prg.ai newsletter #38

👏 Local AI scene news that makes us proud

Details from the Czech mission to Canada

Canada is one of the world leaders in artificial intelligence, thanks to its scientific expertise, government strategy and dynamic innovation environment. A recent Czech AI mission, with the participation of Tomáš Kroupa from AIC FEE CTU, explored opportunities for cooperation in research, development and education. It was this mission in 2018 that led to the establishment of prg.ai.

The medal of Karel Kramář

Michal Pěchouček, Chair of the prg.ai’s Executive Board, co-founder and director of the AIC FEE CTU and technical director of Gen, received the medal of Karel Kramář for his extraordinary contribution in the field of science and research.

OI student takes prestigious award

Daria Mikhaylovskaya, a student of the Open Informatics (OI) program at FEE CTU, has won the prestigious Generation Google Scholarship: for women in computer science. Daria is now in her third year working in the Humanoid Robots Lab, where she is dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence based on insights about learning and discovery of the world by young children.

A promising Czech talent at Oxford

Vít Růžička, a graduate of OI FEL CTU and a PhD student at Oxford University, focuses on machine learning and its application in various scientific fields. His latest paper in Scientific Reports describes the detection of methane signals using hyperspectral satellites. One of the innovations is that the data is detected and evaluated by AI, automatically filtering out some of the interfering elements.

Recognition and computer vision

At the beginning of December, the Department of Cybernetics of FEL CTU hosted the 46th Colloquium on Recognition and Computer Vision. This is an event with a long tradition dating back to 1998. This meeting is organized by the Visual Recognition Group and enjoys the generous support of the Czech Pattern Recognition Society (CPRS).

Robo help for bees

Tomáš Krajník, head of the chronorobotics laboratory at the AIC FEL CTU, published an article in the prestigious The Conversation, focused on the popularization of science. The article on innovative robotic solutions to help bees presents in detail the European projects Hiveopolis and RoboRoyale.

The new generation of computers

Jakub Mareček from AIC was a guest on Czech Radio Leonardo Plus. Together with Petr Koubský they focused on quantum computers, how these devices can model complex physical systems, discussed where quantum computers are used and explored their potential.

Gold in Chaos Neurathon 2023

A team of students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at CTU won the Chaos Neurathon 2023. With the slogan “All You Need Is All You Need”, PhD students Radim Špetlík from the Department of Cybernetics, Michal Kučera from the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction and Open Computer Science student David Kunz came to win. This year’s theme was the use of AI in 3D rendering.

AI assistant for primary schools

Experts from three faculties of Charles University have developed a unique AI assistant for primary school students and teachers. Unlike GPT Chat, this assistant does not “hallucinate”, but helps pupils prepare for entrance exams to high school in mathematics and Czech language.

Cogni Trainee detects neurodegenerative diseases

The revolutionary Czech app, Cogni Trainee, can aid in detecting early stages of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The app tests mental abilities, especially of the elderly, and detects early signs of neurodegenerative diseases, which can significantly slow the progression of the disease and prolong an individual’s independence. CIIRC CTU also participated in the development.

No future without robots?

Zdeněk Hanzálek, head of the Industrial Informatics Department at the CIIRC CTU, suggests that the Czech Republic is currently at a crossroads. The question is whether we will embrace innovation and integrate robots into mainstream production, or if they will remain as exotic achievements, leaving us solely as a low-cost assembly plant.

Wiki How

How does Wikipedia work and how has its content contributed to the development of AI chatbots? Listen to one of the episodes of FIT CTU’s Ones and Zeros podcast. Martin Urbanec, Vice President of Wikimedia CR and the only Czech working for Wikimedia’s US headquarters as a software developer, will explain everything

The first graduate of the double degree programme

FIT CTU celebrates the first graduate of the double-degree program, who simultaneously graduated from the Faculty of Information Technology of the CTU in Prague and the Faculty of Applied Economics of the University of Antwerp. This is a joint PhD programme where students can obtain a degree from both the home and partner foreign university at the same time, for one dissertation.

Fokus Václava Moravce on AI

Fokus Václava Moravce was broadcast live from the Testbed for Industry 4.0 at CIIRC CTU focusing on the rise and fall of artificial intelligence. The guests included Michal Pěchouček and Tomáš Mikolov.

Czechia through the eyes of science

Explore the intriguing and possibly lesser-known projects developed by Czech scientists in 2023. This overview appropriately highlights the work of researcher Josef Šivic from CTU, who will integrate computer vision, machine learning, and robotics as part of the prestigious ERC Advanced grant.

