AI Tinkerers Ottawa first Meetup

Save the date: Wednesday, September 6th from 5:30pm - 8:30pm

Main Event: Introduction to Open-source LLMs

The Generative AI space is evolving rapidly.

While much focus has been on the massive, proprietary models hosted by big corporations, there’s a growing surge in the availability and accessibility of open-source LLMs.

In this presentation, we’ll explore key concepts related to these open-source models and delve into their potential applications.

We’ll provide examples of how to run these models on your own equipment or in a free-tier colab.

Finally, we’ll code a Retrieval Augmentation Generation pipeline which allows you to create a chatbot to ask questions about content scraped from the web. Hope to see you there!

AI Tinkerers in Ottawa (who we are)

Why we brought AI Tinkerers to Ottawa: there are builders in our city building AI / LLM projects in isolation; what if we put all of them in one room?

Started by:

• Hai: Founder @Cats with Bats, ex-engineer @ CoLab Software (YC S’19)

• Greg: Principle Developer @Solace

• Abror: Frontend Engineer @DreamLinked

👉 Sign up now to join AI Tinkerers for an evening of kick-ass demos and networking with other active builders. You do not want to miss this one! ☝️☝️☝️

Photos from around the world

What are AI Tinkerers?

AI Tinkerers is a meetup designed exclusively for practitioners who possess technical, machine learning, and entrepreneurial backgrounds and are actively building and working with foundation models, such as large language models (LLMs) and generative AI.

If you’re deeply passionate about creating LLM-enabled applications, have hands-on experience in building such systems, and are eager to connect with like-minded individuals who share your level of commitment, then this group is the perfect fit for you.

With AI Tinkerers meetups taking place in multiple cities, we cater to a dedicated community of practitioners.

Who is this for?

We’re not “AI Enthusiasts”, we are AI Tinkerers.

The core essence of AI Tinkerers lies in active collaboration surrounding early-stage discovery and innovation, which requires a high degree of experimentation, vulnerability, openness to sharing challenges and learnings, and collaboration among individuals with a shared level of expertise.

This unique environment allows us to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI and LLMs while maintaining a strong sense of camaraderie and mutual support.

💻 Event Schedule

• Doors open at 5:30 pm

• Workshop at 6:30 pm (Intro to Open-source LLM by Greg from Solace)

• Networking

• Doors close at 8:30 pm

There will be drinks and appetizers served, courtesy of our sponsors.

🔥🙏 DEMO SUBMISSION 🙏🔥

Please submit your demo proposal if you’re interested in presenting (top of this page). This may go into our next meetup.

Pitch decks are strongly discouraged forbidden - we want to see your messy WIP! Note, as capacity is limited, we’ll be prioritizing those that can demo something.

🤖 More Information

If you are new to the group, please be sure to read the AI Tinkerers FAQ.

Photos from June AI Tinkerers in Seattle

👑 Sponsors

The event is generously sponsored & hosted by Invest Ottawa

Invest Ottawa helps accelerate your growth and success, leverage the best programs, people and places, and make your mark in Ottawa, a global tech hub and collaborative business community.