centre stage!

AI Bootcamp Highlights

Welcome to the VectorLabs.AI AI Bootcamp, a hands-on journey designed to bridge the gap between theory and real-world practice in the dynamic fields of Machine Learning and AI. Throughout two intensive weekends, you&#39;ll delve deep into AI, exploring its various applications.

Our aim is to provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in this constantly evolving industry. We hope that you not only gain new insights but also make lasting connections, find mentors, and envision a brighter future for your career -&nbsp; the brightest minds among you may find a path in our data science team at VectorLabs.AI.

&nbsp;

<h2>Who is this bootcamp for?</h2>

This bootcamp is designed for recent university graduates and young professionals who are eager to establish themselves in the field of data science.&nbsp;

<h2>&nbsp;</h2>

<h2>When and Where?</h2>

<h3>Agenda:</h3>

Training Sessions: Introduction to ML&nbsp;

November 11-12, 2023, at CampusX, VectorLabs.AI Office, Sofia

&nbsp;

Participants&#39; Presentations and Feedback Sessions

November 19, 2023, at CampusX, VectorLabs.AI Office, Sofia

&nbsp;

<h2>Is this bootcamp free?</h2>

Yes, it&#39;s absolutely free for those who are selected to participate. Please note that we require all participants to bring their own laptops for the duration of the bootcamp.

&nbsp;

<h2>Application Process</h2>

Application Period: September 15 - October 21

Apply by sending your CV and why you want to join this bootcamp at <a href="http://childish.ai/careers/position/ai-bootcamp-apply-now">vector-labs.ai/careers/position/ai-bootcamp-apply-now</a>.&nbsp; Selected candidates will be contacted for interviews.

&nbsp;

Candidate Announcement: October 23

We&#39;ll carefully review all candidates and select up to 20 who will join the bootcamp. We appreciate everyone who applied and will notify all applicants of our final decision via email on October 23.

&nbsp;

<h2>The benefits of joining the bootcamp</h2>

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Gain practical skills and experience</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Network and connect with industry professionals and fellow participants</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Receive personalized feedback and guidance from experienced mentors</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Opportunity to work on real-world projects and build your portfolio</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Access to exclusive opportunity to start a career in the data science team of VectorLabs.AI</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<h2>The lecturers&#39; team</h2>

<h3> 
Main lecturers</h3>

Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, Head of Data Science at VectorLabs.AI, is one of the most renowned data scientists and AI consultants in the CEE region with over 20 years of experience in data science and 80+ publications in renowned international journals on use cases of predictive analytics, NLP, computer vision and other areas of AI. He has research experience at multiple international universities, including Stanford, and is the co-owner of a patent in DNA analysis. His consulting experience is focused on finance, banking and healthcare. For the last eight years, he has been a lecturer for the Statistical Learning course at Sofia University, in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.

Svetoslav Ivanov, Chief Data Scientist at VectorLabs.AI, has 10+ years of experience in data analytics and machine learning. Starting his career at Deloitte, his experience has been focused on AI consulting. His industry focus is banking, insurance and fintech specialising in NLP, predictive and mathematical modelling, using a variety of tools and statistical/programming languages. 
&nbsp;

<h3>Guest lecturers&nbsp;</h3>

The bootcamp will feature experienced practitioners who will share knowledge and best practices with the participants. More information will be announced soon!&nbsp;

<h2>&nbsp;</h2>

<h2>About us</h2>

VectorLabs.AI is an AI consulting firm that brings together a team of experts with technical and scientific backgrounds and deep industry expertise in healthcare, banking, insurance and fintech. Our goal is to help organisations utilise AI to accelerate their growth and provide them with a competitive advantage. Through the power of data science and AI, we deliver robust custom software solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of the banking industry.

With a proven track record of successful projects, our experienced team empowers both enterprise and start-up clients to drive innovation, optimise operations, and enhance customer experiences. From advanced analytics, through computer vision, NLP and LLMs to AI-driven automation, we leverage cutting-edge technologies to unlock new opportunities and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. 
&nbsp;

We look forward to receiving your applications! Don&#39;t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about the application process or the bootcamp itself. We wish you the best of luck and hope to see you at the bootcamp soon!

Our aim is to provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in this constantly evolving industry.

Announcing the AI bootcamp by VectorLabs.AI

Welcome to the VectorLabs.AI AI Bootcamp, a hands-on journey designed to bridge the gap between theory and real-world practice in the dynamic fields of Machine Learning and AI. Throughout two intensive weekends, you'll delve deep into AI, exploring its various applications with a special focus on the exciting landscape of healthcare.

Our aim is to provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in this constantly evolving industry. We hope that you not only gain new insights but also make lasting connections, find mentors, and envision a brighter future for your career -  the brightest minds among you may find a path in our data science team at VectorLabs.AI.

Welcome back to the summer edition of our Data and AI newsletter!

While the temperatures rise, so does our excitement to share the freshest insights and sizzling updates from the world of data science and artificial intelligence. Dive into our carefully curated collection of news and compelling resources that will keep your mind engaged even during your beachside escapades.

&nbsp;

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2023.pdf" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The World Economic Forum&#39;s Report on the Future of Jobs</a>

The World Economic Forum has unveiled its comprehensive report on the future of jobs. According to the report, more than 75% of companies are planning to adopt AI, big data, and cloud computing in the next five years. Dive into insights that shed light on the evolving landscape of work and the role of AI in shaping our professional landscape.

 
▶️ <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2023-generative-ais-breakout-year" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The State of AI Survey by McKinsey</a>

McKinsey&#39;s latest annual survey provides a comprehensive snapshot of AI&#39;s current state. The survey highlights the explosive growth of generative AI tools and their impact on business functions.

&ldquo;Gen AI has captured interest across the business population: individuals across regions, industries, and seniority levels are using gen AI for work and outside of work.79% of all respondents say they&rsquo;ve had at least some exposure to gen AI, either for work or outside of work, and 22% say they are regularly using it in their own work. &rdquo;

 
&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://press.aboutamazon.com/2023/7/aws-announces-aws-healthscribe-a-new-generative-ai-powered-service-that-automatically-creates-clinical-documentation" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">AWS Announces AWS HealthScribe, a New Generative AI-Powered Service that Automatically Creates Clinical Documentation</a>

At the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/events/summits/new-york/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">AWS Summit New York</a>, AWS announced the AWS HealthScribe, a new HIPAA-eligible service that empowers healthcare software providers to build clinical applications that use speech recognition and generative AI to save clinicians time by generating clinical documentation. With AWS HealthScribe, healthcare software providers can use a single API to automatically create robust transcripts, extract key details (e.g., medical terms and medications), and create summaries from doctor-patient discussions that can then be entered into an electronic health record (EHR) system.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://analyticsindiamag.com/how-deutsche-bank-is-riding-the-generative-ai-wave/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">How Deutsche Bank is Riding the Generative AI Wave</a>

Deutsche Bank stands out as an early proponent of generative AI, demonstrating a strategic commitment to leveraging advanced technologies for transformative change within the financial industry. Despite initial hesitations in the sector, Deutsche Bank&#39;s proactive approach exemplifies its embrace of the generative AI trend, signalling a profound evolution in its future business practices.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

🔍 <a href="https://www.vestbee.com/blog/articles/vc-and-startup-weekly-news-from-cee-july-22-28-2023" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Bulgarian startup Yoga Llama raises &euro;1M from Morningside Hill for their self-learning yoga App based on AR</a>

<a href="https://yogallama.com/" target="_blank">Yoga Llama </a>combines the ancient practice of yoga with the advanced technological innovations of AR and AI. By tracking the movement of the human body, this mobile application can allow any user to learn yoga or refine and improve their skills in the art. The app plans to expand in the USA and Canada. For more news about the startup ecosystem in CEE, visit the <a href="https://www.vestbee.com/blog" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">VestBee blog</a>.

 
 
&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

 
&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 <a href="https://www.wandb.courses/courses/decision-optimization" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Free Course: Machine Learning for Business Decision Optimization</a>

Empower your decision-making processes with machine learning. Enrol in the free course on decision optimisation and enhance your ability to make informed business choices.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 [Free] <a href="https://neurosymbolic.github.io/nsss2023/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Neuro-Symbolic AI Summer School 2023 - Aug 29-30</a>

There is an increasing number of researchers that are proposing to combine neural and symbolic architectures to overcome many of the challenges of deep learning. The summer school will include invited talks, panels, and tutorials in various areas of theory and the application of neuro-symbolic AI. Also, two Turing award winners will be part of the speakers this year.

This is a virtual-only event and the registration for the event is free.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 <a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/mlops-checklist/mlops-checklist-components.html" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">MLOps Checklist Components by AWS</a>

Discover the essentials of MLOps with AWS&#39;s comprehensive checklist. The MLOps checklist is a workable checklist that you can use at any phase in your machine learning

(ML) project. The checklist is a tool for assessing overall readiness, examining system coverage, and identifying new areas of opportunity in distributed ML systems. MLOps is the combination of people, technology, and processes for delivering ML solutions. Well-architected MLOps helps businesses to deploy ML models to production effectively and consistently and can deliver business value. 
&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10841#:~:text=GETMusic%3A%20Generating%20Any%20Music%20Tracks%20with%20a%20Unified%20Representation%20and%20Diffusion%20Framework,-Ang%20Lv%2C%20Xu&amp;text=Symbolic%20music%20generation%20aims%20to,on%20user%2Dprovided%20source%20tracks." style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">GETMusic: Generating Any Music Tracks with Unified Representation</a>

Explore how this framework empowers users to compose music, whether by creating instrumental tracks from scratch or based on user-provided source tracks. 
&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKJaBnWOXFI" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">[Video] Fun with Data: bias-variance trade-off toss-a-coin example</a>

The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias%E2%80%93variance_tradeoff#:~:text=The%20bias%E2%80%93variance%20tradeoff%20is%20a%20central%20problem%20in%20supervised,impossible%20to%20do%20both%20simultaneously." style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">bias-variance trade-off </a>is explained with a numerical toss-a-coin example (for the squared-error loss function). Optimal penalization is derived, which demonstrates why using unbiased estimators is not an optimal strategy for the squared-error loss function in principle.

 
&nbsp;

Thanks for reading our monthly digest! If you enjoy it, we&#39;d love your help spreading the word! Share it with friends and colleagues who might benefit from it.

The topics from the previous newsletters, you can find at:

<a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-june-2023" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter #6</a>

<a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-april-2023" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter #5</a>

<a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-march-2023" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter #4</a>

<a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-february-2023" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter #3</a>

<a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-december-2022-edition" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter #2</a>

<a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/announcing-the-childish-data-and-ai-newsletter" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter #1</a>.

Welcome back to the summer edition of our Data and AI newsletter!
While the temperatures rise, so does our excitement to share the freshest insights and sizzling updates from the world of data science and artificial intelligence. Dive into our carefully curated collection of news and compelling resources that will keep your mind engaged even during your beachside escapades.

Data and AI newsletter: Summer Edition 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, advancements in technology are continuously shaping the way we approach diagnosis, treatment, and patient care. One such disruptive innovation is federated learning, a distributed machine learning approach that enables collaboration and knowledge sharing while safeguarding sensitive patient data. On our radar is the healthcare industry, recently we explored the <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/ai-in-healthcare" target="_blank">AI application in healthcare</a>, but today in this blog post, we will explore the concept of federated learning and its potential to transform the healthcare industry.

&nbsp;

<h2>Understanding Federated Learning</h2>

Federated Learning is a decentralised learning framework that allows multiple institutions or entities to collaboratively train a shared machine learning model without sharing raw data. Instead of transferring data to a central server, the model is trained locally on each participating device or organisation, with only the model updates being shared and aggregated. This unique approach preserves data privacy and security while harnessing the collective intelligence of multiple data sources.

Healthcare institutions handle vast amounts of sensitive patient data, making privacy a top concern. Federated Learning addresses this challenge by enabling model training across multiple decentralised servers, without transferring the actual data. Instead, each institution trains a local model on its data, and only the model&#39;s updates are shared with the central server. This approach ensures that patient data remains secure within the institution&#39;s premises, reducing the risk of data breaches and maintaining compliance with stringent data protection regulations like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_and_Accountability_Act" target="_blank">HIPAA </a>and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation" target="_blank">GDPR</a>.

&nbsp;

<h2>Impact on stakeholders</h2>

Federated learning has a profound impact on various stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem. Patients benefit from improved personalised treatment methodologies, as the collaborative nature of federated learning enables the development of models that encompass diverse patient populations. Healthcare providers can enhance their decision-making capabilities by leveraging shared knowledge and insights derived from federated learning models, leading to more accurate diagnoses and treatment plans. Researchers gain access to larger and more diverse datasets, enabling them to conduct studies and make discoveries that were previously limited by data availability.&nbsp;

Regulatory bodies and policymakers can support the adoption of federated learning to ensure privacy protection while promoting advancements in healthcare. Ultimately, the widespread implementation of federated learning in healthcare has the potential to positively transform patient care, research outcomes, and the overall healthcare landscape.

&nbsp;

<h3>Use cases of applying federated learning in healthcare</h3>

The application of federated learning in healthcare holds tremendous promise for improving patient outcomes, accelerating medical research, and enhancing clinical decision-making.

One notable example is the application of <a href="https://childish.ai/case-studies/study/federated_learning_for_personalized_healthcare" target="_blank">federated learning in personalised treatment methodology in radiation oncology</a>. In this use case, our head of Data Science led the development of a groundbreaking solution that aimed to optimize personalised treatments for cancer patients. By leveraging federated learning, multiple hospitals across different countries collaborated to train a shared machine learning model without sharing sensitive patient data. Georgi Nalbantov&rsquo;s AI team used Federated Learning to learn Support Vector Machine (SVM) models, using the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), from disparate databases to predict treatment outcomes: which can be either a direct treatment effect or a treatment side effect, for example, shortness of breath after (lung) radiotherapy.

The performance of the SVM models was evaluated by the Area Under the Curve (AUC) in a five-fold cross-validation procedure (training at four sites and validation at the fifth). The performance of the pooled (federated) learning algorithm was compared with centralised learning, in which the datasets of all clinics are combined in a single dataset. The result of the centralised model was (naturally) the same as the federated-learning model, as they are mathematically yielding the same result. Read more in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405630816300271" target="_blank">paper here.</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>Advantages and limitations</h2>

Federated learning offers several key advantages in healthcare. Firstly, it facilitates collaboration among institutions, allowing them to pool their collective knowledge and expertise without compromising data privacy. Secondly, federated learning mitigates the risks associated with centralised data storage and transfer, reducing the likelihood of data breaches. Additionally, this approach promotes inclusivity by accommodating organisations with limited resources or regulatory constraints.

However, federated learning also faces certain limitations. One challenge is ensuring the consistency and quality of the training data across different organisations. Data heterogeneity and variations in data collection practices can introduce biases or inconsistencies in the model. Furthermore, the communication and coordination required among participating entities may pose logistical complexities.

&nbsp;

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

Federated learning has the potential to revolutionise the healthcare industry by enabling collaboration, preserving data privacy, and fostering advancements in personalised treatments and medical research. As the field of healthcare continues to embrace digital transformation, the responsible implementation of federated learning holds great promise for improving patient care and driving innovation.

At VectorLabs.AI, we understand the complexities and potential of federated learning in healthcare. With our team&#39;s scientific background and hands-on expertise in AI technologies, we are well-equipped to assist your organisation in leveraging federated learning to unlock the benefits it offers. Whether you are seeking to implement federated learning solutions, optimise existing models, or navigate the challenges associated with decentralised learning, our team is here to support you. To learn more about our capabilities and discuss how federated learning can transform your organisation, write to us at <a href="mailto:team@vector-labs.ai">team@vector-labs.ai</a>.

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, advancements in technology are continuously shaping the way we approach diagnosis, treatment, and patient care.

Federated learning in healthcare

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, advancements in technology are continuously shaping the way we approach diagnosis, treatment, and patient care. One such disruptive innovation is federated learning, a distributed machine learning approach that enables collaboration and knowledge sharing while safeguarding sensitive patient data. On our radar is the healthcare industry, recently we explored the AI application in healthcare, but today in this blog post, we will explore the concept of federated learning and its potential to transform the healthcare industry.

Generative AI has emerged as a game-changing technology with the potential to revolutionize how enterprise companies operate. With its remarkable ability to generate content, expedite product development, and even create code, generative AI holds the key to unlocking unprecedented productivity improvements. However, to truly harness its transformative power, organizations must navigate the path of organizational and operational change. In this article, we present a roadmap tailored for enterprise companies seeking to unlock the full potential of generative AI.

&nbsp;

<h3>Understanding the potential</h3>

To fully comprehend the value generative AI brings, organizations must gain a deep understanding of its capabilities. By leveraging generative AI&#39;s ability to access vast pools of published knowledge, businesses can redefine their value propositions and unlock breakthrough insights by combining the technology with other analytical models. Irrespective of the difficulties, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte, 63% of enterprise clients believe that AI technologies, including generative models, will play a crucial role in driving their organization&#39;s strategy in the next few years.

&nbsp;

<h3>Addressing the challenges</h3>

While generative AI holds incredible promise, it is vital to recognize that it is a technology tool, not a silver bullet. Organizations must undergo an in-depth restructuring process to fully leverage its potential. This entails adopting agile development methodologies, enhancing the customer experience, fostering a culture of innovation, and driving cost reductions through accelerated processes. Additionally, businesses should pay attention to the challenges associated with poor production practices and integrating generative AI models into existing systems. According to a report by Capgemini, although 77% of organizations have already explored or adopted AI in some form, only 15% are successfully scaling their AI initiatives across the enterprise.

&nbsp;

<h3>Evolving the Operating Model</h3>

To embrace generative AI effectively, companies need to adapt their operating models. This includes establishing dedicated agile teams focused on generative AI, ensuring responsible development and deployment of solutions. Collaboration with legal, privacy, and governance experts, as well as machine learning operations (MLOps) and testing professionals, becomes essential to train and monitor models effectively. A study conducted by IDC found that 75% of enterprise organizations have plans to increase their AI investments, with a specific focus on developing the necessary skills and expertise to leverage generative AI effectively.

&nbsp;

<h3>Adapting the Technology Architecture</h3>

The integration of generative AI capabilities into end-to-end workflows requires adjustments to the technology architecture. Organizations should consider training and retraining employees on working with generative AI, ensuring its seamless incorporation into the tech stack. Notably, MLOps plays a critical role in managing the challenges associated with developing, deploying, and integrating generative AI models into production systems. According to Gartner, by 2024, 75% of large enterprises will operationalize AI, resulting in an increase in the demand for MLOps to ensure successful model deployment and management.

Generative AI presents a remarkable opportunity for businesses to transform their operations and unlock new levels of productivity and innovation. However, to capture the full value of this technology, organizations must undergo a comprehensive adaptation process. By understanding the capabilities of generative AI, evolving their operating models, adapting their technology architectures, and addressing associated challenges, companies can position themselves at the forefront of the generative AI revolution. Embracing generative AI as a strategic asset will empower organizations to thrive in the age of digital and AI. With the increasing adoption of AI technologies and generative models by enterprise clients, the time to adopt change is now.

Generative AI has emerged as a game-changing technology with the potential to revolutionize how enterprise companies operate. With its remarkable ability to generate content, expedite product development, and even create code, generative AI holds the key to unlocking unprecedented productivity improvements. However, to truly harness its transformative power, organizations must navigate the path of organizational and operational change. In this article, we present a roadmap tailored for enterprise companies seeking to unlock the full potential of generative AI.

From hype to reality: unleashing the power of Generative AI for enterprise success

We recently attended the <a href="https://www.webit.org/2023/impact/" target="_blank">Webit </a>conference, immersing ourselves in the latest advancements and discussions surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. As an AI-focused company, it&#39;s important for us to be part of the conversation when it comes to new technology.

During the conference, we were impressed by the abundance of AI applications across various industries. In this blog post, we are excited to share our impressions from the event and highlight some of the presented topics that align closely with our expertise.

&nbsp;

<h2>Key takeaways&nbsp;</h2>

<h3>AI Implementation with Purpose</h3>

One key takeaway from the conference was the importance of implementing AI carefully and with purpose. We firmly believe that AI should not be pursued for the sake of it but rather to address specific problems, deficiencies, or opportunities. By identifying precise use cases, we can harness the power of AI to enhance our capabilities and drive meaningful outcomes.

&nbsp;

<h3>AI in Healthcare</h3>

The transformative potential of AI in healthcare was a recurring theme at the conference. We have firsthand experience in this domain and witnessed how AI is revolutionizing various aspects of medical care, research, and administration. From medical imaging analysis to disease diagnosis, personalized treatment, drug discovery, virtual assistants, and predictive analytics, AI is improving patient outcomes and transforming healthcare delivery. However, it is essential to tread carefully, considering ethical considerations, privacy protection, and regulatory compliance to ensure the responsible deployment of AI in healthcare.

&nbsp;

<h3>AI in Finance and Banking</h3>

Another area where AI is making remarkable contributions is the finance and banking industry. We observed how AI is driving improvements in efficiency, risk management, customer experience, and fraud detection. From fraud prevention and risk assessment to trading and investment strategies, personalized customer service, financial planning, and compliance monitoring, AI is reshaping the way financial institutions operate. Nevertheless, addressing issues like data privacy, transparency, and algorithmic bias is crucial to ensure the ethical and responsible use of AI in this sector.

