AI Keynotes at Microsoft: A Night of Innovation and Insights
Last November, we at Speak About AI, hosted and an extraordinary gathering of AI minds at the Microsoft Campus in Silicon Valley. With 9 amazing keynote speakers, the event dived into every facet of AI including agents, healthcare law, creativity, and more.
Robert Strong on stage kicking off the event.
Robert Strong opened the event as the emcee by welcoming over 300 attendees—including event professionals, Stanford professors, software engineers, and leading figures in Silicon Valley—and setting the stage for an evening packed with insights from some of the brightest minds in artificial intelligence. Sprinkling in magic, jokes, and entertainment during the regular show, he also lead the headline fireside chat, between two of the leading voices in AI right now.
The Future of AI: Insights from Industry Pioneers
Adam Cheyer & Peter Norvig: The Human-AI Relationship
The highlight of the evening was a fireside chat between two AI legends, moderated by Robert Strong. Adam Cheyer, VP of AI Experience at Airbnb and co-founder of Siri, and Dr. Peter Norvig, Education Fellow at Stanford and former Director of Research at Google, shared profound insights on AI's trajectory.
Cheyer, who recently sold his company GamePlanner.ai to Airbnb for $200 million, drew parallels between AI and stage magic, suggesting both attempt to approach the "real magic" of human intelligence. As an accomplished magician himself, Cheyer noted that humans remain the true miracle that AI tries to emulate.
Norvig distinguished between "artificial politicians" that simply predict the next word versus true AI, which thinks through possibilities, criticizes them, and combines them before responding. He explained how reinforcement learning resembles animal training, with AI systems learning through positive and negative feedback similar to pets.
Robert Strong interviewing Adam Cheyer and Peter Norvig on stage.
Both speakers strongly advocated for building AI as complementary technology that augments humans rather than replacing them—a position they believe makes sense both philosophically and economically.
Looking to the future, Cheyer identified three billion-dollar opportunities in AI:
Improving AI's ability to "do" things beyond just knowing
Creating better interfaces that blend language with graphics
Developing an app store marketplace for AI
Meanwhile, Norvig emphasized the need for better communication methods with models beyond prompt engineering and incorporating languages beyond natural language. Watch the fireside chat here.
Ashley Tarver: AI - The Human Paradox
Ashley Tarver kicking off the event with the first keynote.
Ashley Tarver, Data, AI and Cloud Evangelist, presented a thought-provoking paradox: How can humans teach AI to create an ideal world we've never achieved ourselves? Tarver noted that previous technological revolutions—from steam engines to the internet—brought both tremendous benefits and significant problems due to human involvement.
"The paradox lies in humans being teachers to AI while hoping AI will eventually become the teacher—creating a complex circular relationship," Tarver explained. She identified language translation as a critical solution to bridge the fundamental communication gap between humans (alphabetic language) and AI (binary language).
Looking five years ahead, Tarver predicts we'll have personal digital assistants capable of maintaining ongoing conversations tailored to our unique needs, similar to the movie "Her."
Maya Ackerman: AI for the Future of Humanity
Dr. Maya Ackerman, CEO of WaveAI and Santa Clara University Professor, presented a powerful vision for how AI can evaluate and enhance human potential. She emphasized that we're at a critical junction in history where AI is transforming how we create music, art, writing, and communication.
Maya Ackerman and Robert Strong during audience questions.
"Truly enhancing creativity means improving someone's creative process in ways that persist even if they never use the AI again—this should be the standard for AI systems," Ackerman argued. Her "Humble Creative Machines" framework proposes that AI should function as brilliant collaborators who make others better while allowing humans to remain in control.
Ackerman observed that the most successful AI products are deeply interactive and give humans control, concluding that commercial success and humanity's benefit are aligned—we should use generative AI's power to create a world we want to live in.
Watch Maya’s keynote here.
Navigating the AI Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
Katie McMahon: Finding the Needle in the AI Haystack
Katie McMahon on stage talking about hidden opportunities with AI.
Katie McMahon, former VP at Shazam and President & COO at Native Voice, delivered an insightful talk addressing the overwhelming nature of AI developments, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs). She noted Chat GPT's unprecedented adoption—reaching 1 million users in just 5 days compared to Instagram (75 days) and Spotify (5+ months).
McMahon cautioned against the "Eliza effect"—our tendency to anthropomorphize AI and attribute human-like qualities to these systems. "LLMs are trained on incomprehensibly large datasets containing both valuable information and rubbish, making them stochastic parrots that generate plausible language without understanding," she explained.
The top risk she identified is "recursive pollution"—when LLMs confidently generate incorrect information that gets incorporated into training data for future models, creating a dangerous feedback loop she described as "the snake eating its tail."
McMahon identified voice interfacing combined with LLMs as the "needle in the haystack" opportunity, moving from screen-based to voice-based interaction with computing power—a significant shift in how humans will interact with technology in the coming years.
