Belfast and Birmingham, Alabama strengthened business, academic, and tech links last week at a groundbreaking transatlantic AI Roundtable in the US.
Tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and civic champions from the two cities were joined by AI experts, commentators, and founders to discuss seizing the opportunity that artificial intelligence creates for both locations.
Hosted in Birmingham, Alabama, a city connected historically to Belfast by Ulster-Scots emigration and their civil rights histories, the conference saw the two cities making common cause again to seize the opportunities of the AI Revolution.
On Wednesday and Thursday of last week, AI business leaders and academics from Ireland, North and South, travelled to the Magic City to take part in a roundtable which explored the potential of AI to create jobs and transform economies.
Attendees heard from stakeholders across the business and political spheres of AI from both sides of the Atlantic, including Alabama Representative Mike Shaw, Consul General of Ireland in Miami Sarah Kavanagh, and Matt McGuire, Vice-President of Data and AI for Unosquare, a $100 million company headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico, which maintains significant presences in both Birmingham and Belfast.
AI FORUM: Liz Pharo, CEO of divorce.com addressing the Magic City Roundtable
Also included across the conference were Aoife Ní Mhuirí, founder and CEO of the Galway- and New York-headquartered Salaso Health Solutions, Belfast-based companies Options IT and Hayward Hawk, as well as Birmingham’s DevClarity.ai, TechBirmingham, and Divorce.com.
Educational institutions from Ireland, North and South, and Birmingham were also in attendance, with speakers including: Tim Brundle, Director of Innovation, Ulster University; Colleen McClure, Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Thomas Dowling, Head of the Department of Computing at Atlantic Technological University.
“We’re delighted to be lead sponsor of the Irish AI Roundtable," said Unosquare CEO Giancarlo DiVece. "Unosquare is all about building communities and cities while developing a workforce which can provide our clients with AI solutions to their business problems. We have found Birmingham and Belfast to be truly excellent centres for talent and enterprise and see only growth and progress for our company and for the cities themselves in the time ahead.”
That was a view echoed by Sarah Kavanagh, Consul General of Ireland in Miami who also flagged up Europe's trailblazing work in setting guardrails for the deployment of AI.
“Europe is showing the way when it comes to regulating AI," she said. "The European Union is embracing the AI moment and has recently passed the EU AI Act, the first ever legal framework on artificial intelligence. Ireland, at the heart of the EU, has been an early mover in adapting to AI. Ireland is becoming a magnet for AI investment. International market leaders are drawn by our talent base and proven track record in the tech sector.”
Connla McCann, Director of convenors Aisling Events, said she hoped to make the Birmingham-Belfast initiative an annual event.
“Belfast and Birmingham are wonderful cities with magnificent people which are increasingly recognised as great places in which to locate tech businesses," she said. "Over recent years, we have built strong transatlantic partnerships with Boston, New York, and Silicon Valley but with this inaugural event in the southern states, we are engaging with the fastest-growing area of the US.”
Representative Mike Shaw, Member of the Alabama House of Representatives and member of the Governor’s AI Task Force added: “Our focus at the Irish roundtable in the Magic City is on the opportunity of AI. We hear a lot of negativity, much of it driven by understandable concern and fear, but it’s crucial that we don’t lose sight of the ability of AI to do good for humanity. Let’s work together – across the Atlantic – to identify the great things that AI can do to make life better for all our peoples.”
'GREAT CITIES': Cornell Wesley, Economic Development Officer at Birmingham City Council and Unosquare CEO Giancarlo DiVece at the Roundtable