&nbsp;

<h3>The Rise of Foundation Models</h3>

Lastly, we were intrigued by the concept of foundation models, particularly large language models like GPT-3. These models are trained on vast amounts of text data and possess the ability to generate coherent and contextually relevant text.

The foundation models allow a business to fine-tune an already trained and proven architecture rather than train a new language model from scratch (which is extremely costly and inefficient). By fine-tuning a foundation model the business ensures that the answers and results produced by the model are industry and business specific. We are currently developing our capacity in this area, exploring projects such as a knowledge management system for predictive maintenance and chat functionality for generated interviews with survivors (check out our case study on the <a href="https://childish.ai/case-studies/study/interactive_online_platform_for_historical_education" target="_blank">video platform and chatbot for a historical education museum</a>). The potential of large language models is immense, and we are excited to leverage their power to create industry-specific solutions. 
&nbsp;

The event provided valuable insights, allowing us to stay at the forefront of AI advancements and engage in thought-provoking discussions. As we continue our journey, we remain committed to driving innovation, leveraging AI responsibly, and delivering exceptional solutions to our clients.

Stay tuned for more updates on our AI-driven endeavours and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.

We recently attended the Webit conference, immersing ourselves in the latest advancements and discussions surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. As an AI-focused company, it's important for us to be part of the conversation when it comes to new technology.

Impressions from Webit Summer Edition

In the fast-paced world of healthcare, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer, redefining the possibilities of patient care and medical advancements. From enhancing diagnostics and accelerating drug discovery to enabling personalised treatment plans, AI is revolutionising the way healthcare is delivered.

In our recent article, we explored how <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/how-ai-is-revolutionizing-cardiology" target="_blank">AI is transforming the field of cardiology</a>, shedding light on its potential to revolutionise cardiac care. Additionally, we shared an inspiring story in our <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-june-2023" target="_blank">Data and AI newsletter</a> about Swiss researchers who harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to help Gert-Jan Oskam regain control over his lower body after being paralyzed for over a decade.

Now, let&#39;s take a step back and explore the broader landscape of AI applications in healthcare. Join us as we dive into the diverse range of possibilities and discover how AI is reshaping the future of healthcare.

&nbsp;

<h2>AI for diagnosis and treatment plans</h2>

One of the most promising areas where AI is being used in healthcare is to improve diagnoses and treatment plans. AI algorithms can analyse patient data and medical records to help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and design personalised treatment plans. These models can identify patterns and relationships within the data that humans struggle to detect on their own.

For instance, researchers at Stanford University have developed an AI algorithm that can diagnose skin cancer with a level of accuracy that is comparable to that of dermatologists. The algorithm was trained on a dataset of over 130,000 images of skin lesions and can classify skin cancer with an accuracy of 91%. This technology can help improve cancer detection rates and reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies.

&nbsp;

<h2>AI for medical imaging</h2>

Another area where AI is making significant strides is in medical imaging. Machine learning algorithms can analyze medical images such as X-rays, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs), and Computerized Tomography (CT scans) to identify potential health issues before they become more serious. These algorithms can learn to recognize patterns in images that may be too subtle for human eyes to detect.

One example of this is the work being done by researchers at the University of Central Florida, who have developed an AI algorithm that can detect early signs of Alzheimer&#39;s disease in brain scans. The algorithm can identify changes in the brain that occur in the early stages of the disease, which can help doctors diagnose patients sooner and start treatment earlier.

&nbsp;

<h2>AI for medical record analysis and patient communication</h2>

AI can also help with medical record analysis and patient communication. AI can extract important information from medical records, making it easier for doctors to make informed decisions. Additionally, AI-powered chatbots can assist patients with their questions and concerns, improving communication and patient satisfaction. These chatbots can use natural language processing to understand and respond to patients in a way that feels like a natural conversation.

&nbsp;

<h2>AI for drug discovery and development</h2>

AI can also help with drug discovery and development. By analysing vast amounts of data, AI can help identify new drug targets and assist in the drug development process, potentially leading to more effective treatments. AI models can analyze data from a wide variety of sources, including scientific literature, clinical trials, and even social media, to identify connections and patterns that may be missed by human researchers.

One example of this is the work being done by the startup <a href="https://www.atomwise.com/" target="_blank">Atomwise</a>, which is using AI to develop new drugs to combat diseases such as Ebola and multiple sclerosis. The company&#39;s AI platform can analyze millions of compounds and predict which ones are most likely to be effective in treating a particular disease.

&nbsp;

<h2>Concerns about privacy and bias</h2>

As with any technology, there are concerns about privacy and bias in AI in healthcare. It is important to ensure that patient data is protected and that AI models are not biased against certain groups. This requires careful selection and curation of data, as well as ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the models.

&nbsp;

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

In conclusion, AI has the potential to transform the healthcare industry in numerous ways, from improved diagnostics and drug discovery to personalised treatment plans and patient communication. While there are concerns about privacy and bias, these can be addressed with careful selection and curation of data, as well as ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the models. As AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more exciting developments in the field of healthcare

In the fast-paced world of healthcare, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer, redefining the possibilities of patient care and medical advancements. From enhancing diagnostics and accelerating drug discovery to enabling personalised treatment plans, AI is revolutionising the way healthcare is delivered.

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

In the realm of advanced AI systems, <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt" target="_blank">ChatGPT</a> has emerged as a formidable force, captivating the attention of technical software engineers who seek to comprehend its inner workings. As professionals with a passion for technical intricacies, we embark on a comprehensive exploration of ChatGPT&#39;s predictive language modelling capabilities. In this article, we dissect the underlying mechanisms that empower ChatGPT to predict the next word with remarkable accuracy, while assimilating grammar, factual knowledge, and fragments of the world. However, we must confront the inherent challenges posed by limited direct control over its generated output&mdash;a critical consideration for responsible and precise AI implementation.

<h3>Transformer Architecture</h3>

ChatGPT utilizes a transformer architecture, which revolutionized the field of natural language processing (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processing" target="_blank">NLP</a>). Transformers employ self-attention mechanisms that allow the model to focus on relevant parts of the input sequence, capturing long-range dependencies and improving performance on tasks involving language understanding and generation.

&nbsp;

<h3>Tokenization</h3>

Before training, the text data is tokenized into smaller units, such as words or subwords. This tokenization process facilitates efficient processing and enables the model to handle different languages and word variations effectively. Each token is assigned a unique numerical representation, which forms the input for the neural network.

&nbsp;

<h3>Pre-training Objective: Masked Language Modeling (MLM)</h3>

During pre-training, ChatGPT employs a masked language modelling objective. In this process, a certain percentage of tokens in the input text are randomly masked. The model is then trained to predict the masked tokens based on the surrounding context. This MLM objective encourages the model to learn meaningful representations of words and their relationships within sentences.

&nbsp;

<h3>Encoder-Decoder Framework</h3>

ChatGPT is trained using an encoder-decoder framework. During pre-training, it learns to encode input text by predicting the next word in a sentence. This pre-trained encoder is then fine-tuned for specific downstream tasks, such as generating responses to user queries.

&nbsp;

<h3>Fine-tuning</h3>

After pre-training, ChatGPT undergoes a fine-tuning process on task-specific data. This step allows the model to adapt and specialize for particular applications, such as chatbot interactions or content generation. Fine-tuning involves training the model on a narrower dataset and using task-specific objectives to optimize its performance for the desired task.

&nbsp;

<h3>Limitations of Direct Control</h3>

The lack of direct control over generated output in ChatGPT stems from the unsupervised nature of its pre-training process. Since the model learns from vast amounts of text data without explicit annotations or feedback on the desired output, it may produce responses that are factually incorrect, biased, or nonsensical. This limitation necessitates post-processing techniques, human oversight, or additional constraints to ensure the generated output meets specific requirements.&nbsp;

ChatGPT exemplifies the power of predictive language modelling and its applications in natural language understanding and generation. However, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of the pre-training process, as it lacks direct control over the generated output. As we continue to advance the capabilities of language models like ChatGPT, it becomes crucial to develop techniques that strike a balance between generating accurate, informative, and safe responses while ensuring control and accountability in AI systems.

In the realm of advanced AI systems, ChatGPT has emerged as a formidable force, captivating the attention of technical software engineers who seek to comprehend its inner workings. As professionals with a passion for technical intricacies, we embark on a comprehensive exploration of ChatGPT's predictive language modelling capabilities. In this article, we dissect the underlying mechanisms that empower ChatGPT to predict the next word with remarkable accuracy, while assimilating grammar, factual knowledge, and fragments of the world. However, we must confront the inherent challenges posed by limited direct control over its generated output—a critical consideration for responsible and precise AI implementation.

Understanding the Mechanics of ChatGPT

We are thrilled to present the latest edition of our data and AI newsletter, packed with exciting updates and industry insights. Although it arrives a little later than usual, it&#39;s well worth the wait! The past few weeks have been an exhilarating whirlwind of events, including our participation in <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/our-journey-at-london-tech-week-2023" target="_blank">London Tech Week 2023</a>, the <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/highlights-from-the-crif-conference" target="_blank">Credit Risk Management Conference</a>, and our webinar on <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/upcoming-webinar-ai-trends-banking-fintech" target="_blank">AI Trends in Banking and Fintech</a>. If you missed the webinar, don&#39;t worry! Simply drop us a line at team@vector-labs.ai, and we&#39;ll be delighted to share the recording with you.

Now, grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join us as we delve into the world of data and artificial intelligence!

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

<h2>&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;</h2>

▶️ <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence" target="_blank">EU AI Act: first regulation on artificial intelligence</a>

Artificial intelligence has pros and cons, but one thing is for sure - AI is here to stay. EU Parliament is ready to negotiate the AI Act, the world&rsquo;s first AI law, to ensure that Europe can continue to innovate while protecting people. Under the proposed legislation AI technologies would be classified into 4 different categories of risk, from minimal to unacceptable.

 
▶️ <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-economic-potential-of-generative-ai-the-next-productivity-frontier" target="_blank">The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier</a>

McKinsey &amp; Company published a great write-up on the economic possibilities of GenerativeAI.

Their research estimates that generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually&hellip; Great! This is a big opportunity, but how does it apply to you? Read the full article <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-economic-potential-of-generative-ai-the-next-productivity-frontier" target="_blank">here </a>to see all of McKinsey &amp; Company&rsquo;s findings. 
&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2023/05/23/bringing-the-power-of-ai-to-windows-11-unlocking-a-new-era-of-productivity-for-customers-and-developers-with-windows-copilot-and-dev-home/" target="_blank">Microsoft Is Bringing the Power of AI to Windows 11</a>

At <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/build-2023/" target="_blank">Microsoft&#39;s Build 2023 conference</a>, several exciting announcements were made.

Windows Copilot was introduced, making Windows 11 the first PC platform to provide centralized AI assistance. This AI-powered feature aims to help users easily accomplish tasks and increase productivity. 
&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/generative-fill.html" target="_blank">Adobe Has Introduced a New Feature Called Generative Fill In Photoshop</a>

A new generative AI tool for Adobe Photoshop will enable users to swiftly extend photos and add or delete objects using text prompts. Generative Fill is now available in beta, but Adobe claims that a full version of it for Photoshop will come later this year.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/openai-ceo-sam-altman-the-age-of-giant-ai-models-is-already-over/" target="_blank">OpenAI&rsquo;s CEO Says the Age of Giant AI Models Is Already Over</a>

Sam Altman says the research strategy that birthed ChatGPT is played out and future strides in artificial intelligence will require new ideas. 
&rdquo;I think we&#39;re at the end of the era where it&#39;s going to be these, like, giant, giant models,&rdquo; he told an audience at an event held at MIT earlier. Read the full story at <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/openai-ceo-sam-altman-the-age-of-giant-ai-models-is-already-over/" target="_blank">wired.com</a> 
&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/science/paralysis-brain-implants-ai.html" target="_blank">Swiss Researchers Utilize AI to Reconstruct Spinal Cord</a>

Swiss Researchers used artificial intelligence to help Gert-Jan Oskam, who had been paralyzed from the waist down for more than ten years, regain control over his lower body.

Following a motorcycle accident in 2011, Gert-Jan Oskam has been paralyzed from the waist down. However, there has been a recent breakthrough that has enabled him to regain mobility. Scientists have successfully developed a &quot;digital bridge&quot; that connects Oskam&#39;s brain and spinal cord, effectively bypassing the damaged areas.

Through the use of an AI thought decoder, the researchers were able to capture Oskam&#39;s thoughts and translate them into spinal cord stimulation, thereby restoring voluntary movement.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

🔍 <a href="https://therecursive.com/slovak-sensoneo-raises-e6-2m-series-a-to-drive-smart-waste-management/" target="_blank">Slovak Sensoneo - empowering cities, businesses, and countries to manage waste smarter</a>

Sensoneo, a Bratislava-based smart waste management startup, secures &euro;6.2M Series A funding to expand its solution to other regions, including APAC, and strengthen its global position. Read more at <a href="https://therecursive.com/slovak-sensoneo-raises-e6-2m-series-a-to-drive-smart-waste-management/" target="_blank">therecusive.com</a>.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 <a href="https://cloud.google.com/generative-ai-studio" target="_blank">Google Generative AI Studio&nbsp;</a>

It uses Google&rsquo;s multimodal foundation models as APIs including PaLM, Imagen, Codey, and Chirp. Runs on Vertex AI.A simple, easy-to-use interface for prompt design, tuning, and deployment. 
&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡 <a href="https://www.cloudskillsboost.google/paths/118" target="_blank">Generative AI learning path</a> now available

&ldquo;This learning path guides you through a curated collection of content on generative AI products and technologies, from the fundamentals of Large Language Models to how to create and deploy generative AI solutions on Google Cloud.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://www.amazon.science/blog/more-efficient-approximate-nearest-neighbor-search" target="_blank">More-efficient approximate nearest-neighbour search</a> - Amazon Science

In a paper by the Amazon Science team, presented at this year&rsquo;s<a href="https://www.amazon.science/conferences-and-events/the-web-conference-2023" target="_blank"> Web Conference</a>, they described a new technique that makes the graph-based nearest-neighbour search much more efficient. The technique is based on the observation that, when calculating the distance between the query and points that are farther away than any of the candidates currently on the list, an approximate distance measure will usually suffice. Accordingly, they propose a method for computing approximate distance very efficiently and show that it reduces the time required to perform an approximate nearest-neighbour search by 20% to 60%.

&nbsp;

💡&nbsp; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ngQ_SoRJ8" target="_blank">Video: Train and test error curves: bias-variance trade-off example with throwing dice</a>

Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of hosting a captivating <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/pydata-meetup-recap" target="_blank">PyData Sofia Meetup</a>, featuring our esteemed colleague, Georgi Nalbantov, PhD. In his insightful talk on &quot;The Bias-Variance Trade-Off,&quot; Georgi shared valuable insights and practical examples. He has recorded the entire talk and made it available on his YouTube channel. ▶️ Watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ngQ_SoRJ8" target="_blank">video here</a>.

We are thrilled to present the latest edition of our data and AI newsletter, packed with exciting updates and industry insights. Although it arrives a little later than usual, it's well worth the wait! The past few weeks have been an exhilarating whirlwind of events, including our participation in London Tech Week 2023, the Credit Risk Management Conference, and our webinar on AI Trends in Banking and Fintech. If you missed the webinar, don't worry! Simply drop us a line at team@vector-labs.ai, and we'll be delighted to share the recording with you.

Now, grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join us as we delve into the world of data and artificial intelligence!

Data and AI newsletter: June 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the field of cardiology by helping doctors diagnose and treat heart diseases more accurately and efficiently. One of the most promising areas of AI in cardiology is the prediction of key pathologies via multi-label (multi-pathology) classification models based on electrocardiogram (ECG) signals.

ECG signals are electrical signals generated by the heart that can be recorded non-invasively using electrodes placed on the skin. ECG signals are an essential tool for diagnosing and monitoring heart diseases, such as arrhythmias and heart attacks. However, interpreting ECG signals can be challenging, as they are complex and contain a large amount of information.

Our colleagues Georgi Nalbantov Phd., Head of Data Science and AI, and Svetoslav Ivanov, Lead Data Scientist, worked on a paper on the multi-label classification modelling of ECG signals during the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2020 focused on automated, open-source approaches for classifying cardiac abnormalities.

With their vast experience in the field, they played a pivotal role in designing and implementing the AI models that were used to analyze ECG signals. More about their work on &ldquo;Multi-Class Classification of Pathologies Found on Short ECG Signals&rdquo; you can read in the paper <a href="https://www.cinc.org/archives/2020/pdf/CinC2020-071.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;

In this article, we will take a closer look at how AI is revolutionizing cardiology through the use of the multi-label classification of ECG signals and showcase a part of the work of our colleagues.

<h2>&nbsp;</h2>

<h2>What is multi-label classification?</h2>

Multi-label classification is a machine learning technique that can be used to analyze ECG signals and automatically classify them into different categories. For example, a multi-label classification algorithm could analyze an ECG signal and classify it as showing signs of atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, and left ventricular hypertrophy.

To develop a multi-label classification algorithm, researchers first need to train a machine-learning model using a large dataset of ECG signals that have been manually labelled by experts. The model then uses this labelled data to learn how to classify new ECG signals.

One of the key benefits of the multi-label classification of ECG signals is that it can help doctors diagnose heart diseases more accurately and quickly. Traditionally, doctors have had to manually analyze ECG signals, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error. With a multi-label classification algorithm, doctors can receive automated diagnoses that are based on objective data and are not subject to human biases.

Another benefit of multi-label classification of ECG signals is that it can help doctors identify heart diseases at an earlier stage. By analyzing ECG signals more comprehensively, doctors can detect subtle changes in the heart&#39;s electrical activity that may indicate the early stages of heart disease. This early detection can allow doctors to intervene earlier, potentially improving patient outcomes. 
&nbsp;

<h2>Revolutionising diagnosis and treatment&nbsp;</h2>

There are already several AI-based ECG analysis tools available on the market, such as the FDA-approved ECG AI-Guardian system. These systems use multi-label classification algorithms to automatically analyze ECG signals and provide doctors with real-time diagnoses.

However, there are still challenges to be addressed in the development of AI-based ECG analysis tools. One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that the algorithms are accurate and reliable. To achieve this, researchers need access to high-quality datasets that contain a wide range of ECG signals from different patient populations.

Georgi Nalbantov, Svetoslav Ivanov, and Jeffrey van Prehn developed a method to classify heart conditions based on a large dataset of ECG strips. They used a strategy to determine the likelihood of different pathologies based on the scores they assigned to the predictions. This strategy ensured that the expected distribution of predicted labels in a test set was the same as the observed distribution in the training set. However, there is a limitation to this approach in that the predicted labels for a test patient must have occurred in the training dataset.&nbsp;

&ldquo;To make sure that the model is reliable in real-world conditions, the ECG signal recordings with noisy intervals are excluded before pathology prediction to avoid high false alarm rates.&rdquo;

The Computing in Cardiology Challenge included 24 pathologies, but many participants expressed doubts about the validity of the provided labels for parts of the training set. This makes the learning task extremely difficult as if a doctor fails to detect a given pathology, or if a noisy signal is provided, a model predicts that pathology should be present while a doctor may not spot it due to the noise. This makes the learning task extremely difficult.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>Approaches of modelling algorithms&nbsp;</h2>

Georgi and his team implemented a multi-label multi-step strategy for classifying pathologies in ECG strips, using a total of 23 pathologies as well as a &lsquo;sinus rhythm&rsquo;. They found that including the prediction for a certain group of pathologies as an input feature in one-vs-rest binary classification models was beneficial. They applied AdaBoost as a classifier for all binary classification problems, which they acknowledge to be suboptimal, and did not perform feature selection for each classification problem.

The Error-Correcting Output Codes (ECOC) approach they used for assigning multiple predicted labels to a test patient has an implicit downside in that these labels should have occurred in the training dataset. The authors note that their method may be limited for real-world applications because noisy intervals in ECG signal recordings have to be excluded before pathology prediction to avoid high false alarm rates. They suggest that providing longer strips with proven pathologies, where doctors can detect a pathology on part of the ECG strip and cannot detect the pathology on other parts of the strips, is necessary to move closer to a real-world application of their models.

Lastly, they purposely avoided using deep learning/neural network techniques to ensure their results are replicable.

&nbsp;

<h2>In conclusion</h2>

An annotation tool for labelling ECG wave points and intervals/templates has been created in MATLAB, and used for labelling pathological intervals, as well as noisy intervals and inconsistencies between the ECG data and the pre-assigned labels. Several one-vs-rest binary classifiers were built, where morphological features specific to each pathology had been generated from the signals. The binary classifiers were augmented by a multi-class classifier using an Error Correcting Output Codes (ECOC) methodology. This approach achieved a challenge validation score of 0.616, and a full test score of 0.194, placing the team 23 out of 41 in the official ranking.