Jeremiah Owyang: Navigating the AI Agent Landscape
Jeremiah Owyang, General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures and Llama Lounge AI Event Founder, delivered a fascinating presentation on the exploding market of AI agents. "AI agents represent the fastest-growing market in AI, projected to grow from $5 billion to $65 billion and eventually $500 billion in the coming years," Owyang revealed.
Jeremiah Owyang explaining AI agents.
Unlike AI co-pilots or assistants, AI agents can work autonomously while you sleep, self-task without prompts, maintain memory, recruit other agents, and learn over time. Owyang presented two bold theses:
AI agents, not humans, will become the dominant entity on the internet
Information will be reassembled and presented exactly how users want it, rather than being controlled by web designers
He highlighted that Gartner forecasts search engine traffic will drop 25% by 2026 as humans increasingly turn to chatbots and agents instead of traditional search. Looking further ahead, Owyang suggested AI agents may eventually evolve from productivity tools to colleagues, managers, customers, and even competitors—potentially becoming autonomous entities that trade, learn, govern, and reproduce without human intervention.
Watch Jeremiah’s keynote here.
AI in Industry: Practical Applications and Emerging Trends
Murray Newlands: AI & Invention
Murray Newlands, named by Huffington Post as one of the top 10 people to know in Silicon Valley and CEO of Beyond Imagination, delivered an energizing talk on AI-powered invention. Meeting with hundreds of startups weekly, Newlands argued that while current AI focuses on chatbots and basic agents, we should be looking toward AI for invention and innovation.
"Advanced AI systems will analyze environments through video feeds, create their own questions, incorporate data from patent databases and academic institutions, and develop novel solutions," Newlands explained. He predicted AI will eventually produce its own businesses, particularly in cutting-edge areas like material sciences, drug discovery, and self-driving cars.
Murray Newlands explaining the intersection of AI and invention.
Newlands foresees self-driving technology rapidly advancing and creating trillion-dollar opportunities by transforming how we work, live, and socialize—similar to how railways and cars shaped cities. He also predicted that cryptocurrency and decentralization will make a comeback, enabling AI agents to transfer money and create businesses more rapidly.
His most compelling point encouraged thinking about AI not just as personal assistants but as technologies that will fundamentally change business creation and problem-solving over the next 5-10 years. Newlands concluded that AI empowers small teams to compete with large corporations, noting he's met "amazing small AI teams who are really innovating very fast."
Max Sills: Buying and Selling AI Technology
Max Sills, General Counsel for Midjourney and owner of Open Advisory Services, brought his expertise from seven years leading open source legal at Google to address the practical aspects of AI business transactions. He explained that AI has become a commodity similar to how open source software evolved from proprietary to widely distributed.
Max Sills addressing AI dealmaking.
"Before engaging in AI transactions, companies should develop a clear thought process and decision-making rubric focused on the intended use of the AI technology," Sills advised. He emphasized understanding the difference between using AI internally versus distributing it externally, as these scenarios have different profit margins and liability profiles.
Sills introduced the concept of the "cheapest cost avoider"—determining who is best positioned to prevent harm should guide how liability is allocated in contracts. He cautioned that indemnities in AI contracts are often "false promises" with so many exceptions that they provide little actual protection.
For startups working with government agencies, Sills advised raising substantial capital for regulatory compliance experts, as these relationships require significant resources due to the imbalance between large government entities and small companies.
Additional Insights: Enterprise and Healthcare Applications
Rene Caissie talking about healthcare and AI.
The event also featured valuable contributions from Rene Caissie (CEO of Medeloop.ai and Stanford School of Medicine Adjunct Professor), who demonstrated how AI agents are revolutionizing medical research by analyzing vast datasets to identify patterns humans might miss; Akash Saraf (CEO at TheAgentic), who addressed architectural considerations for enterprise AI models; and Anubhav Bhatia (VP at SAP), who showcased practical examples of generative AI integration within traditional business applications. Together, these speakers highlighted AI's transition from theoretical concepts to practical implementations across healthcare and enterprise environments.
Our Generous Sponsors
The AI Keynotes at Microsoft event was made possible through the support of our esteemed sponsors:
Their commitment to advancing AI innovation and education played a crucial role in the success of this event.
Looking Forward
This gathering exemplified our commitment to bringing together diverse perspectives on artificial intelligence. By helping facilitate meaningful conversations between industry leaders, researchers, and practitioners, our goal is to contribute to the responsible development and application of AI technologies.
As we continue to navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape, events like these provide crucial opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration. The combination of technical insights, ethical considerations, and practical applications discussed during the evening offered a comprehensive view of where AI is heading and how various industries can prepare for and benefit from these advancements.
Stay tuned for announcements about our upcoming events, where we'll continue to explore the cutting edge of artificial intelligence and its impact on our world.
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