Rabat- The non-governmental organization MoroccoAI will virtually host its second annual conference on December 21-22, under the theme “Towards A Promising National Al Strategy,” for Moroccan and International experts in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). This comes in succession of the 2021 conference titled “Bridging the Gap Between AI Research and Industry.”
A member of the organizer committee, Ihsane Gryech, told Morocco World News that “the conference will be a unique opportunity for deliberation among Moroccan and International AI experts on how they can leverage synergies for the development and use of AI in Morocco.”
The event is targeted toward over 2,000 researchers, scientists, students, entrepreneurs, and organization representatives. The conference consists of keynote speeches, panels, and workshops, with opportunities for attendees to learn from experts, share their projects, and network.
A prominent keynote speaker is cognitive psychologist and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, known as a leading figure in the deep learning community. Hinton works for Google and the University of Toronto as an emeritus professor.
The professor is often referred to as the “Godfather of AI” for his breakthrough work using back-propagation in artificial neural networks, his talk at the MoroccoAI conference is highly anticipated.
Other keynote speakers include experts based in Morocco, the USA, the Netherlands, France, the UAE, and Switzerland.
The conference also organizes a data challenge, a contest in which participants scrap data — collect data from websites and structure them in a spreadsheet — through codes for a jury to evaluate and choose a prize winner.
MoroccoAI will publish a synthesis document at the end of the event that presents actionable recommendations for the development of AI in Morocco in order to inform and support the development of a national strategy.
The conference is in line with MoroccoAI’s aim to “build an internationally-connected Moroccan AI community with a strong global presence” and “an environment where all stakeholders are valued and empowered to create an ecosystem of growth and inclusion in AI.”
The attention comes at a time of growth in the field of AI in Morocco, notably through Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P)’s International Center for Artificial Intelligence, or the “AI movement.”
AI’s use is important to the Moroccan government, which in March 2022 implemented the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommendations on the ethics of artificial intelligence.
