Why I'm going to the AI Engineer World's Fair
I'm going to the AI Engineer World's Fair in San Francisco! This post lists the 3 main reasons why I am going. Read on to learn more.
I went back into studying and tinkering with AI - most specifically AI Agents these days - since the start of the year. However, I actually began last year to expose myself to content about LLMs and pondering my future moves within this space.
One of the ways I began absorbing informative content about the latest news in the LLM sphere was by listening to the excellent podcast named Latent Space, by Swyx and Alessio. I also read many of the articles and tweets put out by Latent Space. Recently I also became a patron by sponsoring their SubStack to further support their work.
In the second half of last year, Swyx organised the AI First AI Engineer conference in San Francisco. I couldn’t attend at the time, but heard much positive feedback from some of the people who were present. I was hopeful that another similar conference would take place again in the not-so-distant future. And I wanted to make sure I would not miss out on this one.
Enter the AI Engineer World’s Fair, the biggest conference about all things AI Engineering taking place in San Francisco from June 25th to June 27th.
In December 2023, I learned about plans to organise the AI Engineer World’s Fair. At the time no date nor venue had been chosen. In fact the whole affair was in its infancy - and there was still the risk that the conference might not take place. Nevertheless, I purchased the first “Blind” tickets in a heartbeat. There was no time dither - I just knew I had to get my ticket and join this movement.
Looking back on this decision, I want to share with you the top 3 reasons for my attending this conference.
Learn more about AI Engineering
The advent of large language models is giving rise to a new type of software professional - the AI Engineer. Swyx has eloquently written about the rise of the AI Engineer, so please read his post to get more context on this phenomenon.
Before LLMs teams had to train models from scratch, or fine-tune them, and then serve them to back-end systems or applications. This workflow is captured by the MLOps discipline, which naturally relies heavily on Machine Learning (ML) Engineers.
Nowadays, AI is just an API call away for many use cases. This means that most teams never have to train models from scratch, nor fine-tune them. Additionally, the bar in terms of compute and capital to build a decent foundational model is too high for most organisations. This is not their core business anyway.
A consequence to having access to some of the most advanced artificial intelligence via just an API call is a complete levelling of the field. AI has become democratised. Teams of software engineers can now infuse AI into their applications without knowing anything about the transformer architecture or backpropagation. They also don’t need research scientists or machine learning engineers for most cases.
Therefore, any software engineer that can call upon the intelligence from a LLM via an API call is a de-facto AI Engineer. This means that technically any software engineer could become an AI Engineer. However it takes more than knowing how to call a LLM API to become a good AI Engineer.
I want to become a better AI Engineer.
Attending the AI Engineer World’s Fair won’t turn me into a god-level AI Engineer overnight. But it will certainly inspire me to explore new pathways through the talks and workshops I will take part in. In turn and over time I believe I will become more adept at wielding the intelligence offered by LLMs.
Expand my community of AI Engineers
Before running my previous company I was dismissive of the community movement. But I learned first-hand through the struggles of running EnVsion that community in fact matters.
Being part of a thriving community is akin to having access to a sanctuary. In this sanctuary you get emotional support from like-minded individuals on similar journeys to yours. You can draw inspiration from deeds and members of this community. You can get advice. You can get customers. You can magnify your reach. In sum, you increase your odds of success.
Before stepping foot into this new AI continent, I told myself that I would make sure to expand my network so that I would not walk alone in this new world.
I have already taken promising steps in this direction by organising in-person dinners of like-minded and curious professionals building AI-businesses in London. I also joined the Latent Space Discord channel and started contributing to a handful of subreddit and engaging with many fellow AI enthusiasts on X/Twitter.
But I have yet to meet the rest of my AI Tribe; those who live and work at the epicentre of this technological shift in the United-States.
And I intend to make sure I do meet curious and ambitious individuals building AI products for fun and profit in San Francisco. Nothing beats physical presence, and meeting people in person is the best way to quickly build trust and familiarity.
I’m therefore looking forward to meeting many interesting people at and around the conference, learn from each other, and build long term relationships and possibly even friendships.
Check the SF vibes
Going to the AI Engineer World’s Fair is also a great excuse to visit San Francisco and immerse myself in their tech ecosystem for a few days.
I have never been to San Francisco (nor California) before so I’m keen to understand what makes this place special/different. People I know who have been there had mostly positive things to say about their experiences. They often referred to the “energy”, the “hustle”, “ambition” that pervades through the San Francisco/Silicon Valley atmosphere.
I want to inhale some a lot of this oxygen during my time in San Francisco. Strangely enough, I feel my character is compatible with the ethos of this place, so I’m confident I will fit it.
Moreover, since I used to study self-driving cars a few years ago, I am also looking forward to riding in autonomous Waymo vehicles to finally witness the realisation of the true Level 4 self-driving cars.
As you can see, I’m very curious to check out the vibes over there. I just hope everything I read and heard about San Francisco is not just hyperbole!
Closing thoughts
I bought my tickets for the AI Engineer World’s Fair over 6 months ago because I wanted to connect in person with people who also felt pulled into this new AI Engineering field.
Additionally, I am excited to be visiting San Francisco and absorb some of the vibes from the capital of tech startups.
While prices have risen due to popular demand, you can still buy tickets if you’re interested in attending.
I recently launched Kiseki Labs, a consultancy helping businesses implement GenAI through workshops, strategic advisory, and custom solutions. If you're interested in working together, you can book a free consultation at kisekilabs.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.