&nbsp;

Read the whole paper Multi-Class Classification of Pathologies Found on Short ECG Signal, by Georgi Nalbantov, Svetoslav Ivanov, and Jeffrey van Prehn at&nbsp;<a href="http://https://www.cinc.org/archives/2020/pdf/CinC2020-071.pdf" target="_blank">www.cinc.org/archives/2020/pdf/CinC2020-071.pdf</a>.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the field of cardiology by helping doctors diagnose and treat heart diseases more accurately and efficiently. One of the most promising areas of AI in cardiology is the prediction of key pathologies via multi-label (multi-pathology) classification models based on electrocardiogram (ECG) signals.
ECG signals are electrical signals generated by the heart that can be recorded non-invasively using electrodes placed on the skin. ECG signals are an essential tool for diagnosing and monitoring heart diseases, such as arrhythmias and heart attacks. However, interpreting ECG signals can be challenging, as they are complex and contain a large amount of information.

How AI is Revolutionizing Cardiology: A Look at Multi-pathology Classification Models on ECG Signals

Welcome to our April Data &amp; AI newsletter!

In this edition, we have an array of news and insights to keep you up-to-date. We cover key highlights from the recently released 2023 AI Index Report by Stanford, which sheds light on the growing dominance of industry over academia in producing significant machine-learning models. We also introduce LMQL, a new open-source programming language that enhances the capabilities of language models like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and future models.

Some exciting updates on BloombergGPT, a large language model specifically designed for finance, and AWS&#39;s new open-source project, Data on EKS, which provides templates and guidance for deploying data workloads on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service. 
&nbsp;

And that&#39;s not all! Are you curious?&nbsp;Dive into the newsletter below.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

▶️ <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/research/ai-index-2023" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Stanford has announced the 2023 AI Index Report</a>

&ldquo;Until 2014, most significant machine learning models were released by academia. Since then, industry has taken over. In 2022, there were 32 significant industry-produced machine learning models compared to just three produced by academia. Building state-of-the-art AI systems increasingly requires large amounts of data, compute, and money, resources that industry actors inherently possess in greater amounts compared to nonprofits and academia.&rdquo;

The AI Index is an independent initiative at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), led by the AI Index Steering Committee, an interdisciplinary group of experts from across academia and industry. The annual report tracks, collates, distills, and visualises data relating to artificial intelligence, enabling decision-makers to take meaningful action to advance AI responsibly and ethically with humans in mind.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://lmql.ai" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The first release of LMQL is a fact</a>

LMQL is a ready-to-use, novel open-source programming language and platform for language model interaction (LLMs)! Combining prompts, constraints &amp; scripting, LMQL elevates the capabilities of LLMs like ChatGPT, GPT-4 and any future model!

LMQL is a declarative, SQL-like language based on Python, extending static text prompting with control flow, constraint-guided decoding and tool augmentation. This form of scripting greatly simplifies multi-part prompting flows with very little code necessary. LMQL also supports high-level, logical constraints, allowing users to steer model generation, and avoid costly re-querying and validation.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17564" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">BloombergGPT: A Large Language Model for Finance</a>

Bloomberg has released BloombergGPT, a new large language model (LLM) that has been trained on enormous amounts of financial data and can help with a range of natural language processing (NLP) activities for the financial sector. BlooombergGPT is a cutting-edge AI that can evaluate financial data quickly to help with risk assessments, gauge financial sentiment, and possibly even automate accounting and auditing activities.

&nbsp;

▶️<a href="https://awslabs.github.io/data-on-eks/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> AWS has released Data on EKS&nbsp;</a>

AWS has released Data on EKS (DoEKS), an open-source project providing templates, guidance, and best practices for deploying data workloads on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). While the main focus is on running Apache Spark on Amazon EKS, blueprints also exist for other data workloads such as Ray, Apache Airflow, Argo Workflows, and Kubeflow.

&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

🔍<a href="https://www.colossyan.com/" style="text-decoration:none"> </a><a href="https://therecursive.com/ai-startup-incubator-launches-a-20m-fund-to-elevate-ai-startup-ecosystem-look-ai-ventures/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Czech AI Startup Incubator Launches a &euro;20M Fund to Elevate AI Startup Ecosystem</a>

Look AI Ventures fund (LAIV) SICAV focuses on AI startups in pre-seed and seed stages from Europe, particularly the CEE region. The team aims to build the fund&rsquo;s portfolio of at least 35 startups over the next three years. The targeted investment ticket in one startup is &euro;250K, with the possibility of reinvesting up to &euro;1 million.

&nbsp;

🔍<a href="https://www.digitalfirst.ai/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> Polish Digital First</a>

&ldquo;Digital First AI is a personal growth assistant that delivers personalized marketing strategy within minutes and helps its users to execute it using AI. Based on information about the business, Digital First then recommends a list of marketing activities that will allow companies to scale revenues.

Last year, the startup raised $1.1M in pre-seed funding for its global expansion, and is currently used by over 4,000 user companies and over 2,000 clients from 60 countries.&rdquo; - <a href="https://therecursive.com/7-generative-ai-startups-from-cee-to-watch-for-in-2023/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Recursive</a> writes. 
 
&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

💡 Blog article: <a href="https://hazyresearch.stanford.edu/blog/2023-03-27-long-learning" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">From Deep to Long Learning</a>

Researchers are working to increase sequence length in machine learning foundation models to enable learning from longer contexts and multiple media sources.

New models like S4, H3, and Hyena have been developed to address the quadratic scaling of attention layers in Transformers and show promising results in matching Transformers on perplexity and downstream tasks.

&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06718" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">MS Research: Segment Everything Everywhere All at Once</a>

Despite the growing demand for interactive AI systems, there have been few comprehensive studies on human-AI interaction in visual understanding e.g. segmentation. Inspired by the development of prompt-based universal interfaces for LLMs, this paper presents SEEM, a promptable, interactive model for Segmenting Everything Everywhere all at once in an image.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

💡<a href="https://insait.ai/tech-series/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> INSAIT Tech Series</a>&nbsp;

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) is launching a series of lectures on the most sizzling topics, such as Neurosymbolic AI, Generative AI, and Geometric Deep Learning, directly from the technology leaders, researchers and entrepreneurs who create them. The upcoming talk will be given by Prof. Martin Odersky, Inventor of the Scala Programming Language, in Sofia, on 27.04.2023. To attend it, register at <a href="https://techseries.insait.ai/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">https://techseries.insait.ai/</a>. 
&nbsp;

Thanks for reading our monthly digest! If you enjoy it, we&#39;d love your help spreading the word! Share it with friends and colleagues who might benefit from it.

The topics from the previous newsletters, you can find at:

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-march-2023" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter #4</a></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-february-2023" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter # 3</a></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-december-2022-edition" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter # 2</a></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/announcing-the-childish-data-and-ai-newsletter" style="text-decoration:none">Announcing VectorLab&rsquo;s Data and AI Newsletter</a>.</li>
</ul>

In this edition, we have an array of news and insights to keep you up-to-date. We cover key highlights from the recently released 2023 AI Index Report by Stanford, which sheds light on the growing dominance of industry over academia in producing significant machine-learning models. We also introduce LMQL, a new open-source programming language that enhances the capabilities of language models like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and future models.

Data and AI newsletter: April 2023

Welcome to our April Data & AI newsletter!

In this edition, we have an array of news and insights to keep you up-to-date. We cover key highlights from the recently released 2023 AI Index Report by Stanford, which sheds light on the growing dominance of industry over academia in producing significant machine-learning models. We also introduce LMQL, a new open-source programming language that enhances the capabilities of language models like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and future models.

Some exciting updates on BloombergGPT, a large language model specifically designed for finance, and AWS's new open-source project, Data on EKS, which provides templates and guidance for deploying data workloads on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service.


And that's not all! Are you curious? 
Dive into the newsletter below.

The release of The&nbsp;GPT-4 marks a significant advancement in scaling deep learning and the large multimodal model.

On March 14, the Anthropic introduced Claude - a next-generation AI assistant based on Anthropic&#39;s research to train helpful, honest, and harmless AI systems. It was created by ex-OpenAI researchers and is meant to be a competitor to the Chat GPT. Moreover, MIT&#39;s first-ever Data-Centric AI course is free and includes algorithms to find and fix common problems in ML data and construct better datasets.&nbsp;

It&#39;s time for our monthly dose of data and AI news. So, read all the interesting information and resources in our data and AI newsletter.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://openai.com/product/gpt-4" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">OpenAI has announced GPT-4</a>

The GPT-4 model, also known as Generating Pre-trained Transformer 4, is the fourth version of the OpenAI-created GPT family of large language models. It is the GPT-3 model&#39;s successor, and it drives the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT. Like its predecessor, GPT-3, GPT-4 is intended to produce text that looks like it was written by a human, carry out tasks like language translation and summarization, and even generate creative writing like fiction, poetry, and song lyrics.

&quot;GPT-4 can generate text and accept image and text inputs &mdash; an improvement over GPT-3.5, its predecessor, which only accepted text &mdash; and performs at &quot;human level&quot; on various professional and academic benchmarks. For example, GPT-4 passes a simulated bar exam with a score around the top 10% of test takers; in contrast, GPT-3.5&#39;s score was around the bottom 10%.&quot;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/index/introducing-claude" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Anthropic has launched Claude</a>

In all the noise about Google&#39;s new generative AI features or the mighty GPT-4 launch, you may have missed the launch of Claude, a new chatbot by Anthropic meant to rival ChatGPT.

- created by ex-OpenAI researchers

- backed with $300M by Google

- available to end users and developers via API

- less likely to produce harmful outputs, easier to converse with, and more steerable

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.technewsworld.com/story/mercedes-nvidia-and-google-are-creating-genuinely-smart-cars-with-ai-177888.html" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Mercedes-Benz partners up with Google and NVIDIA</a>

AI may assist in a variety of ways to assure the best possible driving experience, not just in the development of self-driving vehicles. The businesses collaborate to create intelligent automobiles, which automatically recognise you and customise their settings to suit your tastes. The vehicles can also simply make up a video chat for you if necessary and explain in plain terms what is wrong with them.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://dcai.csail.mit.edu/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The first-ever full course on Data-Centric AI by MIT</a> is free and available online

&quot;What does Data-Centric AI (DCAI) mean? An emerging science that studies techniques to improve datasets, which is often the best way to improve performance in practical ML applications. While good data scientists have long practiced this manually via ad hoc trial/error and intuition, DCAI considers the improvement of data as a systematic engineering discipline.

This is the first-ever course on DCAI. This class covers algorithms to find and fix common issues in ML data and to construct better datasets, concentrating on data used in supervised learning tasks like classification. All material taught in this course is highly practical and focused on impactful aspects of real-world ML applications, rather than mathematical details of how particular models work. You can take this course to learn practical techniques not covered in most ML classes, which will help mitigate the &quot;garbage in, garbage out&quot; problem that plagues many real-world ML applications.&quot;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/chatgpt-app-for-slack/#:~:text=Today%2C%20Salesforce%20and%20OpenAI%20introduced,of%20companies%20work%20more%20productively." style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Salesforce and OpenAI introduced the ChatGPT app for Slack</a>

Built by OpenAI on the Slack platform, the app integrates ChatGPT&#39;s powerful AI technology to deliver instant conversation summaries, research tools, and writing assistance.

&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

🔍<a href="https://www.colossyan.com/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> Hungarian startup Colossyan</a>

Hungarian text-to-video platform <a href="https://www.colossyan.com/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Colossyan </a>gets $5M in its Series A round to build up its R&amp;D/engineering teams and expand to London and New York. The round was led by LAUNCHub Ventures and joined by Emerge Education, Day One Capital, Oktogon Ventures, and APX.

&nbsp;

🔍 <a href="https://www.milytech.com/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Serbian startup Mily Tech</a>

Mily Tech collects, connects, and enriches delivery data with spatial context, making it easy to gain insights and quickly identify possibilities for improvement. Serbian analytics platform obtains &euro;1M pre-seed round.

 
&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

💡 Resources on Multimodal ML

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.03430" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Foundations and Trends in Multimodal ML</a></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://cmu-multicomp-lab.github.io/mmml-tutorial/schedule/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">CMU Tutorial on Multimodal ML (slides, videos)</a></li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/pydata-meetup-recap" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The bias-variance trade-off explained</a>

On March 1st, we were honoured to host the PyData Sofia Meetup where one of the top data scientists in the country Georgi Nalbantov, PhD gave an exceptional presentation on the bias-variance trade-off conception. Read our<a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/pydata-meetup-recap" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> recap article</a>, including his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ngQ_SoRJ8" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">video </a>from the presentation.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00641-w" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">&quot;In AI, is bigger always better?&quot;</a>

&quot;As generative AI models grow larger and more powerful, some scientists advocate for leaner, more energy-efficient systems.&quot; - learn more in Nature&#39;s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00641-w" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">article</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

💡<a href="https://insait.ai/tech-series/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> INSAIT Tech Series</a>&nbsp;

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) is launching a series of lectures on the most sizzling topics, such as Neurosymbolic AI, Generative AI, and Geometric Deep Learning, directly from the technology leaders, researchers and entrepreneurs who create them. The upcoming talk will be given by prof. Armando Solar-Lezama in Sofia, on 03.04.2023. To attend it, register at <a href="https://techseries.insait.ai/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">techseries.insait.ai/</a>.

 
&nbsp;

Thanks for reading our monthly digest! If you enjoy it, we&#39;d love your help spreading the word! Share it with friends and colleagues who might benefit from it.

The topics from the previous newsletters, you can find at:

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-february-2023" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter # 3</a></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/data-and-ai-newsletter-december-2022-edition" style="text-decoration:none">Data and AI Newsletter # 2</a></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/announcing-the-childish-data-and-ai-newsletter" style="text-decoration:none">Announcing VectorLabs&rsquo;s Data and AI Newsletter</a>.</li>
</ul>

The release of The GPT-4 marks a significant advancement in scaling deep learning and the large multimodal model.

Data and AI newsletter: March 2023

The release of The GPT-4 marks a significant advancement in scaling deep learning and the large multimodal model.
On March 14, the Anthropic introduced Claude - a next-generation AI assistant based on Anthropic's research to train helpful, honest, and harmless AI systems. It was created by ex-OpenAI researchers and is meant to be a competitor to the Chat GPT. Moreover, MIT's first-ever Data-Centric AI course is free and includes algorithms to find and fix common problems in ML data and construct better datasets. 

It's time for our monthly dose of data and AI news. So, read all the interesting information and resources in our data and AI newsletter.

This month&#39;s trending themes still include ChatGPT and generative AI. One of the fastest-growing apps in history, ChatGPT reportedly topped 100 million monthly active users in January.

This achievement puts further pressure on established businesses to include cutting-edge LLM (Large Language Model) technology in their products. Open AI has launched several integrations with Microsoft and details of its subscription plan for ChatGPT. Google has also <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">announced </a>the upcoming release of its new ChatGPT competitor called &quot;Bard,&quot; which is built on its LaMDA model.&nbsp;

February&#39;s newsletter is jam-packed with all the news about data and AI and useful resources, not one to miss.&nbsp;

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

▶️ <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/07/reinventing-search-with-a-new-ai-powered-microsoft-bing-and-edge-your-copilot-for-the-web/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Microsoft announces new A.I.-powered Bing homepage that you can chat with</a>

The new Bing uses GPT technology to understand questions and generate answers in natural language. It runs on the next generation of OpenAI&rsquo;s language model, which is significantly more capable than the version used by ChatGPT. You can join the waiting list to play with it here <a href="https://bing.com/new" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">bing.com/new</a>.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/news/what-expect-2023-ai" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">What to expect in 2023 in AI</a>

Four Stanford HAI faculty members describe what they expect the biggest advances, opportunities, and challenges will be for the coming year.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.infoq.com/news/2023/01/hinton-forward-algorithm/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Hinton&rsquo;s Forward-Forward Algorithm&nbsp;</a>

Geoff Hinton, a professor at the <a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">University of Toronto</a>, is working on a new algorithm that will reduce the memory requirements associated with backpropagation algorithms for similar computer vision tasks. Hinton&rsquo;s forward-forward approach uses two forward passes - one positive and one negative - eliminating the need for a backwards propagation because each forward pass optimizes for an opposing objective function.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1u4goaXwDRKC9-x9IvKno0A4sk30" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">ChatGPT API waitlist</a>

&ldquo;Since the Research Preview launch of ChatGPT, we have been blown away by the excitement around ChatGPT and the desire from the developer community to have an API available.&rdquo;

If you are interested in a ChatGPT API, stay up to date <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1u4goaXwDRKC9-x9IvKno0A4sk30" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">from here</a>.

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://google-research.github.io/seanet/musiclm/examples/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">MusicML by Google is announced&nbsp;</a>

MusicLM casts the process of conditional music generation as a hierarchical sequence-to-sequence modelling task, and it generates music at 24 kHz that remains consistent over several minutes.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://ai.facebook.com/blog/ai-that-understands-speech-by-looking-as-well-as-hearing/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The introduction of lip-reading AI by Meta</a>

Meta proudly announced its latest achievement, the lip-reading speech-recognition AI, whose word error rate is already down by 75% &ndash; the best results in this field so far. To develop its lip-reading AI, Meta uses AV-HuBERT, a unique multimodal learning system that combines audio and lip-movement cues to perceive language. Meta revealed that AV-HuBERT already captures &quot;nuanced associations&quot; between visual and auditory data, thanks to its ability to recognize the visual cues of speech and pair them with incoming auditory information.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;🔍 <a href="https://www.pixyle.ai/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Macedonian startup Pixyle AI</a>

Founded in 2018, Pixyle uses AI to identify fashion apparel in images. The startup also helps fashion retailers with image recognition solutions and enables them to deliver a better online shopping experience, boost e-commerce sales, and improve efficiency in catalogue management through smart product data entry. At the end of 2022, the startup secures a &euro;1M seed round. Read more at <a href="https://therecursive.com/macedonian-startup-pixyle-ai-grabs-1m-to-boost-fashion-retailer-sales/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">therecursive.com</a>/.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;💡&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dsp" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Standford NLP published a new LM framework for composing search and LMs with up to 120% gains over GPT-3.5</a>

DSP (Demostrate-Search-Predict) is a framework for composing retrieval models and language models into powerful pipelines that tackle knowledge-intensive tasks.

&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03551" target="_blank">The v4.0 of Talking About Large Language Models (Jan 25, 2023) is out</a>

The paper is written by Murray Shanahan @ Imperial College.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://portal.konjer.xyz/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Pick a book to talk to</a>

You can try this library with talking books for fun if you enjoy reading.

&nbsp;

<h2>Worth-attending events in Bulgaria&nbsp;</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

💡<a href="https://insait.ai/tech-series/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> INSAIT Tech Series</a>

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) is launching a series of lectures on the most sizzling topics, such as Neurosymbolic AI, Generative AI, and Geometric Deep Learning, directly from the technology leaders, researchers and entrepreneurs who create them. The speakers are leading in their fields.

The lectures are suitable for engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, interested students, students, and investors, and they are free. Registration opens on February 16 at <a href="https://techseries.insait.ai/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">techseries.insait.ai</a>.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;💡<a href="https://www.meetup.com/pydata-sofia/events/291461511/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> PyData Sofia Meetup: &ldquo;Bias-variance trade-off in statistical learning&quot;</a>

One of the most promising data scientists in Bulgaria and the region will give a talk at the monthly meetup of the PyData group. Happily, we&#39;ll be hosting it in the event space of our office at CampusX. Do not miss to say &quot;hi&quot; to our team. Learn more about it at <a href="https://www.meetup.com/pydata-sofia/events/291461511/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">meetup.com/pydata-sofia/events</a>.

This month's trending themes still include ChatGPT and generative AI. One of the fastest-growing apps in history, ChatGPT reportedly topped 100 million monthly active users in January.
This achievement puts further pressure on established businesses to include cutting-edge LLM (Large Language Model) technology in their products. Open AI has launched several integrations with Microsoft and details of its subscription plan for ChatGPT. Google has also announced the upcoming release of its new ChatGPT competitor called "Bard," which is built on its LaMDA model. 

February's newsletter is jam-packed with all the news about data and AI and useful resources, not one to miss.

Data and AI newsletter: February 2023

As this year creeps closer to its end, we hope you have some time off with your loved ones and enjoy the festive season!

But before we say the official &quot;See you next year!&quot; we would like to share some of the latest and most exciting news around data and AI from December 2022. Welcome to the second edition of our monthly dose of learning and exciting news!&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://kozyrkov.medium.com/introducing-chatgpt-aa824ad89623" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Introducing ChatGPT</a>

The Chief Decision Scientist at Google, Cassie Kozyrkov, demystifies ChatGPT &mdash; the fascinating new application of GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) that has been generating a lot of buzz in the AI community.