Experts on AI Act

Will the European Union be a pioneer in AI regulation or or will it adopt a more stringent watchdog role? Discover expert opinions on the upcoming legislation, including insights from Pavel Kordík and Michal Pěchouček. The AI Act is also extensively discussed by Jakub Mareček from AIC FEE CTU and coordinator of HumanCompatible.org, a European project dedicated to promoting fairness in AI. Pavel Kordík and Jan Kleindienst commented for CzechCrunch.

Visionaries 2023

The CzechInno association has announced the most beneficial Czech innovations of 2023 in the Visionaries competition. The jury awarded a wide range of innovative achievements, dominated by the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare and environmentally beneficial technologies. Honourable mentions from the expert jury went to companies such as Blindspot Solutions and JALUD Embedded.

Sustainable artificial intelligence

We’ve concluded a successful webinar organized by CLAIRE Office Prague, featuring the participation of Petr Kadera from EDIH CTU. The discussion focused on sustainable artificial intelligence and the strategies employed by European digital innovation centers to address green solutions.

Qminers are aiming for the stars

For Qminers, no question is too big to unravel. That’s why they symbolically open the door to new challenges and show that mathematics is all around us. With the slogan #NeverStopBeingCurious, they are expanding the horizons of the next generation. According to the founder, Petr Zahradník, they are a dream job for excellent mathematical talents who would otherwise disappear abroad. Qminers shows that even a small Czech company can compete with the established world leaders.

More than 100K invoices per week

Wolt encounters various challenges, such as the need to process over 100,000 invoices per week. Rossum offers a solution to automate these processes, empowering Wolt to expand into new markets.

Cybersecurity forecast for 2024

The rapid development of artificial intelligence is wildly impacting cybersecurity. Michal Pěchouček from Gen Digital summarizes how the popularity of generative AI, the role of social networks or the risks of using ChatGPT are shaping the current cyberspace.

Revolution in manufacturing

Artificial intelligence is transforming the entire IT business. For example, Eviden is currently providing technology developed by its Czech subsidiary, DataSentics, to manufacturing plants. This technology is capable of identifying product defects directly on the production line through video analysis.

Personalized Support during Life Crises

Ivana Tykač’s new app, Amicara, which focuses on supporting people going through a life crisis, uses generative AI to provide personalized help and advice. Experts from Blindspot AI and MAMA AI contributed to the development.

Taxibus

Citya introduces a new transport concept in the Czech Republic combining taxis and buses using AI. It allows them to optimise transport services in hard-to-reach areas by analyzing people’s movements and preferred routes.

Custom GPTs

Did you know you can add a custom knowledge base to your chatbot? Apify introduces Website Content Crawler, which is the optimal solution for creating one. Among other things, it walks you step-by-step through how to create a ChatGPT knowledge base so that your bot has access to the most relevant data.

Web scraping in 2024

Apify is coming up with another issue of its own newsletter. This time you can read not only a summary of last year, but also an outlook for this year.

aiserver.eu

M-computers introduces a new portal for AI server configuration. It comes with an intuitive interface and easy operation. Aiserver.eu enables fast and accurate server configuration according to the specific needs of a given AI project.

🎭 Events we’re excited about

18 Jan – Artificial Intelligence: promise and threat – Petr Koubský’s lecture at UTF MFF UK will present the historical and social context of AI and the development of AI as a scientific discipline.

18 Jan – You can get acquainted with the results of research conducted at the CIIRC CTU Colloquium.

18 Jan – Phrase webinar series will help you explore dashboards using Phrase Analytics.

18 Jan – AI as a Marketing Helper will present tips on how to save time and energy by using technology and AI tools more effectively.

23 Jan – The answer to the question How to make your studies easier with artificial intelligence will be presented in the webinar of the same name by lecturer Jan Kohut.

8 Feb – Miton AI Times: Semantic Search with Elasticsearch. This talk will show how to use Elasticsearch as a vector database and explain the differences between semantic and lexical search. 

8 Feb – Combat Document Fraud: AI Solutions for Automated KYC/KYB workshop will present practical ways to combat document fraud.

9 Feb – Are you interested in studying at FIT CTU? The Open Day is an ideal opportunity for you to find out what studying at FIT is really like.

12 Feb – Artificial Intelligence in Journalism – Václav Moravec’s talk will explain what artificial intelligence can bring to modern journalism.

Also in 2024, online Scheduling Seminars organized by the IID department at CIIRC will continue. The seminars will discuss not only the latest advances in scheduling.

You can find all the events we find interesting in our Google Calendar.

🧩 Stuff that interests us

How to talk to AI?

• Světlodat first presented PrahaBot at the Nakopni Prahu awards, with which they won the prg.ai & CEE Hacks award. This conversational AI tool improves the interaction between city politics, experts and citizens. Now Světlodat comes with another novelty. This time it’s a course “How to talk to AI?“, where they will guide you through the process of prompting and communicating with artificial intelligence from A to Z. The course is suitable for beginners and intermediate learners and is now available at a discounted price. We have worked with Světlodat at prg.ai on training for the public sector so we can confirm they are good at training and courses!

The UN Interim Report: Governing AI for Humanity

• The report calls for closer alignment of international standards with how AI technologies are developed and deployed. It also draws attention to the need to embed AI in international law, human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. You can express your views through feedback.

Stealing paid content from The New York Times?

• The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement and circumventing paid content barriers. The lawsuit seeks, among other things, the deletion of all quotes in which ChatGPT draws from The New York Times.

📢 Community calls

Survey – Use of AI in Business

• The Confederation of Industry and Transport, the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic and the ICT UNION are mapping what will help entrepreneurs and companies in the Czech Republic to become leaders in the field of AI. Get involved by filling in a short survey. You can fill in the survey until 4 Feb 2024.

Literary Competition

• Reminder! The Municipal Library in Prague and the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics of the Charles University Faculty of Arts announce the literary competition “Přicházejí z-AI-mavé časy”. The competition accepts only short stories created using AI in the genres of science fiction, fantasy or horror. Submit yours until 29 Feb 2024.

AI-BOOST!

• The EU-funded project AI-BOOST has kicked off its inaugural competition, the Large AI Grand Challenge. It offers up to €250,000 in equity-free funding and an allocation of 2 million GPU hours (on the LUMI & Leonardo supercomputers) to up to four high-potential European SMEs and startups with the technical capacity and experience in working on large-scale AI models. The application deadline is 13 Feb 2024!

Open Call for SMEs

• If you have an idea for an innovative solution for the industry using AI, then submit your experiment to the AI-REDGIO 5.0 Open Call. You can receive up to €60,000 in support for solutions in the areas of edge-to-cloud applications, Industry 5.0 focused on sustainable manufacturing or technology regulatory sandboxes. The project partner is CIIRC CTU. Deadline 31 Jan 2024.

Postdoc scholarship not only in AI

• The MERIT Programme is opening a call for international postdoctoral fellows. It offers up to 15 postdoctoral fellowships in fields such as biotechnology, space technology or artificial intelligence. Don’t miss this unique opportunity!

AI4Europe

• Workshop on equity and bias in AI-driven diversity recruitment: call for papers, deadline 31 Jan 2024.

Oxford Summer School in Machine Learning

• The University of Oxford is once again announcing a summer school focused on machine learning and generative artificial intelligence. This year it will take place both in person at the Oxford Mathematical Institute and online. Applications are open on a first-come, first-served basis.

💼 Open job positions

prg.ai

• Program manager

Artificial Intelligence Center FEE CTU

• Phd in system identification on exciting Horizon Europe project CoDiet 

Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences

• PhD position in single molecule conductance

Charles University

• Assistant Professor at the Department of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematical Logic specializing in the field of artificial intelligence

Apify

• AI Product Marketing Manager
• AI/LLM Engineer

Citya

• React Developer
• R&D Engineer
• DevOps Engineer
• .Net/C# Backend Developer

Datamole

• Project Manager for data & AI solutions
• Senior Backend Developer
• Senior Data & AI Consultant
• Senior Data Scientist
• Data-Oriented Python Developer
• Senior Full-Stack Developer
• Senior Office Manager

DataSentics

• Python Data Engineer
• Data Scientist
• Machine Learning Engineer
• Senior Finance Specialist
• Project Owner pro oblast Life Sciences

DNAi

• Junior Delivery/Project Manager
• Senior/medior/junior Java developer
• Senior/medior/junior react programmer

Gen

• AI Research Intern
• Principal (Java) Software Engineer
• Python Developer – Threat Analysis

MAMA AI

• AI Conversation Designer
• Sales Consultant (Telma AI)
• Python Developer for Conversational AI

Phrase

• Senior Platform Engineer

Valeo

• System Engineer
• Cyber Security Validation Engineer
• Trainee – SW Tool Chain
• R&D Mechatronic Technical Project Manager
• Mechatronic Project Manager
• Cybersecurity Technical Leader

EY

• AI Engineer – Advanced Analytics team

Czechitas

• Help educate women in AI

Prague Innovation Institute

• Project and Finance Manager – Prague Smart Accelerator+