&ldquo;You could ask ChatGPT what it would do if it could fly, and it might respond with something like &ldquo;I would soar through the skies like a majestic eagle, feeling the wind beneath my wings and the freedom of flight.&rdquo; This type of response would be impossible for a human to come up with, but it&rsquo;s perfectly within the realm of possibility for ChatGPT.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

▶️ <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-management-issues-code-red-over-chatgpt-report-2022-12?r=US&amp;IR=T" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Google&#39;s management has reportedly issued a &#39;code red&#39; amid the rising popularity of the ChatGPT AI</a>

&ldquo;As Google reportedly works full steam ahead on new AI products, we might get an early look at them at Google&#39;s annual developer conference,<a href="https://io.google/2022/" style="text-decoration:none"> I/O</a>, which is expected to take place in May.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

▶️<a href="https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/08/yale-opens-new-data-science-institute/" style="text-decoration:none"> </a><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pezm/scientists-increasingly-cant-explain-how-ai-works" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Scientists Increasingly Can&#39;t Explain How AI Works</a>

The people who develop AI are increasingly having problems explaining how it works and determining why it has the outputs it has. Deep neural networks (DNN)&mdash;made up of layers and layers of processing systems trained on human-created data to mimic the neural networks of our brains&mdash;often seem to mirror not just human intelligence but also human inexplicability.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

▶️<a href="https://newscop.com.au/2022/11/17/italy-bans-facial-recognition-technology-only-to-be-used-for-fighting-crime/" style="text-decoration:none"> </a><a href="https://www.soluntech.com/blog/art-vs-technology" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">How does an AI art generator work?</a>

A few months ago, the world of digital art turned upside down with the news that Jason M. Allen won a digital art contest with his work &quot;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Th&eacute;&acirc;tre D&#39;op&eacute;ra Spatial</a>.&quot; This image was generated by Midjourney, an artificial intelligence currently ranked as one of the most powerful AI art generators from text. This article aims to answer the question: How does this image generator AI work? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

🔍<a href="https://www.alcatraz.ai/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> AlcatrazAI: The Future of Biometric Security</a>

The US-Bulgarian company for autonomous access control that uses 3D facial authentication and AI to create safe spaces raised a $25M Series A round earlier this year. More about it learn at <a href="https://www.alcatraz.ai/" target="_blank">alcatraz.ai</a>. Learn more about the future of Biometric Security from Vince Gaydarzhiev in <a href="https://therecursive.com/future-of-biometric-security-alcatraz-ai/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The Recursive&#39;s podcast episode</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

💡<a href="https://press.aboutamazon.com/2022/11/aws-announces-eight-new-amazon-sagemaker-capabilities#:~:text=Amazon%20SageMaker%20now%20gives%20teams,passing%20information%20back%20and%20forth." style="text-decoration:none"> </a><a href="https://yaofu.notion.site/How-does-GPT-Obtain-its-Ability-Tracing-Emergent-Abilities-of-Language-Models-to-their-Sources-b9a57ac0fcf74f30a1ab9e3e36fa1dc1" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">How does GPT Obtain its Ability?&nbsp;</a>

OpenAI&#39;s ChatGPT is undoubtedly clever, capable, and fun to talk to. Its multi-faceted abilities are significantly beyond many NLP researchers&#39; and practitioners&#39; expectations based on the impression of (not-that-strong) original GPT-3. So the natural question is how ChatGPT gets there and where these fantastic abilities come from. In this material, Yao Fu from the University of Edinburgh dissects the emergent abilities and traces them to their sources.

&nbsp;

💡 <a href="https://pair-code.github.io/lit/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Learning Interpretability Tool</a>

The Learning Interpretability Tool (LIT) is an open-source platform for visualizing and understanding NLP models.

&nbsp;

💡<a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/fffiloni/spectrogram-to-music" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> Generate music in real-time with the Riffusion</a>

You can simply describe a musical prompt and get a spectrogram image &amp; sound.

 
&nbsp;

P.S. Should you find your curiosity unsatiated during the holidays, check out the <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/announcing-the-childish-data-and-ai-newsletter" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">first edition of the Data &amp; AI newsletter</a> and all the included resources.

Data & AI Newsletter

As this year creeps closer to its end, we hope you have some time off with your loved ones and enjoy the festive season!

But before we say the official "See you next year!" we would like to share some of the latest and most exciting news around data and AI from December 2022. Welcome to the second edition of our monthly dose of learning and exciting news!

Data and AI newsletter: December 2022 edition

Welcome to our brand new Data and AI newsletter!

Driven by our passion for data, new technologies and knowledge sharing, our team will bring you the most interesting news and valuable resources in a monthly dose of learning and insights.

This AI industry is moving incredibly fast and it&#39;s important we keep growing our knowledge base.

We will cover news from Bulgaria, Europe and the most exciting topics all over the world.

&nbsp;

📌 Who is this newsletter for?

Data and AI professionals, business owners, enthusiasts and everyone who wants to stay in the loop with data &amp; AI-related news.

&nbsp;

📌 What&#39;s the newsletter structure?

The newsletter will cover resources in several sections:

<ul>
	<li>Recent news</li>
	<li>Start-ups in focus&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Learning materials, including resources, tools, and books fellow professionals might find of value</li>
	<li>Conferences and events</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

📌 How to subscribe?

You can currently subscribe to the newsletter on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/data-ai-newsletter-7044295791124832256/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

&nbsp;

In November, the FIFA World Cup began. Do you know how AI has transformed football? Let&#39;s take a look at the most recent news and hand-picked resources we have for you.

&nbsp;

<h2>NEWS AND INSIGHTS</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

<a href="https://therecursive.com/tech-and-the-world-cup-7-ways-ai-has-transformed-football/" target="_blank">▶️ Tech and the World Cup: 7 Ways AI Has Transformed Football&nbsp;</a>

An insightful overview by the team of <a href="https://therecursive.com/" target="_blank">Recursive.com</a>. There are multiple AI solutions, not only in terms of referee support, but also in areas such as scouting and recruiting talent, assisting coaches, and preventing injuries in professional players.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://insait.ai/">▶️ </a><a href="https://insait.ai/insaits-first-phd-students-include-all-time-ranked-international-olympiad-winners-and-top-talent-from-some-of-worlds-best-universities/" target="_blank">INSAIT&rsquo;s first PhD students include all-time ranked international olympiad winners and top talent from some of world&rsquo;s best universities</a>

Just a few months after its announcement, INSAIT announced the first cohort of PhD students starting its doctoral program. The program is the first of its kind in Eastern Europe and is modelled after those found in top universities across Switzerland, Israel, and the U.S.

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) is the first in Eastern Europe and was established in our home country - Bulgaria.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/08/yale-opens-new-data-science-institute/" target="_blank">▶️ Yale opens new data science institute</a>&nbsp;

The newly opened Institute for Foundations of Data Science aims to advance data science opportunities on campus.&ldquo;What our institute is doing is really more about developing core data science, as opposed to thinking about applying it within specific disciplines,&rdquo; said Sterling Professor Daniel Spielman.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/how-ai-text-generation-models-are-reshaping-customer-support-at-airbnb-a851db0b4fa3" target="_blank">▶️ How AI Text Generation Models Are Reshaping Customer Support at Airbnb</a>

Natural language processing (NLP) is one of the most-used areas of AI in practice. Initially, most industrial NLP models were classifiers. Nowadays, this space is undergoing a change towards generative models. They can obtain some domain knowledge from large-scale pre-training and output high-quality text &ndash; for instance answering questions or paraphrasing a piece of content. Read how Airbnb is leveraging this technology.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://newscop.com.au/2022/11/17/italy-bans-facial-recognition-technology-only-to-be-used-for-fighting-crime/" target="_blank">▶️ Italy has banned the use of facial recognition, except for law enforcement purposes</a>

Italy&rsquo;s Data Protection Agency has banned two cities, Lecce and Arezzo, from using facial recognition technology. Under the new rules, smart glasses and facial recognition technology can only be used by police for judicial investigations that will help to fight crime. However, it&rsquo;s expected that Italy will be seeking to create laws within the next year that outline appropriate methods of use surrounding this technology. At the moment, laws in Europe state that using video devices by public bodies to amass people&#39;s personal data is generally allowed on the grounds of public interest, according to WION.

&nbsp;

<h2>INTERESTING AI STARTUPS AROUND</h2>

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&nbsp;

<a href="https://latticeflow.ai" target="_blank">🔍 LatticeFlow: The world&rsquo;s first platform for robust and reliable AI models</a>

You&#39;ve probably heard about the exciting startups incubated by ETH Zurich, and one of most exciting is LatticeFlow. They just secured a $12M funding round as a follow- up to the $2.8M they received a year earlier. The platform helps organizations to build and deploy trustworthy AI by auto-diagnosing AI models, saving months of manual work for data curation and labelling. See more at <a href="https://latticeflow.ai/">latticeflow.ai/</a>.

&nbsp;

<h2>LEARNING RESOURCES</h2>

&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;&bull;

&nbsp;

<a href="https://press.aboutamazon.com/2022/11/aws-announces-eight-new-amazon-sagemaker-capabilities#:~:text=Amazon%20SageMaker%20now%20gives%20teams,passing%20information%20back%20and%20forth." target="_blank">💡 AWS Announces Eight New Amazon SageMaker Capabilities</a>

A few days ago, AWS announced eight new capabilities for Amazon SageMaker, its end-to-end machine learning (ML) service. As customers continue to innovate using ML, they are creating more models than ever before and need advanced capabilities to efficiently manage model development, usage and performance. Today&rsquo;s announcement includes new Amazon SageMaker governance capabilities that provide visibility into model performance throughout the ML lifecycle.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://blog.neurips.cc/2022/11/21/announcing-the-neurips-2022-awards/" target="_blank">💡 The NeurIPS announce its Awards for 2022</a>

Founded in 1987, the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) is one of the most prestigious and competitive international conferences in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The three categories of awards are Outstanding Main Track Papers, Outstanding Datasets and Benchmark Track Papers and the Test of Time Paper. Only 101 papers were accepted and published.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://apolloscape.auto/">💡&nbsp;</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKx7Ja3IzmI&amp;list=PLQVe9futJ4bBEyFPIrIoXKThvkrvaRanJ">Th</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKx7Ja3IzmI&amp;list=PLQVe9futJ4bBEyFPIrIoXKThvkrvaRanJ" target="_blank">e recordings from INSAIT Conference 2022</a>

World-leading computer and AI scientists from Google, Waymo, AWS, MIT, ETH Zurich, EPFL, Max-Planck and Yale presented the latest and most exciting research set to fundamentally change technology in the coming years. It was a fascinating and insightful event held in Sofia, Bulgaria, and our team learnt a lot. The recordings from all 17 sessions are available on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKx7Ja3IzmI&amp;list=PLQVe9futJ4bBEyFPIrIoXKThvkrvaRanJ">YouTube</a>.

&nbsp;

<a href="https://apolloscape.auto/" target="_blank">💡 Open DataSets: ApolloScape</a>

ApolloScape is part of the Apollo project for autonomous driving. Suppose you love to play around with data? The data sets include a trajectory dataset, 3D Perception Lidar Object Detection and Tracking dataset including about 100K image frames, 80k lidar point cloud and 1000km trajectories for urban traffic. The dataset consists of varying conditions and traffic densities, including many challenging scenarios where vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians move among one another. 
 
&nbsp;

We hope you&#39;ll like what you find here and we&#39;ll be delighted if you decide to subscribe to our newsletter.&nbsp;

Welcome to our brand new Data and AI newsletter!

Driven by our passion for data, new technologies and knowledge sharing, our team will bring you the most interesting news and valuable resources in a monthly dose of learning and insights.

Announcing the Childish Data & AI newsletter

Did you know that Python is one of the most commonly used programming languages today?&nbsp;

<img alt="Most Popular Software Development Technologies" src="https://childish-web-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/10/27/most-popular-software-development-technologies-3.png" style="height:419px; width:500px" /> 
Source: Stack Overflow Developers Survey 

On average, the number of languages for programming exceeds 700. Released in the nineties, Python is one of the oldest ones. Yet, today it is winning increasingly wider acceptance. So what makes Python stand out? Python has become one of the most popular programming languages in the world due to its ease of use, power, and versatility.

Let&#39;s delve deeper and consider the whys and the hows that make Python a fantastic option for your business idea. First, we&#39;ll explore why Python is a good choice for businesses and look at some things that Python can be used for. We&#39;ll also take a look at the companies that have already adopted it.

&nbsp;

<h2>Stellar advantages</h2>

Popularity 
In recent years Python experienced a great boost in popularity due to the easy learning curve, speedy web development and AI utilisation. At the present time it is edging ahead of its competitors.&nbsp; 
 
Versatility 
Python is a general-purpose programming language being used broadly by the AI and scientific communities. 
 
Maintainability 
Python is one of the best languages for writing readable and well structured code due to strict indentation and lean syntax. 
 
Speed of Development 
Python&rsquo;s Django framework comes with many reusable components and out-of-the-box architecture solutions. Together with tools like DRF, Django-admin, Swagger and many others it allows for an outstanding development speed. Also it has excellent documentation. 
 
Community 
Python has a phenomenal community. Its community offers a variety of resources, such as code libraries containing chunks of pre-written code that you can easily integrate into your project. It helps accelerate development and explains why Python is so immensely popular. 
 
Learning Curve 
Python is one of the easiest languages to learn due to the readable code and lean syntax. 
 
AI and Data Science 
Python is an undisputed winner in any AI and Data Science related tasks.Its libraries rooted for specific data science jobs makes it a perfect fit.

Libraries like NumPy, SciPy, and pandas make data cleaning, data analysis, data visualisation, and machine learning tasks easier. Some of the most popular libraries include:

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">NumPy: NumPy is a Python library that supports many mathematical tasks on large, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Pandas: The Pandas library is one of the most popular and easy-to-use libraries. It allows for easy manipulation of tabular data for data cleaning and analysis.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Matplotlib: This library provides simple ways to create static or interactive boxplots, scatterplots, line graphs, and bar charts. It helps simplify your data visualisation tasks.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Scipy: Scipy is a library used for scientific computing that helps with linear algebra, optimization, and statistical tasks.</li>
</ul>

 
Big Data 
Big Data is most closely associated with Python among various implementation spheres. For example, many data processing workloads in organisations are powered by Python only. Furthermore, most of the research and development takes place in Python due to its many applications, including ease of analysing and organising usable data. 
 
Multi-threading 
Python supports a threading library but it suffers from limitations due to the <a href="https://wiki.python.org/moin/GlobalInterpreterLock" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Global Interpreter Lock</a> and therefore it is not a top choice for multi-threading applications. 
 
Performance 
Even though Python is an interpreted language, it is considered to have decent performance because of the bytecode.

&nbsp;

<h2>What is Python good for?</h2>

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	Web development
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	Data Science
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	AI &amp; ML applications
	</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">
	Automation scripting
	</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<h2>Top apps built with Python</h2>

There are hundreds of companies using Python for app development in multiple industries. Here is an overview of the different kinds of applications developed with Python. Some of these names may include your long-term favourites.

<h3>Google</h3>

Python is one of Google&#39;s true server-side programming languages, alongside C++, Java, and Go. Peter Norvig, the head of the examination at Google and previous overseer of search quality, keeps up with that, &quot;Python has been a significant component of Google from the start and remains so as the technology develops and advances.&quot;&nbsp;

<h3>Spotify</h3>

The music streaming company is an immense defender of Python, utilising the language for data examination and back-end services. The services are written in Python because Spotify likes how quick the improvement pipeline is while composing and coding in Python.&nbsp;

<h3>Netflix</h3>

Netflix implements Python very much like Spotify, depending on the language to control its data analysis on the server side. It doesn&#39;t stop there, nonetheless. Netflix allows its developers to pick what language to code in and has seen a considerable upsurge in the quantity of Python applications.

<h3>Instagram</h3>

The company is an excellent example of a giant tech company using Python in combination with the Django framework. They built their photo-sharing social media platform on top of Django.&nbsp;

It&#39;s worth mentioning that Instagram succeeded in making a smooth upgrade from Python 2.7 to Python 3. They did it after they had moved from Django 1.3 to Django 1.8 in 2016. Instagram has 400 million active users per day. They proved that Python is great in many ways and can scale massively.

<h3>Stripe</h3>

Stripe is a fintech startup giving companies the ability to accept online payments. Stripe built its application programming interface (API) for cross-compatibility with mobile applications and websites using Python.&nbsp;

<h3>NASA</h3>

NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, primarily uses Python in their Workflow Automation System (WAS) for shuttle mission planning and data management.&nbsp;NASA also uses Python for a number of other projects which can be found on their <a href="https://code.nasa.gov/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">website </a>summarising NASA&rsquo;s open-source projects.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>Conclusion&nbsp;</h2>

The choice of technology mostly depends on individual needs and the type of the project.&nbsp;

However, the current trends of growing the popularity of Python indicate that Python is the future. No matter the project&#39;s size or type - Python is believed to be a fit for an app that scales horizontally, takes advantage of the cloud, comprises ML and data science.

If you are unsure which technology to pick, turn to our team. We can provide you with top-notch technical consultancy, after which you&#39;ll have a firm idea of what developers would better suit your product. Fill out our <a href="https://childish.ai/#contact-us">contact form</a>; we&#39;d love to speak with you.&nbsp;

Did you know that Python is one of the most commonly used programming languages today? In this article, we explore the whys and the hows that make Python a fantastic option for your business idea.

Python: Stellar advantages and why you should consider it

<h2>Vector Labs won the Forbes Business Awards for Socially Responsible Company in 2022</h2>

Vector Labs won the Forbes Business Awards for Socially Responsible Company in 2022. The innovative structure of the company with the Give a Book Foundation as the main owner of the company&#39;s shares deserved the evaluation of the jury. &quot;For us, this recognition is not just an award, but a confirmation that the socially responsible model we apply in our business is seen by other businesses and we hope that more and more companies will apply it,&quot; said Blagovesta Pugyova, managing partner and co-founder of Vector Labs. 
 
The recognition was awarded among a total of 184 nominations in all categories and was evaluated by an independent jury consisting of:

<ul>
	<li>Elina Jeleva, managing partner of launchlabs</li>
	<li>Lachezar Bogdanov, Chief Economist at the Institute of Market Economics</li>
	<li>Lyuben Belov, partner in LAUNCHubVentures</li>
	<li>Maria Shishkova, Managing Partner of AIMS Human Capital</li>
	<li>Nikolay Garnev, Managing Partner of EY for Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo</li>
	<li>Ognyan Donev, majority owner and CEO of Sopharma</li>
	<li>Petya Dimitrova, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of Postbank</li>
	<li>Stanimir Karolev, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Karoll</li>
</ul>

Forbes Bulgaria also gave two special awards - for CEO in 2022 and for Deal in 2022. The winners were chosen from 100 proven business leaders, and for the first year the candidates were nominated by Forbes readers through a survey.

Vector Labs won the Forbes Business Awards for Socially Responsible Company in 2022. The innovative structure of the company with the Give a Book Foundation as the main owner of the company's shares deserved the evaluation of the jury.

Vector Labs won the Forbes Business Awards for Socially Responsible Company in 2022 | Childish.AI Blog

Vector Labs won the Forbes Business Awards for Socially Responsible Company in 2022

We&#39;re excited to share an event that combines our passion for Python and our belief that every child deserves to reach their potential. 
&nbsp; 
<a href="https://www.python-hackathon.com/" target="_blank">Python hackathon: &quot;Give a book&quot; </a>is a three-day competition that will be held from 14.10. 2022 (Friday) to 16.10.2022 (Sunday), in an entirely online format. 
 
The hackathon and its name are not accidental; its purpose is to support the work of the <a href="http://www.podarivreme.org/" target="_blank">Give a Book Foundation</a> with our creativity and the enormous possibilities of Python. Foundation volunteers help hundreds of children without parental care reach their potential and prepare for life outside the home by becoming their mentors. This edition of the hackathon is connected precisely with the moment young adults leave home and begin to have a strong need for work, housing, and advice. 
 
The Give a Book Foundation is a different foundation. Although it is an NGO and has only social activity for public benefit, it owns a major share in our company. 
Our team will support the participants with mentoring but also continue the work that we will not be able to finish together in the short time of the hackathon and complete and implement the platform so that it reaches the children and participants&#39; contributions will not be useless.

<h2>Who will we help together?</h2>

You don&#39;t know Nayden, but he, like many other children like him, must leave home or the center where they live when they come of age. But, like most kids like him, he has no relatives to go to. They offered him municipal housing, but he didn&#39;t have a job to cover his expenses. Someone mentioned to him about transitional housing - a place where they help young people like him to get back on their feet, but there were no vacancies. So he decided to try his luck in Sofia, but it was not so easy. 
 
At the moment, 2 months after he left home, he is living with an acquaintance, where it is no longer comfortable to stay, wandering around in job interviews and inspections for accommodation that he cannot yet afford. This is the turning point for many of these children &ndash; either they can get back on their feet and become free and responsible adults with work and self-esteem, or they can give in to despair and go to the other side of the welfare system. 
 
And right now, and maybe even a few months back, he would benefit immensely from a platform that would bring together all his needs as a starting point in adult life: &quot;Job, Housing, Advice.&quot; With this platform, we want to create an easy way to organize this support for Nayden and the hundreds of young people like him.

<h2> 
Registration</h2>

The registration for the hackathon is open on the event website -<a href="http://www.python-hackathon.com" target="_blank"> www.python-hackathon.com</a>/. We will send all the details about the event participation process to those who filled out the registration form.&nbsp; 
The registration form will be open until 12.10. (Wednesday). 
 
This is the first edition of the &quot;Python hackathon.&quot; We wish it to become a traditional event where we support meaningful projects for important causes. 
 
Learn more about the hackathon and share it with friends from here:<a href="http://www.python-hackathon.com" target="_blank"> www.python-hackathon.com</a>/.

We're excited to share an event that combines our passion for Python and our belief that every child deserves to reach their potential.
 
Python hackathon: "Give a book" is a three-day competition that will be held from 14.10. 2022 (Friday) to 16.10.2022 (Sunday), in an entirely online format.

Python hackathon: "Give a Book" | VectorLabs.AI Blog

Python hackathon: "Give a Book"

Nowadays data are becoming more valuable than most resources for businesses, scientists, states and individuals. The International Data Corporation (IDC) <a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS46286020#:~:text=By%202024%2C%20IDC%20expects%20this%20ratio%20to%20be%201%3A10.&amp;text=Productivity%2Fembedded%20data%20is%20the,somewhat%20by%20COVID%2D19%20dynamics.">forecasts continuous growth in the creation and consumption of data</a>&nbsp;with the amount of 175 zettabytes to be reached by 2025. For companies, this means an opportunity to tailor and deliver advanced products and solutions to any B2C and B2B industry. 
 
But how to cope with such a big amount of data? Do you have the data analytics capabilities you need? We are drawing your attention to the Python programming language which turns out to be the most suitable to manage big data with its large number of libraries. Among the advantages are higher efficiency, simplicity, better access, and outcomes of the projects, mainly related to AI, data science, and machine learning. Here are 4 reasons why you may need it as well:

<ol>
	<li>Scalability</li>
</ol>

Probably the best programming language when talking about scalability. With Python it is possible to increase the processing speed when the amount of data grows to enormous volumes. This allows for fast and smooth data processing unlike with other common languages.

<ol>
	<li value="2">Supports multiple libraries</li>
</ol>

What makes Python the best choice for big data in the tech industry is the wide range of libraries available that are suitable for machine learning, data analytics, visualization, and numerical computing. This is of great importance since Big Data requires data analysis and scientific computing. A major advantage is also Python&rsquo;s high processing speed in comparison with other programming languages. In the past, this was not among the strengths of the language but the release of Anaconda has made each version much faster.

<ol>
	<li value="3">Coding is easy</li>
</ol>

Python is known to have fewer lines of code in comparison with other programming languages. This makes it simple to execute programs and helps in identifying and associating data types automatically. Also, Python has the ability to process complex tasks in no time.

<ol>
	<li value="4">Learning is easy</li>
</ol>

Even for beginners learning Python is simple and the syntax could be easily read and understood. Another benefit is the support available from the large Python community of developers which means you will easily get your issues fixed or questions answered. 
 
Apart from being the best choice for Big Data, Python is currently the most widely used multi-purpose, high-level and stable programming language chosen by many of the global tech giants. Here is the reason our team is exclusively devoted to building solutions in Data Science, Internet of Things, AI, Machine learning, and Web Development, based on Python. 
 
Interested to learn more about how we can help you? We bring strong expertise, insights, and knowledge to Python projects and deliver end-to-end service complying with our client&#39;s budget, timeline, and individual requirements. Check out <a href="https://www.childish.eu/en/">our website</a> to learn more and get in touch with us.

4 Good Reasons to Choose Python for Big Data

Introducing the BOT model 
 
The Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model is a way to build international teams through a local partner, especially in the IT field. The team is transferred from a supplier to the parent company when both parties are ready. Build-Operate-Transfer is used as an alternative to expanding existing internal software teams or outsourcing development partners. 
 
The characteristics of BOT that make it so attractive are the following:

<ul>
	<li>Opportunity to rely on a local partner with proven experience</li>
	<li>Reduced risks for the parent company</li>
	<li>A team of developers with a greater depth of understanding of the business and its culture (against an outside team)</li>
</ul>

 
BOT - the main options 
 
There are basically two ways to approach the transition to the Build-Operate-Transfer model. 
 
The first option is for the local partner to set up a subsidiary and, after some time, sell it to the parent company, transferring ownership when the parent company is ready to take over. The benefits of this option are the following:

<ul>
	<li>Ownership of the entire subsidiary is quickly transferred in one step when the parent company wishes.</li>
	<li>Provides a seamless transition for teams, suppliers and customers.</li>
</ul>

The second option involves setting up the subsidiary at a later stage. It is created when the parent company wishes to make the transfer. The advantages of this option are:

<ul>
	<li>The initial risks are reduced for the parent company, which allows them to test the offshoring model.</li>
	<li>Less organizational work in the beginning (more at the time of transfer to the parent site).</li>
</ul>

 
The three stages of the BOT model 
 
The Build-Operate-Transfer model can be divided into three stages, each of which leads to an approach to the goal of creating a team abroad.

<ol>
	<li>Build - building the team, ensuring that it is ready to work successfully and has its own back-office support / human resources, finance department, etc./</li>
	<li>Operate - management of the subsidiary in cooperation with the parent company. Ensure that the team is well integrated and tailored to the needs of the parent company.</li>
	<li>Transfer - Transfer control and ownership of the team to the client when ready.</li>
</ol>

If the Build-Operate-Transfer model sounds like the right solution for you, you&#39;re likely to ask yourself, &quot;Where do I start?&quot; To help you, we will list 8 main topics to discuss with your chosen local BOT service provider. 
 
1.&nbsp;Coordinating the objectives and scope of work - define the framework of the project as an idea of the objectives and scope. In this way, long-term goals can be identified, along with the necessary roles and opportunities. These are the foundations for the overall course of the project. 
 
2.&nbsp;Defining processes, organizational structure and management - this step establishes the future structure of the project and makes it accessible. These include:

<ul>
	<li>The role of the team abroad;</li>
	<li>The size of the team in relation to the overall project;</li>
	<li>Terms and stages;</li>
	<li>Details of the services or products you develop;</li>
	<li>Investment and budget specifics</li>
</ul>

3.&nbsp;Creating a local subsidiary - here you have the flexibility, as this can happen at different stages of the process. 
 
4.&nbsp;Setting up an office and back-office - Having a physical presence abroad requires compliance with local laws, so it is prudent to choose a reputable local partner to set up your office and manage back-office operations (ie management, administration and office space). 
 
5.&nbsp;Selection and team building - Finding the right employees is the basis of the project. Usually, the client has the last word in choosing the accounts, as he can have and as he can keep control over the salary levels. 
 
6. Collaborative team operations - In the course of the work it should be monitored whether the processes and the structure need adjustments. Effective communication in your organization is essential, as is a cooperation between the parent, the BOT provider and third parties (ie accountant, office landlord, salespeople). 
 
7.&nbsp;Regular reporting, including audits - Operations are already underway and the intermediate results of the new team are beginning to be seen. At this point, regular feedback, timely and accurate reports and audits are important as a way to meet company requirements so that all participants have an idea of the progress made. 
 
8.&nbsp;Transfer planning and execution - Includes proper inspection, preparation of documents and familiarization with all operations performed by the provider. Make sure everything is clear to the team that will take over the operations. 
 
 
The time&nbsp;frame of the BOT model 
 
The transfer of ownership of the enterprise usually occurs after 12-18 months, but you must be careful about the emergence of critical stages. During the first 3 months, you usually start by recruiting staff and opening an office with employees. Within the operational stage (4-11 months) the number of employees increases, in accordance with the specifics of the plan. Months 12-18 are mainly focused on the model transfer phase, where the local site and teams prepare to be handed over to the main plant. 
 
 
The benefits of using the BOT model 
 
The BOT model can allow you to adjust your local operations earlier (2-3 months compared to 6+ months for organizations that continue on their own), reduce risks and build a solid foundation for further growth of your offshore team. Some of the main benefits are:

<ul>
	<li>access to a network of trusted local partners</li>
	<li>improves the time-value ratio</li>
	<li>reduced risk of establishing and operating a company abroad</li>
	<li>minimizes pre-transfer effort</li>
	<li>access to additional services</li>
</ul>

If you are interested in implementing the BOT model or are looking for alternatives to outsourcing, <a href="http://www.childish.eu">contact us</a> to learn more.

BOT model and its popularity

We&#39;re thrilled to be part of the Bulgarian delegation organized in collaboration between the British Bulgarian Business Association (<a href="https://bbba.bg/" target="_blank">BBBA</a>) and the <a href="https://dhicluster.bg/?lang=en" target="_blank">DHI Cluster</a>&mdash;of which we are a proud member. This trade mission is dedicated to showcasing Bulgaria&#39;s advancements and innovations in digital health at the prestigious GIANT Health Event in London this December. &nbsp;

<h2>Part of a healthcare community&nbsp;</h2>

Being part of the DHI Cluster, a non-profit association, resonates deeply with our values. This cluster passionately champions companies and organizations navigating the digital solutions and innovations landscape in healthcare. Established in November 2018, the DHI Cluster started with the collective vision of nine companies and two non-profit organizations. Since then, it has blossomed into a thriving ecosystem, now embracing 30 IT and pharma companies along with two NGOs.

For us at VectorLabs.AI, this community is a shared commitment to driving impactful change in healthcare through digital solutions. As we join the Bulgarian delegation, we carry with us the collective strength of this vibrant community, ready to showcase our strides in redefining the future of healthcare at the GIANT Health Event in London this December.&nbsp;

<h2>About GIANT Health</h2>

GIANT Health is a rapidly expanding global community (of over 300,000 people) of everyone who&rsquo;s business is health, tech, and innovation.

The GIANT (Global Innovation and New Technology) Health Event is the UK&rsquo;s leading, unmissable healthcare innovation festival; with 4 &ldquo;shows within the festival&rdquo;. Come meet, network, learn, and do business with 100s of world-class speakers, experience immersive innovation presentations, see the UK&rsquo;s leading health-tech start-ups pitching to investors, and more.

 
Stay tuned for updates as we embark on this enriching journey! 🚀 
&nbsp;

We're thrilled to be part of the Bulgarian delegation organized in collaboration between the British Bulgarian Business Association (BBBA) and the DHI Cluster—of which we are a proud member. This trade mission is dedicated to showcasing Bulgaria's advancements and innovations in digital health at the prestigious GIANT Health Event in London this December.

VectorLabs.AI is part of the GIANT Health event | VectorLabs.AI Blog

Navigating the healthcare future: VectorLabs.AI is part of the GIANT Health event

Our co-founder Blaga took part in the <a href="https://forbesbulgaria.com/events/dna/" target="_blank">Forbes DNA of Success</a> forum in 2021. Together with two other Bulgarian entrepreneurs who have developed their ideas into a successful business, they share their paths and discuss how difficult or easy it is to create a working business, or in other words, what it is like to be an entrepreneur.

If you haven&#39;t watched the discussion, we share some of Blaga&#39;s insights in the article. You can watch the video from the forum <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ygEEPLVX54" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;

Blaga has extensive professional experience as a manager and consultant. She is also the main engine of the <a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/" target="_blank">Give a Book Foundation</a>. Here are her answers to the discussed questions.&nbsp;

<h2>How did you end up on the side of entrepreneurs?</h2>

&quot;It&#39;s pretty logical when you accumulate knowledge that you want to apply in a different way than what your boss tells you - then you decide you want to do something of your own. I have watched my parents, who have had their own business since I was very young, and I have always wanted to follow this path. But I didn&#39;t understand when &quot;Give a Book&quot; as a foundation became a kind of innovation.

At one point, I was included in the selection of Forbes; I received other awards, and someone comes and tells you, &quot;You are a social entrepreneur,&quot; &quot;But how so ?! I didn&#39;t want that at all; I had other ideas about entrepreneurship - this happened to the foundation by itself and naturally.&quot; This step led me to gather the courage to start my own company.

Childish is a software company focused on Python and systems with artificial intelligence and machine learning. The logic is that machines and computers learn similarly to how children and machines learn. But that&#39;s not the only reason we call ourselves Childish.

Childish also comes from the naive idea of ​​my partner and I, with whom we founded the company, to make the company 50% owned by the foundation. We were both very committed to working with the children and decided that if we did business together, it would be shared with the foundation. &quot; 
&nbsp;

<h2>How do you find the balance between personal life and work?</h2>

&quot;I just want to comment on what Oggy said, &#39;Entrepreneur&#39;s wife&#39; - the entrepreneur doesn&#39;t always have a wife. I am saying it somehow as a joke, but this balance is essential. I have seen examples when the people around you do not support you; somehow, it can not happen. And it would be best if you had family, friends, and people around you to understand that because entrepreneurship is a full-day and a full-night job, it&#39;s not a 9-to-5 job. &quot; 
&nbsp;

<h2>Where do you see Childish in 3 years?</h2>

&quot;It&#39;s something I talked about at a foundation&#39;s meeting recently. At one point, I realized that when the company grows and our profits grow, the foundation will get half of that. So at one point, I gathered the people from the foundation and told them, &quot;Think what we can do with this money.

The foundation currently has a budget of BGN 100-200 thousand per year and manages the communication of 500 volunteers with 500 children. What can we do if we have five or ten times more? And somehow, we were all shocked that we have a great opportunity to make a big difference with our work.

So in 3 years, I want to think about whether to build a residence or to make some other innovation in the social sphere, investing the money from the company. &quot;

Our co-founder Blagovesta took part in the Forbes DNA of Success forum in 2021. Together with two other Bulgarian entrepreneurs who have developed their ideas into a successful business, they share their paths and discuss how difficult or easy it is to create a working business, or in other words, what it is like to be an entrepreneur.

Vector Labs at Forbes DNA of Success Forum | VectorLabs.AI Blog

How do you become an entrepreneur? Vector Labs at Forbes DNA of Success Forum

What is the most valuable thing you learned from participating in the Next Generation competition?

- The other finalists in the top three, as well as the judges&#39; high scores, showed me that I might be going in the right direction. When I was talking to the others during the awards, it struck me that they both spoke so passionately about their work that I got passionate too. I felt like buying their products even though I don&#39;t need them. This passion is what we have in common. Maybe there was no need for so many phases and interviews, the passion and the sparkle in their eyes was noticeable at the first meeting.

Your career started in consultancies like Parole M and Deloitte. How did you go from there to the idea of social entrepreneurship?

- Very early in my career, I worked for a year on the Fatherland Front programme at Nova TV. There I met many children from institutions who had fallen into difficult situations, and it made me think that the furore after showing them on TV lasts 2-3 days, the police and social intervene for some more time, and finally everything dies down, it stays the same. I started thinking how I could change it. Then I started looking for a job in my specialty - finance, but what burned me then remained, this hunger to change something in the lives of children not for a few days, but for the long term.

Is that where your choice of the specific cause - children in orphanages - came from?

- Yes, that&#39;s really where it started, but the entrepreneurial side of me came through from the very beginning, i.e. the attitude to try and find a solution. Quite naively, my initial idea for a solution was to give books to children, expecting them to sit down, read them and be fine. The very first few times we saw that no one was reading these books. Again, the entrepreneurial thing is to change the model when you feel it&#39;s not working. So we started bringing in volunteers to interact with the kids to become their friends. And then it worked. If you don&#39;t have the entrepreneurial spirit, no matter how much empathy you feel for what&#39;s going on around you, you&#39;re not going to change it. You can sit down and cry, but that&#39;s it.

How exactly is the work structured at the foundation?

- At this point in the foundation, there are already a lot of processes and a lot of structure, more business. I&#39;m in charge, and we have an office with two or three people, depending on the period and the workload, who deal with organising everything. We also have 16 teachers who help the children with reading, writing and arithmetic. We work with 18 homes and each home has a coordinator who takes care of their 20-30 volunteers. In this way, we have created a fairly stable structure that can grow very easily. Every weekend we travel to some of the homes. So if you volunteer, you&#39;re guaranteed a trip and a meeting with the kids once a month.

What stages did the development of the foundation go through?

- On July 2 we had a birthday - we turned 8 years old. In the beginning we started quite volunteer - for the first 4 years we had no funding, all volunteers shared the fuel money, we would get together in one car and go round the homes. It was all very romantic and clean. At some point, when the volunteers became too many - 50 - 60 people per month, we had to think about how to transport these people more efficiently. We subsequently applied for funding and were approved. Since then we have not had a problem with funding precisely because we showed in the beginning that we were doing it selflessly. I myself have always been a volunteer and have never received a salary from the foundation.

How do you select the volunteers?

- Anyone can volunteer, the only reason we turn someone down is if we think they may pose a threat to children. The meetings mostly happen in the home or a convenient location in town, this way we aim to open the door of the home from the outside in, to bring the community in to them to break down the barrier that separates them from us. We have a theme to the event, but it&#39;s usually all very loose - to break the ice, we often play a sport, then disperse and the volunteers hang out with their fellow kids and talk about their grades, books, read write, discuss various issues, etc. The kids are used to the idea that we are friends, and it keeps them from expecting &quot;Will you pick me up?&quot; We also employ a local teacher in each home we work in, who visits twice a week for two hours and reads and writes with the children. The point I see is for a child to interact with a volunteer, it&#39;s important to have a personal connection and contact. That way the communication becomes sustainable and long lasting. If that foundation is gone tomorrow, the friendship between the child and the volunteer should remain. I don&#39;t care how many friendships we have completed on a project. These children need support in the years ahead. Working with them is a long-term commitment. A lot of people shy away from that. But the truth is that nothing happens necessarily, it is free - who when and how they can. And it is this freedom that makes the whole structure sustainable.

How do you finance your activities?

- I&#39;ve always said that if you do something good, at some point people start looking for it and finding money. Volunteers even help with funds themselves. It&#39;s a valid test of the market principle that if society needs something, it always finds a way to continue to exist. As a business person I find it very difficult to seek money for free, I can&#39;t snap my fingers and beg some company for a donation. I know it&#39;s not shameful when it&#39;s a cause, but I can&#39;t. So I&#39;m wondering how to get it. I&#39;ve thought of a thousand models of social entrepreneurship. One of the most advanced ideas was a social farm that would employ young people coming out of institutions. My latest idea is an IT software development company where the foundation is the main owner - vector-labs.ai. If this idea really takes off, and it already has orders for several big sites, the dividend income could sustain the foundation.

It came to me from a model that is particularly popular in the Nordic countries and especially in Denmark, better known as Foundation-Owned Social Enterprises (FOSE). An example is Villum Fonden - the foundation owns a huge global roofing company, better known for the Velux brand, with annual profits in excess of &euro;100 million. Most of this profit goes to the foundation. I was very inspired by this model and I think I can adapt it for Bulgaria. Our tax legislation does not encourage this kind of financing, but this does not prevent a foundation from owning shares in a company, as long as this can only bring it positive returns in the form of a dividend.

What are the challenges for the NGO sector in Bulgaria?

- I see that people are too project-oriented, they focus more on the reporting of activities than on the meaning and outcome of those activities. If you go into business just to make money, it doesn&#39;t work. But if you do business because you want to solve a problem for people, then things work. Measuring the actual impact of your activities is also very important to see if you are doing something with too much money and effort. But you can&#39;t measure anything if you don&#39;t know what problem you&#39;re solving in the first place.

You&#39;re also the chief operating officer of JobTiger. How does your working day go at the company?

- I have been at JobTiger for 2 years. I&#39;m involved in the operational side of things, with a lot of financial work. Each manager moves their projects independently, I only have to step in if there is a crisis situation or if we have something new going on. When you&#39;re in a small company, you can see the whole picture and you often have to deal with everything - hiring people, finance, budgeting, strategy, business development, change, operations, even changing offices.

How do you juggle your work alongside the foundation and your duties at JobTiger? Do they interfere or help each other?

- During my eight main work hours, I&#39;m at JobTiger. On weekends, I work a lot for the foundation. But in general the two help each other a lot - for example, through the network of contacts I have through the foundation, I can keep in touch with all sorts of people on projects I&#39;m running at PocketTiger. Conversely, my work at JobTiger helps me structure the foundation with a business mindset, not just as a cause. If I have to do the financial report for a project, I can do it with my eyes closed. That way my work day comes out to about 12 hours instead of 16, because one helps the other.

You also have a published book of poetry. Poet, social entrepreneur, business leader - which role do you feel closest to?

- 3-4 years ago I had a terrible dilemma about what to choose to do with my life. I was constantly hesitating which direction to take. Now I have calmed down and made peace with all three things. I can see that one cannot do without the other. It&#39;s the foundation that really gets me, because it&#39;s a cause, even an institution that many people already know and work with. It gives me immense pleasure to see how the children already know the volunteers and have friendly relationships with them. It&#39;s the closest thing to me because it&#39;s something that I&#39;ve created and I can see that it&#39;s very much alive and that it&#39;s grown more than I have. I look at poetry as a hobby, it&#39;s my shadier side that I don&#39;t show as much in either of my two jobs.

Looking back, what would you do differently?

- I look at things philosophically and I&#39;ve always said that whatever I&#39;ve done, I&#39;ve done it with the knowledge I had at the time. I feel lucky to have created something that changed our environment in some way. I never thought Give a Book would become a foundation, it happened organically. All my steps have led me here, none of them I would erase.

Where do you think this do-good culture that seems to drive your career so far comes from?

- The giving, the giving of time have always been close to me. My parents are the kind of people that have always helped someone. That&#39;s what I grew up with and used to - that when you see someone in need, you&#39;re going to help them. Not that it&#39;s some scary kindness in me, it&#39;s just part of my life, a natural habit.

An interview with our co-founder Blagovesta - "Career with many faces".

Career with many faces | VectorLabs.AI Blog

Career with many faces

Are you hungry to learn? Our team always is! 
Keeping our expertise and knowledge sharp, we must constantly learn! Our colleagues Alexandra, Nina, Vasko, Bobby, and Teodor have already received their AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certifications and more to come! We&#39;re proud of our team!

&nbsp;

<h2>Why AWS?</h2>

The cloud infrastructure business has soon been dominated by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon has overtaken Microsoft Azure (29.4%), Google Cloud (3.0%), and IBM (2.6%), holding 41.5% of the market as of Q1 2023.

Other well-known organisations frequently using AWS include Netflix, Twitch, Twitter, The Guardian, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

And it&#39;s simple to understand why. The numerous businesses and sectors using AWS profit from its scalable cloud solutions and pay-as-you-go business model. This entails that there are no restrictions on what their services can offer and no financial barriers.

&nbsp;

<h2>How do AWS certifications work?</h2>

Amazon has developed a dozen separate certificates to enable developers, data scientists, cybersecurity networking engineers, and machine learning professionals to have a depth of understanding of their products. This is due to the range and complexity of the products offered in the AWS ecosystem.

It is simple to get confused by the extensive selection of services when using the AWS platform for the first time. There are numerous diverse areas of competence within the vast service offering. The certificates are made to evaluate a user&#39;s knowledge of AWS technologies. 
You must pass a test to obtain an <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/certification/" target="_blank">AWS Certification</a>. To guarantee fair results, the exams are overseen by a separate regulatory organisation. Testers must correctly answer more than 70% of the questions to pass the exam and earn the certifications; you&#39;ll need a greater percentage as the examinations get more complex and stack on top of one another.

&nbsp;

<h2>Why did our team get certified?</h2>

Amazon powers the majority of our client and internal infrastructure at Vector Labs. We have handled practically every aspect of the AWS ecosystem, and as a result, an increasing number of team members are qualified in various fields. At Vector Labs, we also have extensive expertise in transferring clients from their current cloud infrastructure to Amazon.

We enable and encourage our staff to earn their AWS Certification. We&#39;re proud of our colleagues who invest time and effort into ongoing learning. Pursuing AWS Certification as a team encourages the team to look up to each other and hone skills together. Obtaining AWS Certification influenced our team in just this way, increasing their effectiveness and the quality of project delivery.

Are you hungry to learn? Our team always is!
Keeping our expertise and knowledge sharp, we must constantly learn! Our colleagues Alexandra, Nina, Vasil, Bobby, and Teodor have already received their AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certifications and more to come! We're proud of our team! Congratulations, and keep up the good work.

Our colleagues are AWS certified

When we work on large-scale projects, they usually take years to develop. In this situation, it is no wonder that the technologies used in the beginning have become obsolete, and there comes a time when they need to be updated with more recent ones.

&nbsp;

<h2>Why do we update the software?&nbsp;</h2>

First, new technologies frequently allow us to achieve the same functionality with less code because they offer additional implementation options. Also, new versions of technologies provide superior protection against malicious activity as, in most cases, the hackers have already discovered old systems&#39; security flaws and ways to overcome them. The most recent versions also include new features that we can use.&nbsp;

These are the main reasons we want a software to be updated frequently.

&nbsp;

<h2>The goal&nbsp;</h2>

Let&#39;s say the most recent long-term support (LTS) version of <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/" target="_blank">Django </a>is the selected version we want to upgrade. If you have more than one version between the current and desired, it is not a good idea to switch directly to it. Instead, make it in steps for each LTS version and release it separately. An efficient upgrade process helps make the upgrade smoother, encouraging it to happen at each release point.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Here are the currently supported versions of Django:&nbsp;&nbsp;

<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KA08QPo4qlDFb3RcXBHw2DmElH522a_AOb_4sMGdMefJnN-Ip_U5GMy3uAK9OFyUPjiL7RD-VyootkUW_vJNzpZ9KUq32lMIuqYJOSKzLnFKMphW5w2KSELzhWBQwYMfsgNaYdJpVz8sGkPwEgjDxco" style="height:265px; width:540px" />

Source: <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/download/" target="_blank">Django website</a>

&nbsp;

In this blog post, I look at the process we followed for our bespoke applications, refined by the experience of each previous upgrade.

&nbsp;

<h2>The process in steps</h2>

&nbsp;

<h3>Planning and Preparation</h3>

Planning comes first. Choose the suitable libraries after selecting the Django version. Keep in mind that a project may not be able to run with a newer version of Django and its older libraries because many of them won&#39;t be compatible.

The preparation comes next. We create an excel table with all the libraries currently used in the project.

The following step is checking that this newer version doesn&#39;t require a more recent Python. Versions of Django are matched with specific ranges of Python versions that were available when that version was developed, so Python upgrading is an iterative process.

The next step in the planning process is to find the release notes - read every release note of the Django version, which is greater than the current one. Understand the changes of version release notes and every modification that must be made to the code in order for the project to use the newer version. Read these carefully, as some changes may be very subtle in how they produce problems. Then, we&#39;re prepared to take action.

&nbsp;

<h3>Action</h3>

Beginning with the Django release notes and all those changes is a good place to start. After that, changing a few imports is half the job. For example:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">When upgrading from 1.11 to version 2.2 I replaced the&nbsp;<code>&quot;from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse<var>&quot;</var></code> with <code>&quot;from django.urls import reverse&quot;</code>.&nbsp;</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc"><code>-from rest_framework.filters import DjangoFilterBackend</code></li>
</ul>

+from django_filters.rest_framework import DjangoFilterBackend

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Deprecate the <code>Router.register base_name</code> argument in favor of basename</li>
</ul>

There might be some small changes to the code like:

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Add ForeignKey on_delete method</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Replace <code>@detail_route uses</code> with <code>@action(detail=True, )</code></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Replace <code>@list_route</code> uses with <code>@action(detail=False, )</code></li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">add default on nested serializer field</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Fix many reverse urls calls</li>
</ul>

 
Continue by updating the <a href="https://www.django-rest-framework.org/" target="_blank">Django Rest Framework</a> version and all of the libraries from Excel, noting the version you receive.

Of course, some might not be able to be upgraded using the previous version of Django so you can save those for last. For example, one of our updates had an issue with the package that enables us to save data in JSON format. The more recent version of Django supports that specific field. So I had to remove the old library and migrate the data. Converting the <code>djoser </code>library was the hard part, but nothing impossible. Finally, when all libraries are upgraded it is time to raise the actual Django.

&nbsp;

<h3>Final checks and testing</h3>

The &quot;<code>python manage.py check</code>&quot; command comes in handy, which returns the potential issues with the fixing code. Please pay attention not only to errors but also to warnings. After that, start debugging and run the unit tests. Finally, when all possible fixes have been made, the work has been completed in half; the remaining tasks include rising the Django version, fixing all unit tests, and using the &quot;<code>python manage.py check</code>&quot; command to detect issues.

When everything is prepared, it&#39;s time to launch the front end and thoroughly examine each page and each button to ensure they all work as intended. This is even before the QA team receives it to test.

And be sure to review your checklist to see if there are any items you haven&#39;t gotten to yet.

&nbsp;

<h2>In conclusion&nbsp;</h2>

Upgrading software can be frightening, but there is no better time to do it than now since it only gets more complicated and insecure down the road. Here&#39;s what our checklist includes:

<ol>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Choose the proper Django version. LTS preferred.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Read the Release Notes, and make a checklist.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Review and make a list with third-party package compatibility.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Update the DRF and all libraries.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Get the tests passed.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Manually test critical components.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Clear your checklist.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Deploy a test environment and let the QA team approve it.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Deploy staging for final checks.</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:decimal">Deploy production and enjoy the well-done job.</li>
</ol>

&nbsp;

If you need help keeping your projects up to date,&nbsp;<a href="https://childish.ai/#contact-us">contact us</a>. We would be happy to learn more and to help.

&nbsp;

&ndash; Author: Pavel Penchev, Python Developer

When we work on large-scale projects, they usually take years to develop. In this situation, it is no wonder that the technologies used in the beginning have become obsolete, and there comes a time when they need to be updated with more recent ones.

In this blog post, we look at the process we followed for our bespoke applications, refined by the experience of each previous upgrade.

How to upgrade Django - a step-by-step guide

We&#39;re thrilled to announce our participation in several upcoming events where our team will be at the forefront of discussions on cutting-edge topics in technology. Here&#39;s a glimpse of where you can find us:

<h2>Technovation - April 23</h2>

Join us at <a href="https://manager.bg/events/technovation-2024">Technovation </a>where our very own Georgi Nalbantov will be taking the stage as a moderator of the panel &quot;AI Unleashed&quot;. This event, happening on April 23, promises to delve deep into the realm of artificial intelligence, exploring its opportunities and risks, real-world applications, and much more. 
 
About Technovation

The already well-established &quot;Manager&quot; format of Technovation 2024 will focus on the symbiosis between business and the technology sector. Driven by a desire to bring you more quality content on technology, we will invite leading executives, experts of recognized standing, entrepreneurs and investors on stage to provide answers to a range of questions.

&nbsp;

<h2>Banking Today - April 25</h2>

On April 25, a part of our esteemed Data Science team will be participating in the Banking Today forum by Investor.bg.Throughout three panels, top experts will discuss the sector&#39;s forecasts and expectations for 2025, the business funding climate in the country, financial innovation, regulations and the power of AI.&nbsp; 
Learn more about the event at<a href="https://investormediapro.bg/event/banking-today-2/"> investormediapro.bg/event/banking-today</a>.

&nbsp;

<h2>Digitalk 2024 - May 14</h2>

Mark your calendars for May 14 as our CEO, Blagovesta, takes part in a panel discussion centred around AI in business at <a href="https://www.digitalkconference.com/">Digitalk by Капитал</a>. The panel will be focused on insights into the future trends and opportunities in AI innovation across various industries.

The panel will be moderated by Dilyana Haralanova, representing Bulgarian Expansion Bridge, as they explore the transformative potential of AI and its impact on businesses worldwide.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

We&#39;re excited to engage with you at these events, share knowledge, and be part of the ongoing dialogue shaping the future of technology. 
Stay tuned for more updates by following us on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/childish-ai">LinkedIn</a>. We look forward to seeing you there!

We are excited to announce our participation in several upcoming technology events in Bulgaria. Here's where you can meet us.

Meet VectorLabs.AI at these events

We're thrilled to announce our participation in several upcoming events where our team will be at the forefront of discussions on cutting-edge topics in technology. Here's a glimpse of where you can find us.

Meet us at these upcoming events

We&#39;re thrilled to share that our exclusive in-house Data Science knowledge-sharing sessions are now open to the public! Join us at our office in <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/BqwvWezn3g97qA436" target="_blank">Europark, Tsarigradsko shose 40 Street</a>, for a series of insightful technical sessions.

Every month our data science team will share interesting insights. Full of data science expertise, both in industry and in academia, our team members will share knowledge, hands-on examples and their experience. 
 
What&rsquo;s the goal? To cultivate a collaborative environment where individuals can refine their skills, connect with peers, and expand their professional network.

At VectorLabs.AI we organise Data Science sessions because we truly care about sharing knowledge inside and outside the organisation. We believe it benefits us and the industry to connect, create, learn and grow together.

&nbsp;

<h2>Upcoming Data Science meetups</h2>

📅 Mark your calendars: April 1st &amp; April 8th

🕡 Time: 6:30 PM onwards

📌 Location:&nbsp;<a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/BqwvWezn3g97qA436" target="_blank">Europark, Tsarigradsko shose 40 Street</a>

🏦 April 1st Topic: Data Science in Retail Banking &amp;&nbsp;Bank Mortgages

🏥 April 8th Topic: Data Science in Pharma

&nbsp;

<h2>How to join us? 
If you&rsquo;re interested feel free to join us, no registration is needed.</h2>

<h2> 
About the speaker</h2>

Led by our esteemed colleague, Georgi Nalbantov PhD, Head of AI and Data Science, these meetups promise engaging discussions, valuable insights, and networking opportunities. Georgi Nalbantov is one of the renowned data scientists and AI consultants in the region with over 20 years of experience in data science, with 80+ publications in renowned international journals on use cases of predictive analytics, NLP, computer vision and other areas of AI. He has research experience in multiple international universities, including Stanford and has co-owned a patent in DNA analysis. His consulting experience is focused on finance, banking and healthcare. For the last 8 years, he has been a lecturer for the Statistical Learning course at Sofia University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

We're thrilled to share that our exclusive in-house Data Science knowledge-sharing sessions are now open to the public! Join us at our office in Europark, Tsarigradsko shose 40 Street, for a series of insightful technical sessions.

Come and Join us for Data Science Meetups

And that&#39;s a wrap on an incredible two days at the GIANT Health Event in London! VectorLabs.AI had the privilege to be one of the 11 businesses representing Bulgaria at this prestigious event, thanks to the support and coordination of the <a href="https://bbba.bg/" target="_blank">British Bulgarian Business Association</a> (BBBA) and <a href="https://dhicluster.bg/" target="_blank">Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria</a>.

<h2>Global Collaboration in Action</h2>

The BBBA and Digital Health &amp; Innovations Cluster Bulgaria orchestrated a trade mission that allowed us to showcase our innovations, engage in productive conversations, and have private meet-and-greets with NHS representatives. It was a testament to the power of global collaboration in advancing healthcare solutions.

As part of the trade mission&#39;s agenda, we had the honour of attending a winter reception at the Bulgarian embassy in London. This showcased the warmth of Bulgarian hospitality and provided a unique setting for networking and collaboration.

<h2>December 4-5, 2023: Unforgettable Days of Innovation</h2>

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/ckeditor/2023/12/19/giant-health-recap-collage.jpg" style="height:338px; width:600px" />

Taking place on December 4-5, the GIANT Health Event marked two days filled with groundbreaking discussions, productive meetings, and memorable experiences. The GIANT (Global Innovation and New Technology) Health Event is one of the UK&rsquo;s leading, unmissable healthcare innovation festivals.

The experience at the GIANT Health Event has been nothing short of inspiring. We&#39;re eager to build on the momentum, explore new opportunities, and contribute to the future of digital health.&nbsp;

Thanks again to BBBA and Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria for this incredible opportunity. Here&#39;s to the future of healthcare innovation!&nbsp;

VectorLabs.AI had the privilege to be one of the 11 businesses representing Bulgaria at GIANT Health London, December 4-5.

VectorLabs.AI at GIANT Health Event: A Recap | VectorLabs.AI Blog

VectorLabs.AI had the privilege to be one of the 11 businesses representing Bulgaria at GIANT Health London, December 4-5, thanks to the support and coordination of the British Bulgarian Business Association (BBBA) and Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria.

VectorLabs.AI at GIANT Health Event: A Recap

In 2023&#39;s AI revolution, VectorLabs.AI proudly features in The Recursive CEE AI Report&mdash;a pioneering initiative that extensively maps AI trends in our region&#39;s innovation ecosystem. This report spotlights front-running AI product companies, exploring funding opportunities, and showcasing the immense growth potential.

The Recursive&#39;s CEE AI Report stands as a comprehensive guide, providing invaluable insights into the current state of AI-first innovations in Central and Eastern Europe. From highlighting best practices across different countries to fostering collaboration, this report is a testament to the vibrant AI landscape in our region.

 
Let&#39;s talk numbers&mdash;over 900 active AI product companies,120 VCs actively investing in AI startups, and in the last three years alone, CEE startups have raised a staggering $4.2 billion in funding. These figures underscore the dynamic and thriving nature of the AI scene in our region.

Childish.AI takes pride in contributing to this collective effort, focusing on AI in the region, sharing best practices, and fostering collaboration. We&#39;re not just witnessing the AI revolution; we&#39;re actively shaping it.

Curious for more? <a href="https://therecursive.com/ai-trends-central-and-eastern-europe-report/" target="_blank">Explore the entire report by downloading it here</a>. It&#39;s a deep dive into the pulse of AI innovation in Central and Eastern Europe.

We at VectorLabs.AI are glad to announce our feature in The Recursive CEE AI Report—an informational exploration of AI innovation sweeping across Central and Eastern Europe.

Empowering AI Innovation: VectorLabs.AI Featured in The Recursive CEE AI Report | Childish.AI Blog

At the heart of the 2023 AI revolution, we at VectorLabs.AI are glad to announce our feature in The Recursive CEE AI Report—an informational exploration of AI innovation sweeping across Central and Eastern Europe.

Empowering AI Innovation: VectorLabs.AI Featured in The Recursive CEE AI Report

We recently had the privilege of attending the highly anticipated 10th-anniversary edition of <a href="https://londontechweek.com/" target="_blank">London Tech Week</a>, a vibrant gathering of tech enthusiasts and industry leaders from around the world. As proud members of the <a href="https://bbba.bg/" target="_blank">British Bulgarian Business Association</a> (BBBA) Trade Delegation, our journey was filled with valuable connections, insightful discussions, and cutting-edge innovations that left a lasting impact.

&nbsp;

<h3>A Dynamic Start to London Tech Week</h3>

London Tech Week&#39;s 10th-anniversary edition kicked off with an electrifying buzz! The event served as a melting pot for tech visionaries, entrepreneurs, and industry pioneers. We were ecstatic to be part of this dynamic atmosphere, immersing ourselves in the spirit of innovation and collaboration that London Tech Week embodies. The presence of the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, added further excitement, urging tech leaders to embrace the opportunities and challenges brought forth by AI.

&nbsp;

<h3>Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration</h3>

The subsequent days of the event proved to be catalysts for knowledge sharing and fruitful collaborations. Engaging in workshops, panel discussions, and networking events, we connected with esteemed experts and thought leaders in the tech landscape. Through the BBBA Trade Delegation, we had a valuable platform to establish new partnerships and reinforce our position within the tech community.

&nbsp;

<h3>Unveiling the Limitless Potential of AI</h3>

At the heart of the anniversary edition was an enlightening AI summit dedicated to exploring the boundless potential of artificial intelligence. We immersed ourselves in captivating sessions and thought-provoking discussions that shed light on how AI is transforming industries and driving digital transformation. Drawing from our expertise in leveraging AI to revolutionize business processes, we were inspired by the industry&#39;s collective drive for innovation.

&nbsp;

<h3>Conclusion&nbsp;</h3>

Our journey at the 10th-anniversary edition of London Tech Week was nothing short of extraordinary. We extend our deepest gratitude for the opportunity to connect with fellow tech enthusiasts, exchange ideas, and showcase our innovative solutions. The BBBA Trade Delegation played a vital role in our successful participation, opening doors to new collaborations. As we reflect on this remarkable experience, we remain dedicated to pushing the boundaries of technological innovation.&nbsp;

Stay connected with us on our social media channels to be part of our ongoing journey and witness the transformative power of AI in action.

If you&#39;re eager to learn more about this year&#39;s London Tech Week, you can watch the videos from all the event days on their official <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@LDNTechWeek" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>.

We recently had the privilege of attending the highly anticipated 10th-anniversary edition of London Tech Week, a vibrant gathering of tech enthusiasts and industry leaders from around the world. As proud members of the British Bulgarian Business Association (BBBA) Trade Delegation, our journey was filled with valuable connections, insightful discussions, and cutting-edge innovations that left a lasting impact.

Our journey at London Tech Week 2023

We had the privilege of attending the fourteenth <a href="https://www.icapcrif.com/bg/en/events/credit-risk-management-conference/" target="_blank">Credit Management Conference</a>, organised by ICAP CRIF, a leading financial information provider and technological solutions for the financial sector. The event brought together industry experts and thought leaders from various backgrounds to explore the latest trends and challenges in finance. 
The conference kicked off with an insightful macroeconomic analysis presented by Professor Daniela Bobeva from the Institute of Economic Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She delved into the impact of inflation on purchasing power, providing valuable insights into both the local and European economic landscapes.

Throughout the event, three engaging panel discussions took place, covering a range of topics including data analysis, risk management, collaboration between companies and banks for development, innovation, and the digitalization of the financial sector. These discussions fostered a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by the industry.

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/2023/06/13/webiste-banners-18.png" style="height:563px; width:1000px" />

Among the esteemed speakers, our very own Head of Data Science took the stage as a panellist in the engaging discussion on &quot;Innovation in Credit Risk Management.&quot; 
Georgi Nalbantov, in his thought-provoking session, delved into the methodological frontiers of credit risk management, highlighting the advancements, such as LLM (Limited Liability Model), that are reshaping the industry. He also shed light on the risks that emerge from the adoption of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence solutions, emphasising the importance of robust risk-handling strategies.

We were honored to be partners of this prestigious event alongside other esteemed organisations such as Philip Morris Bulgaria, Orbico Bulgaria, Ebury Bulgaria, Jay Printing House, and Sofia Event Center.&nbsp;

At VectorLabs.AI, we are dedicated to driving financial innovation and digital transformation. Our participation in the discussion panel on &quot;Innovation in Credit Risk Management&quot; allowed us to showcase our expertise in leveraging cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to empower financial institutions and revolutionise credit risk management practices.

The CRIF Conference provided a platform for meaningful discussions, valuable insights, and collaboration among industry professionals. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the financial sector&#39;s advancement and be part of the collective efforts shaping its future.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue our journey towards transforming the finance industry with innovative solutions.

We had the privilege of attending the fourteenth Credit Management Conference, organised by ICAP CRIF, a leading provider of financial information and technological solutions for the financial sector.

Highlights from the CRIF Conference: Advancing Financial Solutions and Digitalization

We are thrilled to share the exciting news about our recent participation in the highly anticipated IT conference, &quot;<a href="https://conference.astea.solutions/en" target="_blank">Path to Knowledge</a>.&quot; This one-day event brought together renowned experts in the software development field in Bulgaria, providing an exceptional platform for knowledge sharing and networking.

<img alt="" src="https://childish-web-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/06/08/aaa00457.jpg" style="height:337px; width:600px" />

Our very own CEO, Blagovesta, was a distinguished speaker in the insightful panel discussion titled &quot;Requalification in the IT field - Myths and Reality.&quot; Joining her were esteemed industry professionals: Grisha Karanikolov, Partnership Director at <a href="https://www.telerikacademy.com/" target="_blank">Telerik Academy</a>; Anna Wolf, Senior Quality Automation Engineer; and Snezhina Marinova, Co-founder and Manager of <a href="https://www.hourspace.bg/" target="_blank">hOUR SPACE</a>. Together, they explored the intriguing dynamics and challenges of requalification in the IT industry, shedding light on the myths and realities surrounding this topic.

The event featured an engaging agenda, including six thought-provoking lectures and three stimulating panel discussions. Attendees had the opportunity to gain valuable insights, exchange ideas, and connect with fellow professionals in the field. In addition to the informative sessions, the conference offered special activities such as games, a book exchange, exciting prizes, and refreshing cocktails, creating an enjoyable and interactive atmosphere.

We are truly proud to have been a part of this remarkable event, contributing to the advancement of knowledge and fostering meaningful discussions within the IT community.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the organizers of the &quot;Path to Knowledge&quot; conference, <a href="https://asteasolutions.com/" target="_blank">Astea Solutions</a>, for creating such a remarkable platform. It was a day filled with insightful conversations, valuable connections, and unforgettable experiences. We look forward to future opportunities to collaborate and contribute to the growth and development of the IT industry.

We are thrilled to share the exciting news about our recent participation in the highly anticipated IT conference, "Path to Knowledge." This one-day event brought together renowned experts in the software development field in Bulgaria, providing an exceptional platform for knowledge sharing and networking.

Our CEO's Insights at Path to Knowledge Conference

We are thrilled to announce that VectorLabs.AI is proud to be a sponsor of the highly anticipated CRIF Conference. This prestigious event brings together industry leaders, experts, and innovators to discuss the latest trends and advancements in credit risk management. What makes this occasion even more special is that our very own team member, Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, Head of Data Science at VectorLabs.AI, will be sharing his expertise as a distinguished speaker on a panel discussing &quot;Innovation in Credit Risk Management.&quot;

&nbsp;

<h2>The CRIF Conference</h2>

The CRIF Conference, organized by ICAP CRIF in Bulgaria, is a renowned gathering of professionals and thought leaders in the field of credit risk management. Taking place on June 7th at the Sofia Event Center, Paradise Mall, this event offers a unique platform for knowledge sharing, networking, and exploring cutting-edge topics shaping the industry. With a focus on themes such as ESG, AI &amp; Data Analytics, and Innovation in Credit Risk Management, the conference promises to provide valuable insights and strategies for financial institutions.

&nbsp;

<h2>Georgi Nalbantov, PhD: An Expert Speaker</h2>

We are immensely proud of our esteemed colleague, Georgi Nalbantov, who will be representing VectorLabs.AI as a speaker at the conference. With his extensive knowledge and experience in data science, Georgi will contribute to the panel discussion on &quot;Innovation in Credit Risk Management.&quot; His valuable insights, expertise, and passion for leveraging AI in finance will undoubtedly enrich the dialogue and provide attendees with actionable takeaways.

&nbsp;

<h2>VectorLabs.AI&#39;s Sponsorship</h2>

As a leading AI consulting firm, we are dedicated to empowering organisations in the finance industry through data science-driven insights. We are honoured to sponsor the CRIF conference, which aligns perfectly with our mission to foster growth and provide a competitive advantage through AI solutions. We look forward to an inspiring event filled with knowledge sharing, collaboration, and the exploration of innovative solutions.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Join us at the CRIF Conference. For more information about the conference visit <a href="https://www.icapcrif.com/bg/en/events/credit-risk-management-conference/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">www.icapcrif.com/bg/en/events/credit-risk-management-conference/</a>.&nbsp;

We are thrilled to announce that VectorLabs.AI is proud to be a sponsor of the highly anticipated CRIF Conference. This prestigious event brings together industry leaders, experts, and innovators to discuss the latest trends and advancements in credit risk management. What makes this occasion even more special is that our very own team member, Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, Head of Data Science at VectorLabs.AI, will be sharing his expertise as a distinguished speaker on a panel discussing "Innovation in Credit Risk Management."

VectorLabs.AI Proudly Sponsors CRIF Conference: Join Our Team at the Forefront of Innovation

In today&#39;s rapidly evolving world, the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and the financial industry is creating waves of innovation and transforming the way banks and fintech solutions engage with customers. To shed light on these exciting advancements, we are thrilled to announce our upcoming webinar on AI trends in Banking and Fintech.&nbsp;

Join us as we delve into the latest developments, industry insights and real-world use cases that are shaping the future of finance.

Event Details:

Date: 9th of June, 10:00 EEST, entirely online

Registration is free but mandatory, find the registration link at the bottom. 
&nbsp;

AI&#39;s potential in banking and fintech

We are privileged to have Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, Head of Data Science at VectorLabs.ai, and Svetoslav Ivanov, Chief Data Scientist at VectorLabs.ai, both esteemed professionals with extensive experience in the financial industry, as our speakers.

During this webinar, we will delve into actionable insights that will empower banking and fintech professionals to navigate economic headwinds, drive optimal ROI and streamline processes through the strategic implementation of AI.

Key topics of discussion will include:

<ul>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Exploring the latest AI trends shaping the industry</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Practical insights on successfully applying AI models in banking and fintech</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">Common pitfalls when applying AI models</li>
	<li style="list-style-type:disc">An interactive Q&amp;A session, providing a platform to address your specific questions</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

The speakers

Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, Head of Data Science at Vecto Labs, is one of the most renowned data scientists and AI consultants in the region with over 20 years of experience in data science and 80+ publications in renowned international journals on use cases of predictive analytics, NLP, computer vision and other areas of AI. He has research experience at multiple international universities, including Stanford, and is the co-owner of a patent in DNA analysis. His consulting experience is focused in finance, banking and healthcare. For the last eight years, he has been a lecturer for the Statistical Learning course at Sofia University, in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.

Svetoslav Ivanov, Chief Data Scientist at Vector Labs, has 10+ years of experience in data analytics and machine learning. Starting his career at Deloitte, his experience has been focused on AI consulting. His industry focus is banking, insurance and fintech specialising in NLP, predictive and mathematical modelling, using a variety of tools and statistical/programming languages.

 
For who is this webinar suitable for?

From C-level executives to risk managers, heads of customer relationships, digital transformation managers or experts who are part of the internal data science, data analytics and AI teams, this event is tailored to provide valuable knowledge and actionable strategies.

&nbsp;

Join Us

Don&#39;t miss out on this exciting opportunity to expand your knowledge, network with industry peers and gain valuable insights into the AI revolution in Banking and Fintech. Reserve your spot today by registering for the webinar via the link below. Save the date in your calendar and prepare for an engaging and informative session.

We look forward to having you join us on June 9. Register from the link below:

<a href="javascript:;" id="eventbrite-widget-modal-trigger-636409958317" onclick="
 window.EBWidgets.createWidget({
 widgetType: 'checkout',
 eventId: '636409958317',
 modal: true,
 modalTriggerElementId: 'eventbrite-widget-modal-trigger-636409958317',
 onOrderComplete: ()=&gt;{}
 });" style="font-size: 20px; color: #1abc9c; text-decoration: underline;">Free registration</a>

We are delighted to invite you to an exclusive webinar dedicated to exploring the transformative potential of AI in the Banking and Fintech sectors. In today's rapidly evolving landscape, embracing innovative solutions and staying ahead of the curve is essential for success.

Upcoming Webinar: AI Trends in Banking and Fintech

We are delighted to invite you to an exclusive webinar dedicated to exploring the transformative potential of AI in the Banking and Fintech sectors. In today's rapidly evolving landscape, embracing innovative solutions and staying ahead of the curve is essential for success.

Join us on June 9th at 10 аm EEST for an insightful session led by industry experts. We are privileged to have Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, Head of Data Science at VectorLabs.AI, and Svetosalv Ivanov, Chief Data Scientist at VectorLabs.AI, both esteemed professionals with extensive experience in the financial industry, as our speakers.

At Vector Labs, we believe that every child deserves the opportunity to succeed. That&#39;s why we are proud to partner with and support the<a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/" target="_blank"> Give a Book Foundation</a> in their<a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/uzr" target="_blank"> School for Work program</a>, which aims to help youths aged 15-18 who are about to leave an institution to prepare for work and life outside. 
 
For five days, 40 children from institutions across the country came together to work in teams and gain real-world experience and skills in various industries. The program started with a &quot;Writing a CV workshop&quot; on Thursday, followed by interviews for the six different companies at School for Work: a beauty salon, construction company, restaurant, bakery, creative agency, and IT company. 
 
Every day the young people had responsibilities, and followed punctual hours and ethics as in a real work environment. They learned the ins and outs of these businesses, gaining valuable experience that will serve them well as they prepare to leave their institutions. 
 
Our team at Vector Labs was honored to participate in the program as both mentors and volunteers. We helped organize the School for Work program and held IT workshops for the children, giving them a taste of the world of technology and coding. During the workshop, we introduced the young ones to the different professions in the IT world, wrote a mobile app specification, and then made mobile apps together. Our UX lead, Maya, helped the youngsters in this endeavour!

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/2023/04/24/covers.png" style="height:450px; width:800px" />

After 4 days of hard work and an exciting program, on Sunday, the program came to its most exciting part - the Final Bazaar, where all the groups had the opportunity to present what they had learned over the past few days. 
The event was open to the public, and visitors had the chance to meet the children and see firsthand the new skills they had gained. It was inspiring to see the children&#39;s confidence and pride as they presented their work. 
 
At Vector Labs, we know that School for Work is vital for inspiring these incredible young people and we are happy to have been a major partner at its tenth anniversary. We hope that this experience will stay with the kids as they move forward into the next stage of their lives and that they will continue to grow and thrive in all their future endeavours.

At Vector Labs, we believe that every child deserves the opportunity to succeed. That's why we are proud to partner with and support the Give a Book Foundation in their School for Work program, which aims to help youths aged 15-18 who are about to leave an institution to prepare for work and life outside.

Giving Children the Tools for Success: Recap of the School for Work Program

What an inspiring week in Israel!

With 9 million population, the country has 7000+ start-ups, 97 of which are Unicorns. And the correlation is not direct, but they also have 12 Nobel prize winners.

As part of the Bulgarian delegation, we were privileged to meet the local innovation ecosystem. We gained valuable insights and lessons and had the chance to network with leading entrepreneurs.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>Overview of the week</h2>

16 companies from the ICT sectors - cloud and mobile technologies, fintech, cybersecurity, digital healthcare, agri-tech and digital agriculture were part of the&nbsp;Bulgarian small and medium enterprises promotion agency (<a href="https://www.sme.government.bg/en/" target="_blank">BSMEPA </a>) trade mission that visited several cities in Israel, led by BSMEPA Executive Director Boyko Takov.

The agenda included bilateral meetings with Israeli companies and investors in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. We visited local incubators and accelerators, the European Innovation Hub in Tel Aviv and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tel Aviv.

<img alt="" src="https://childish-web-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/03/20/img-5d5e486bea6957ad5fb75a085fb1dc21-v.jpg" style="height:450px; width:600px" />

&quot;A Business Forum with bilateral meetings with Israeli business representatives was also held on 16 March, with the special participation of Minister of Innovation and Growth Alexander Pulev, who is visiting the country.

The Bulgarian companies met with dozens of potential Israeli partners during the business forum. They had the opportunity to visit FinTech-Aviv - the largest FinTech event in the country, which brings together start-up companies, investors and corporations seeking cooperation, collaboration and innovation in financial technology.&quot;&nbsp; 
 
Read the whole material on the <a href="https://www.sme.government.bg/?p=60957" target="_blank">website of the BSMEPA here</a>.&nbsp;

What an inspiring week in Israel!

With 9 million population, the country has 7000+ start-ups, 97 of which are Unicorns. And the correlation is not direct, but they also have 12 Nobel prize winners.

As part of the Bulgarian delegation, we were privileged to meet the local innovation ecosystem. We gained valuable insights and lessons and had the chance to network with leading entrepreneurs.

Mission Innovation: one week in Israel

Awards are not uncommon for VectorLabs. From winning numerous Clutch awards for <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/childish-was-named-among-bulgarias-top-big-data-analytics-companies-and-top-developers-for-2022-by-clutch" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">software development, data analytics</a>, and artificial intelligence to getting the prestigious <a href="https://childish.ai/news/article/childish-forbes-business-awards" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Forbes award for Socially Responsible Company</a>. They&#39;re a real testament to the inspiring company <a href="https://childish.ai/about-us" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">culture </a>we&#39;ve established and the outstanding work of our team.

&nbsp;

The most recent award for VectorLabs? Blagovesta Pugyova, our CEO, is one of the 30 most influential women in the tech industry, according to the Mobile App Daily!

&nbsp;

MobileAppDaily&rsquo;s Report on Women in Tech is drafted to celebrate some of the outstanding and inspirational female leaders from the global tech community. These women, apart from their own achievements are dedicated to empowering fellow women and female leaders of tomorrow by assisting them with required knowledge, mentorships, and resources. This report on inspirational women in technology aims to introduce these amazing humans to a wider world so they can inspire and guide more and more individuals out there.

&nbsp;

Read about all recognized women in the report to learn more about them and how they contribute to a better workplace and world: <a href="https://www.mobileappdaily.com/reports/women-in-tech" target="_blank">mobileappdaily.com/reports/women-in-tech</a>.

Blagovesta Pugyova, our CEO, is one of the 30 most influential women in the tech industry, according to the Mobile App Daily!

Our CEO is part of Mobile App Daily's Women in Tech Who Are Transforming the Global IT Landscape

&quot;In the last few years, in every company I have been to, I have worked directly with the CEO; I have been his right hand. Initially, I was happy that I was learning new things, but there came the point when I stopped learning and said to myself, &quot;I have to change something.&quot; Until one day, I said to myself, &quot;If you&#39;re as smart as you think you are, make your own company and see what it&#39;s like to be the CEO.&quot; - shared our co-founder and CEO, Blagovesta, in her interview for the Club Z media.

The whole interview you can read at <a href="https://clubz.bg/115604-kak_se_pravi_it_biznes_podplaten_s_detski_entusiazam" target="_blank">clubz.bg/interview</a> (in Bulgarian). Read some of the highlights in this blog post.&nbsp;

&quot;Because it&#39;s one thing to be clever, it&#39;s another to make the decisions, be responsible, and look at the big picture. You can propose an idea, and the CEO could say, &quot;No, you can&#39;t do that.&quot; So you ask, why not. Well, because there are a thousand other things you must consider. Now I see what this role brings. If we fail and give up in a year - anything can happen - then I&#39;ll say, &#39;Clearly I&#39;m not that clever,&#39; and I&#39;ll be happier working for someone else.&quot;

After coming to this conclusion more than three years ago, Blagovesta Pugyova replaced the 40-hour workweek with an 80-hour one. That is, she went into business.

The sphere of activity became clearer the moment Blaga found a trusted partner in Andrei Nonchev. He is a programmer with more than 15 years of experience and a volunteer of the &quot;Give a Book&quot; foundation, an initiative that Blaga started as a Facebook group in 2010 and subsequently turned into a foundation through which volunteers contribute to the integration into society of children deprived of parental care.&nbsp;

In the summer of 2018, the two founded VectorLabs.

<h2>A business with a cause from the start</h2>

Despite that they form a great team, Blaga and Andrei fit together as partners for another reason. Through their business, they wanted to not only be able to support themselves but also to provide financial stability for &quot;<a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/" target="_blank">Give a Book</a>.&quot; Their shared vision is formally elevated in the company&#39;s ownership - 41% belongs to the foundation.

&quot;We want to find a way to help the foundation - part of the profits goes to the foundation with the idea that at some point it will reach a budget that can sustain it, says Blaga. The idea is not to make some pennies because we can do that if we work somewhere and everyone donates part of their salary to it. We want to achieve a large scale so that the foundation is independent.&quot;

In the eleven years it has existed, Give a Book has attracted over 5,000 volunteers who give their time and friendship to girls and boys in nearly 20 homes in Sofia and other cities. As the initiator of the project, Blaga has been featured in <a href="https://darikradio.bg/blagovesta-pugova-za-smisala-na-kampaniata-podari-vreme.html" target="_blank">Darik Radio&#39;s &quot;40 under 40&quot; selection</a> (2014) and <a href="https://forbesbulgaria.com/2022/08/19/childish_and_give-a-book-foundation/" target="_blank">Forbes magazine&#39;s &quot;30 under 30&quot;</a> (2016).&nbsp;

Like most Bulgarian IT companies, VectorLabs started as an outsourcing contractor. Some clients come to them on the recommendation of organizations that have already used the company&#39;s services; others reach them through intermediary agencies.&nbsp;

Blaga&#39;s visibility and contacts in the NGO sector have played their part in VectorLabs&#39;s development. Among the company&#39;s first clients was the children&#39;s education platform Knigovishte. As a result, VectorLabs&#39;s developers crafted a platform that is now used by thousands of children and continue to build on it with new modules and a mobile app.

<h2>Philosophy and challenges</h2>

Currently, Blaga and Andrei prefer to reinvest their profits in business development. This allows them to hire more people, take on larger projects to run in parallel, and find a market for their software products. The logic they follow is simple: the more sustainable the business is, the more sustainable &quot;Give a Book&quot;&#39;s operations will be.

VectorLabs&#39;s first own software product is now a reality. <a href="https://www.fabrico.io/en/" target="_blank">Fabrico </a>is a software that digitises all the maintenance processes in manufacturing plants, helping technicians, machine operators and managers in industrial plants to synchronise the production and maintenance of machines, organising their servicing and repair work efficiently.

Some of the largest technology companies in the world offer similar software, but it is often out of pocket for small and medium-sized businesses, Blaga says, adding that with Fabrico, the user takes centre stage in the workflow.&nbsp;

&quot;The team is already working with several clients and building on it based on their feedback. Interest and feedback have been good, although the corona pandemic has forced many to tighten their belts and invest cautiously. Anti-epidemic measures have also limited opportunities for physical meetings with potential customers and product presentations on-site.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Challenges of this type do not bother Blaga. She believes in the product&#39;s potential so much that while the team has been working on it for the past year, she has not taken a salary in the hope that the investment will pay off.&quot;

&quot;I don&#39;t think anybody will tell you it was easy when they started a business. My mother, who has a feed warehouse in a small town, also had a hard time. I remember when my mum and dad built their first warehouse, they had exactly &pound;1,000 left over to stock up and the warehouse was huge. So they bought eight bags of one item and eight bags of the other and staggered them so the warehouse didn&#39;t look empty. It counted time, effort, and constant reinvestment-that is, you don&#39;t buy a car with the money you make, as many people do, but you put it back into the business so you can buy more bags and grow that way. I&#39;ve seen a lot of other people who haven&#39;t had it easy. Someone with a brilliant idea and a lot of luck might have been faster, but those are few. These are the unicorns (startups with a market cap of over $1 billion - ed.) we see on the news, but they delude us into thinking it&#39;s easy to be an entrepreneur. It&#39;s a lot harder than I thought before I started.&quot; 
&nbsp;

<h2>Childish work but serious</h2>

On the busiest days, Blaga sometimes tells her husband that she&#39;s at the edge of her strength and will soon start looking at job ads. A few hours later, however, she regains her sober judgment about the big picture of her life and gets to work with even more enthusiasm. After all, the company is called VectorLabs. Blaga and her partner chose this name because they admire children&#39;s inherent courage, curiosity, and creativity and value these qualities in themselves and their employees.

&quot;Good results occur when people are motivated and disciplined enough in their work. To ensure that we are people who do things effectively while also possessing the kindness and purity of children and the joy and excitement of the great cause we work for, I filter the candidates we consider. Anyone who doesn&#39;t fit those requirements isn&#39;t desired here. We are children.&quot;

"In the last few years, in every company I have been to, I have worked directly with the CEO; I have been his right hand. Initially, I was happy that I was learning new things, but there came the point when I stopped learning and said to myself, "I have to change something." Until one day, I said to myself, "If you're as smart as you think you are, make your own company and see what it's like to be the CEO." - shared our co-founder and CEO, Blagovesta, in her interview for the Club Z media.

How can you create an IT company with childlike enthusiasm?

They say it takes a village to build and grow an engaged community.

We were privileged to host the monthly PyData meetup of <a href="https://www.meetup.com/pydata-sofia/" target="_blank">PyDataSofia</a> and <a href="https://www.datasciencesociety.net/" target="_blank">Data Science Societ</a>y&nbsp;groups and welcome the local data community last week. In this blog post, we&rsquo;ll recap some highlights from the meetup and share some useful resources.&nbsp;

<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/ojKIHCPW7cfhooHjDQ5tQaN7Lc7agSzQM4MGeoLzJYYS4KG5mn0o5x25UFF9UR5dw5J47r9fJoLRHJyuohwLETeL8SqsG2MJQNKxtFqpk7LBXY_kQVxQkonLubHabki4XUeCC7WQsz6cEDe1H3nm2Xo" style="height:451px; width:602px" />

&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.campusx.company/" target="_blank">Campus X</a>, where our office is also situated, were our host and the evening flew by with the buzz of the ecosystem networking, the energy of connections was forged and fuelled by delicious tidbits and drinks. In the spotlight was the &quot;Bias-variance trade-off&quot; topic from the highly skilled expert in the field, Georgi Nalbantov. Ph.D.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="https://childish-web-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/03/06/img_20230301_192323_2.jpg" style="height:533px; width:400px" />

Georgi has 80+ publications in renowned journals in the fields of Computer Science, Healthcare, Finance, and Statistics. Co-owner of a patent in DNA analysis, his interests are in banking, predictive maintenance, ECG signal analysis, inventory optimization, and computer vision. In his talk, Georgi Nalbantov debunked one of the most important and tricky issues in machine learning, the concept of bias-variance trade-off.

The<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias%E2%80%93variance_tradeoff#:~:text=In%20statistics%20and%20machine%20learning,bias%20in%20the%20estimated%20parameters." target="_blank"> bias-variance trade-off </a>is a design consideration when training the machine learning model. Certain algorithms inherently have a high bias and low variance and vice-versa.

So why learn more about it? Understanding the concept will help you make an informed decision when training your ML models.&nbsp;

As an experienced&nbsp;lecturer, he opened up with some data science jokes.

Below is the famous graph from the book of Hastie, Tibshirani, and Friedman - &quot;Elements of statistical learning&quot;, which depicts the training and test errors. &quot;As the model complexity goes up, the training errors go down, the test errors initially go down, then go up. We look for the complexity level at which the test error is minimal, which is called the best trade-off between bias and variance.&quot;

&nbsp;

<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-rYd7ohtUvA0ThNZT-yEB-caOkSjChKcAVsBlqVeiyUEmr4goNKyyoHTAHvNRrLvAoOokqtNfIcXrY-ge4tu5JlGJ412sl1BrVz0LIu3M6y8ImYwoFySOE2TDgHlf21_N9qlPLh50ys3addTmN6ww3w" style="height:377px; width:602px" />

&nbsp;

Georgi then provided various examples to illustrate the concept&#39;s application and keep the audience interested throughout the talk. Georgi recorded all of the examples he showed in a video on his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@datascience8879" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>. ▶️&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ngQ_SoRJ8" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">You can watch it here</a>&nbsp;◀️.

&nbsp;

For updates on our next event, follow Vector Labs on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/childish-eu/" target="_blank">LinkedIn </a>or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/people/Childisheu-Software-Development-Company/100028701980697/" target="_blank">Facebook </a>to stay tuned.&nbsp;

We were privileged to host the monthly PyData meetup of PyDataSofia and Data Science Society groups and welcome the local data community last week. In this blog post, we’ll recap some highlights from the meetup and share some useful resources.

PyData Meetup Recap

As we approach the end of another exciting year, it&#39;s a great time to look back and be grateful for our progress and accomplishments.&nbsp;

What did our year look like?

We welcomed new team members, expanded our clients&#39; network, attended on-site events, launched a brand new website, piloted our data &amp; AI newsletter and improved some of our internal processes. 2022 was an unforgettable journey!&nbsp;

Are you interested in the details? Learn more in the following lines.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>Team growth</h2>

Currently, we have almost 40 team members onboard and are still recruiting. We&#39;re excited to have more teammates added and trained in the ways of Vector Labs.

Although remote work has become part of our culture, we haven&#39;t forgotten about regular company meetings and team-building gatherings. One of the important ones was our team building in Veliko Tarnovo, where we enjoyed activities together and bonded even stronger. What a great time it was!&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/2022/12/22/childish-teambuilding-22-1.jpg" style="height:350px; width:620px" />

We participated in a well-planned outdoor game, solving quests, meeting queens and samodivas around Tsarevets in Veliko Tarnovo, meeting with real magicians and listening to their stories, and of course, last but not least, meeting some of the children of &quot;<a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/" style="text-decoration:none">Give a Book</a>&quot; foundation. 

&nbsp;

<h2>Knowledge-sharing as part of our culture</h2>

Sharing the pains, gains and new learnings has been an internal part of our company since the beginning.&nbsp;

Every Thursday afternoon, we gather for a knowledge-sharing session that brings value to our team members - topics vary from a deep technical session to interesting work insights or hobby projects. So far, we&#39;ve spent more than 30 hours in 52 knowledge-sharing sessions for 2022.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<h2>Аwards and recognition</h2>

<h3>Vector Labs won the Forbes Business Awards for Socially Responsible Company in 2022</h3>

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/2022/12/22/278420716_10215993099980310_4890043151565171994_n.jpg" style="height:465px; width:620px" />

<a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/childish-forbes-business-awards" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">This year we were honoured to receive the award for socially responsible company</a>. The innovative structure of our company with the <a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Give a Book Foundation</a> as the main owner of the company&#39;s shares deserved the evaluation of the jury.

&nbsp;

<h3>A few Clutch awards</h3>

<img alt="" src="https://s3.childish.ai/uploads/2022/12/22/clutch-awards.png" style="height:219px; width:700px" />

Another exciting news in 2022 is that we received the Clutch Award for &quot;Bulgaria&#39;s Top Software Developers for 2022&quot;; afterward, we were named &quot;Bulgaria&#39;s Top Big Data Analytics Companies for 2022&quot;. And lately, we were recognized as one of Clutch&#39;s &quot;Top B2B Global companies&quot; for 2022. We are both honored and humbled to receive all these awards! We want to thank those who made this recognition possible: our clients and hard-working team, consistently delivering top-tier work.

&nbsp;

<h3>We got featured in Forbes Bulgaria</h3>

Our story was published in Forbes Bulgaria. Our CEO Blagovesta Pugyova shared the story how the naive idea of helping children in orphanages grew to attract more than 2000 volunteers; now, this naive idea is a shareholder in our company. The whole interview you can read at <a href="https://forbesbulgaria.com/2022/08/19/childish_and_give-a-book-foundation/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">forbesbulgaria.com/childish_and_give-a-book-foundation/</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>The &quot;Give a book&quot; foundation got back to normal with regular trips to the children</h2>

Before the pandemic swept the world, the<a href="https://www.podarivreme.org/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"> Give a Book foundation</a>&#39;s volunteers visited children deprived of parental care across the country monthly. Happily, after a break of one year, in 2022, the good people who support the Foundation&#39;s mission are visiting again without unexpected interruptions or cancelling events. And this has been a huge change for the children who expect us.

Over the past 12 years, the NGO has created a network of over 2000 actively engaged volunteers who support children in 30 institutions across the country. Volunteers help children with lessons, motivate them, and give them the opportunity for new and exciting experiences outside the home.&nbsp;

<h2>Hosted a Python hackathon: &quot;Give a book&quot;</h2>

We are grateful we were able to conduct a hackathon combining our passion for Python and our belief that every child deserves to reach their potential. The hackathon&#39;s purpose was to support the <a href="http://www.podarivreme.org/" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Give a Book Foundation&#39;s mission, which helps volunteers</a> become mentors and friends of children deprived of parental care. During the 3-day event, participants who participated in it laid the foundation of a platform that would enable all the needs of many children in institutions looking for a job, housing and advice. You can learn more about the mission of the event <a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/python-hackathon-give-a-book" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h2>Launched our brand new website and Data &amp; AI newsletter</h2>

In 2022, our development team was quite busy also working on our new website. Furthermore, driven by our passion for data, new technologies and knowledge sharing, our team decided to bring you the most exciting news and valuable resources in a monthly dose of learning and insights. Learn more about <a href="https://vector-labs.ai/news/article/announcing-the-childish-data-and-ai-newsletter" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">how to subscribe</a>.

&nbsp;

<h2>Ending the year with a bang</h2>

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of all our team members, this year gave us a reason to celebrate. We ended on a high note by announcing that very soon, you&#39;ll hear more and more about our spin-off Fabrico!&nbsp;

Cheers to the 2022 year!&nbsp;

We&#39;re confident next year will be even better! We&#39;ll see you in 2023.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

As we approach the end of another exciting year, it's a great time to look back and be grateful for our progress and accomplishments. 

What did our year look like?

We welcomed new team members, expanded our clients' network, attended on-site events, launched a brand new website, piloted our data & AI newsletter and improved some of our internal processes. 2022 was an unforgettable journey! 
Are you interested in the details? Learn more in the following lines.

2022: Our year in review

We are happy to be partnering with <a href="https://www.telerikacademy.com/" target="_blank">Telerik Academy</a> in developing junior talent!

Telerik Academy paved the way for programming training in Bulgaria, and we&#39;re a proud partner of their first Python training, where 35 students started.&nbsp;

We gave an interview for their blog&#39;s readers. You can find the whole conversation with our founder and CEO - Blagovesta, <a href="https://www.telerikacademy.com/blog/childish-software-development-company-with-childlike-enthusiasm" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>&quot;Why is it important to invest in junior IT talent, and why do you do it?</h3>

A big challenge in our industry is that companies are looking for seniors, and the talent pool is small. A critical marker is recognizing the importance of talent over skills, as skills can be learned. So we embrace that fact and invest in mentoring junior talents. With this approach, we can find the people who fit our culture and believe in our&nbsp;<a href="https://childish.ai/about-us" target="_blank">team&#39;s values</a>.&nbsp;

Also, junior talents bring fresh perspectives, curiosity and energy without being already set in their ways.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>Why did you choose Telerik Academy to partner in sourcing the said master junior talent?&nbsp;</h3>

Telerik Academy paved the way for programming training in Bulgaria, and we believe it is the best way to nurture students&#39; vital skills for the developer profession. The Alpha program&#39;s curriculum and hands-on activities indicate that the students will be well-prepared for the industry.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The dedication required in the program also confirms that the students are well-motivated for their chosen career path. Recently, we held a Python hackathon and many students from Telerik Academy took part in it, and they did very well. With this, we have clear evidence and can be sure that the talents who choose your academy are proactive and collaborative problem-solvers. &quot;

We know how difficult is for all junior talents to find roles early on, so we are always open to work with bright and curious people and help them grow. Interested to become part of VectorLabs? Do not miss to check our <a href="https://vector-labs.ai/careers">Career page</a> for all open positions.&nbsp;

We are happy to be partnering with Telerik Academy in developing junior talent!

Telerik Academy paved the way for programming training in Bulgaria, and we're a proud partner of their first Python training, where 35 students started.

We are partners of Telerik Academy Alpha Python Program

We are thrilled to announce that&nbsp;<a href="http://clutch.co/" target="_blank">Clutch.co</a>&nbsp;recognizes Vector Labs among Bulgaria&#39;s <a href="https://clutch.co/bg/it-services/analytics">Top Big Data Analytics Companies</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://clutch.co/bg/developers">Top Developers</a> for 2022.

We are proud of being ranked eighth among companies evaluated according to reviews, client experience and quality criteria!

&nbsp;

We are both honored and humbled to receive this award for another year! We&#39;d like to take this opportunity to thank those who made this recognition possible: our clients and hard-working team, consistently delivering top-tier work.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

To learn more about our work, visit our <a href="http://childish.ai/case-studies">Case Studies page</a>.&nbsp;

Reviews by our clients and testimonials find out on our<a href="https://clutch.co/profile/childish#summary"> Clutch profile</a>.&nbsp;

We are thrilled to announce that Clutch.co recognizes Vector Labs among Bulgaria's Top Big Data Analytics Companies and Top Developers for 2022.

VectorLabs was named among Bulgaria's Top Big Data Analytics Companies and Top Developers for 2022 by Clutch

Here at Vector Labs, we realize it can be taxing on any firm&nbsp;to balance <a href="https://www.infoq.com/software-architecture-trends-2020/">innovative software development</a> with the demands of growing business. That&#39;s where we can help! With our skilled team of senior developers and business experts, we&#39;re primed to tackle even your most complex business challenges. We filter every step of the development process to make sure our clients come out on top.&nbsp;

In recognition of our success and impact, we&#39;ve been named a top development partner in Bulgaria by Clutch, <a href="https://clutch.co/bg/web-developers">a B2B listing resource</a>. They leverage a unique reviews-based ranking formula to compare leaders around the world. Their work helps businesses across the globe find suitable business partners.

We&rsquo;d like to take this opportunity to thank those who made this recongnition possible: Our clients! They took a call with Clutch analysts to assess our impact on a number of parameters. There, they graded our work on the basis of customer service, quality, timeliness, pricing, and project management. Then, those thoughts were transcribed into a case-study form and published to our Clutch profile. We&rsquo;re happy to report we&rsquo;ve been highly regarded in our reviews, and our clients have ranked us a perfect five out of five stars! Take a look at one of our recent reviews here:&nbsp;<a href="https://clutch.co/profile/childish">https://clutch.co/profile/childish</a> 
&nbsp;

In recognition of our success and impact, we've been named a top development partner in Bulgaria by Clutch, a B2B listing resource. They leverage a unique reviews-based ranking formula to compare leaders around the world. Their work helps businesses across the globe find suitable business partners.

Vector Labs Proud to be Named a Top Development Partner in Bulgaria by Clutch | Childish.AI Blog

Vector Labs Proud to be Named a Top Development Partner in Bulgaria by Clutch

We are proud to announce that after an intensive selection process, Vector Labs has been selected among the 10 companies to join Endeavor&#39;s Dare to Scale 2021 program. 
 
Dare to Scale is a program driven by Postbank and supported by Software Group and BSMEPA, which aims to support local businesses in their quest to become globally competitive and oriented towards growth and sustainability.

<h2> 
What is Dare to Scale?</h2>

Dare to Scale is a 4-month accelerator for entrepreneurs across various industries who are eager to scale their already profitable businesses with the help of group workshops and 1:1 mentoring from Endeavor&rsquo;s network members and PwC&rsquo;s top consultants. The highly-customized program is aimed at nurturing Bulgarian late-stage startups in their quest to become globally competitive, growth-oriented, and resilient businesses. 
Dare to Scale is run by Endeavor Bulgaria &ndash; an affiliate of Endeavor, a global non-profit organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs in over 40 markets.&nbsp;

 
More information can be found<a href="https://www.endeavor.bg/10-companies-join-endeavors-second-class-of-dare-to-scale-growth-program/"> here</a>.

We are proud to announce that after an intensive selection process, Vector Labs has been selected among the 10 companies to join Endeavor's Dare to Scale 2021 program.

Vector Labs - part of the Endeavor's Dare to Scale program | Childish.AI Blog

Vector Labs - part of the Endeavor's Dare to Scale program

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in customer interactions has become paramount for businesses aiming to stay ahead of the curve. Recently, our managing partner and AI lead, Nick, had the privilege to share his expertise as a speaker at the AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey webinar organised in collaboration with the <a href="https://smebanking.club/">SME Banking Club</a>. Let&#39;s delve into the key takeaways from this insightful session.

Nick commenced the webinar by emphasizing the critical role of AI in crafting personalized interactions along the customer journey. With the increasing demand for tailored experiences, AI emerges as a powerful tool to anticipate customer needs and deliver relevant solutions in real time.

Banks can leverage AI tools across various domains, including:

<ul>
	<li>Credit and risk management: AI is implemented in scoring systems for credit qualification, limit assessment, pricing optimization, and fraud prevention.</li>
	<li>Customer acquisition and propensity-to-buy analysis: AI facilitates channel mapping and helps identify potential customers.</li>
	<li>Operations optimisation: AI enables early-warning signals, probability of default analysis, customer segmentation, and intelligent offers, along with providing near real-time recommendations.</li>
</ul>

Through the integration of AI-powered solutions, banks can streamline operations, enhance risk management practices, and deliver personalised experiences that resonate with customers&#39; evolving preferences and behaviours.

The AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey webinar provided a forum for thought leaders and industry experts to delve into AI&#39;s transformative potential in customer interactions. As we navigate the digital landscape, let&#39;s leverage AI&#39;s capabilities to craft meaningful experiences and foster sustainable business growth. Explore further by watching the webinar recording here:

&nbsp;

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sl6GZXpWF_I?si=Aig24cZiqeEvNPoJ" width="560"></iframe>

Our managing partner and AI lead, Nick, had the privilege to share his expertise as a speaker at the AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey webinar organised in collaboration with the SME Banking Club. Let's delve into the key takeaways from this insightful session.

Webinar Recap: AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in customer interactions has become paramount for businesses aiming to stay ahead of the curve. Recently, our managing partner and AI lead, Nick, had the privilege to share his expertise as a speaker at the AI-driven Next Best Action in the Customer Journey webinar organised in collaboration with the SME Banking Club. Let's delve into the key takeaways from this insightful session.

In the ever-evolving landscape of today&#39;s world, the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and the financial industry is reshaping how banks and fintech solutions interact with customers. To explore these dynamic advancements, we hosted an engaging webinar on AI trends in Banking and Fintech.

<h2> 
The highlights</h2>

The webinar, featuring esteemed speakers Nikolay Nickolovski, MBA, Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, and Svetoslav Ivanov, proved to be a captivating exploration of the transformative potential of AI in the finance industry. Hosted by VectorLabs.AI, the event provided a platform for engaging discussions and the unveiling of innovative strategies. The speakers shared profound insights on AI&#39;s impact on banking, effective business strategies, the influential role of data science, real-world applications, emerging trends, and the comprehensive spectrum of AI in the industry.

The session delivered a fantastic 60 minutes of insightful discussions, covering trends, experts&#39; perspectives on AI in Banking and Fintech, and practical insights into applying AI models successfully. Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, and Svetoslav Ivanov provided valuable insights and expertise, attracting over 60 attendees from 25 companies across 15 countries.

<h2>Webinar Recording</h2>

If you&#39;ve missed the webinar, you can watch the recording on our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ChildishAI" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>.

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MKmQ2nkk2RU?si=6W5UlVocM2_sCiWP" width="560"></iframe>

<h3>Key Discussed Topics:</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Exploring the latest AI trends shaping the industry</li>
	<li>Practical insights on successfully applying AI models in banking and fintech</li>
	<li>Common pitfalls when applying AI models.</li>
</ul>

Explore the transformative potential of AI in the finance industry with our webinar highlights. Dive into real-world applications, emerging trends, and practical tips shared during this engaging session.

Recap of our AI trends in banking and fintech webinar | VectorLabs.AI blog

Explore the transformative potential of AI in the finance industry with our webinar highlights. Join Nikolay Nickolovski, MBA, Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, and Svetoslav Ivanov for profound insights on AI's impact on banking, effective strategies, and the influential role of data science.

Recap of our AI trends in banking and fintech webinar

Research led by Georgi Nalbantov PhD, Head of Data Science @ VectorLabs.AI, to examine the impact of pre-existing cardiac conditions on radiation-induced lung toxicity (RILT) after high-dose radio(chemo)therapy for lung cancer. 
 
Overview:

<ul>
	<li>Traditionally, radiation effect on the heart and lungs were studied separately</li>
	<li>Recent studies reveal a short-term interaction between heart irradiation and lung dysfunction</li>
	<li>This study bridges the gap by investigating how cardiac issues affect RILT in the short term&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

Observations:

<ul>
	<li>28.9% of patients had cardiac comorbidity before radiotherapy</li>
	<li>44% of patients had cardiac comorbidity before radiotherapy</li>
	<li>Patients with cardiac comorbidity had 2.58 times higher odds of developing RILT</li>
</ul>

Predictive model for RILT:

<ul>
	<li>A model was built which helps identify patients at higher risk of RILT</li>
	<li>This model incorporates cardiac comorbidity, tumour location, lung function, chemotherapy, and pretreatment dyspnea score</li>
	<li>The model demonstrated an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.72 in the training set and 0.67 in the validation set, signifying its predictive performance</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SY2Dy_JMDQk?si=EyMxpFofiTe7CwUz" width="560"></iframe>

&nbsp;

Key implications:

<ul>
	<li>Cardiac comorbidity contributes significantly to RILT cases</li>
	<li>Tailored treatment approaches are essential for patients with cardiac comorbidity</li>
	<li>Excluding these patients from dose escalation studies may optimize outcomes</li>
</ul>

Read more in the<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167814013004350" target="_blank"> full paper here</a>.&nbsp;

Georgi Nalbantov, PhD, Head of Data Science at VectorLabs.AI explores in a scientific study the impact of cardiac comorbidity on Radiation-Induced Lung Toxicity (RILT) in lung cancer patients.