09-19, 16:20–16:55 (Europe/Amsterdam), Rembrandt
Join me as I take you on a journey through the creation of Jounai, an AI-driven news platform that started as a fun side project but is now (fully) functional. The idea was simple: work with different tech than usual, combine it with what works, and perhaps: use generative AI to innovate news consumption in a responsible way. We ended with a free to use website with multiple automated AI generated podcasts every day, with references to sources and always up to date news articles and more.
In this talk, I will take you along in the exciting process of experimenting with new technologies and the lessons learned along the way. From comparing 'old-school' machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to what I call ‘API ML’, to changing to Azure while being used to working with AWS, and switching from Python to Java for web services because why not try—I'll share it all. Hint: Wil likely build them in Python again in the future. Why? Will discuss during the talk! We'll also look at how Vue.js measures up against its brother Nuxt.js for front-end development. This talk isn't just about creating an AI generated news website—it's about continuous learning, staying curious, and keeping your mind sharp by embracing new challenges.
Hello PyData Amsterdam attender!
Imagine getting your daily news from AI correspondents who never tire, never need coffee breaks, and never miss a beat. That's Jounai—a side project turned innovative news platform, born from the curiosity and creativity of a few tech geeks. Jounai is an AI-driven news platform that started as a fun side project but is now fully functional. The idea was simple: work with different tech than usual, combine it with what works, and perhaps: build a novel way of news consumption that uses generative AI in a responsible way. We ended with a free to use website with features like multiple automated AI generated podcasts every day, with references to sources and always up to date news articles and more.
Who's Talking:
I'm Maarten Sukel, wrapping up my Ph.D. in multimodal machine learning this year and the fresh founder of The AI Factory. The AI Factory specializes in full stack AI development and helping organizations with taking away bottlenecks in making a positive and responsible impact with AI. Together with my brilliant co-creators, we've set out to transform the news landscape using cutting-edge technology (and tech we do not normally use): for fun and for learning new stuff! We named it Jounai.
What’s Jounai?
Jounai is an AI-powered news website that provides automated journalism, daily horoscopes, and even podcasts. It leverages advanced algorithms to gather, verify, and publish news, ensuring the information is both reliable and engaging.
Tech Stack and Choices:
Personally I am most accustomed to working with AWS, but we chose Azure for the simple reason that we wanted to try something new (and some other reasons I will discuss in the talk). Instead of Python, we decided to use Java for our web services—because trying new things keeps it interesting. We did use Python for all machine learning, doing that in Java would be even more insane than I am (and of course as a machine learning engineer python is my weapon of choice). Of the shelve AI models, including api LLMs, do the heavy lifting for text and speech generation. Old school NLP and similarities do the logic which we do not want to hallucinate and need to be explainable. Old school NLP and LLM’s make a good team!
The Blend of Old and New:
Jounai combines old-school NLP and machine learning with "API ML". This blend has helped us create a versatile and robust platform. In the talk will elaborate on how fusing LLM's with other approaches is a great way to get no hallucinations and keep it all stable.
Learning and Playing with New Tech:
I'll share stories from our brainstorming sessions and late-night coding marathons. Expect some funny anecdotes about unexpected bugs and how it now looks and what changes we might be making. The of it all is to learn and to play, so I hope you will enjoy the talk and learn some things along the way.
Cross-Validation for News:
Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of news is crucial, as we do not want to spread fake news. We've adapted cross-validation techniques, similar to those used in active learning, to verify news from diverse sources. This process helps maintain objectivity and ensures our AI-generated content is as factual as possible. I'll explain how we implemented these techniques and the results we've seen (both what went well and what went wrong).
What You’ll Take Away:
- Insights into building a full-stack AI project from scratch.
- Insights in costs (and related trends) of Azure and using OpenAI api's.
- The joys and pitfalls of integrating LLMs in real-world applications.
- The mental benefits of continuously learning new technologies.
- How cross-validation techniques can be applied to news validation.
A Bit About Jounai’s Features:
- AI Correspondents: Tireless news reporters that never miss a beat but occasionally have hallucinations.
Horoscopes and Podcasts: Because everyone needs a daily dose of cosmic guidance and AI-generated audio content.
- A Commitment to Accuracy and transparency: Using cross-validation techniques to ensure reliable and objective AI-generated content, and to be transparent about what sources are used.
Join me and ‘delve’ into this talk for a fun, insightful, and slightly irreverent journey into the world of AI news writing with Jounai. Whether you’re a seasoned machine learning engineer or just love tinkering with new tech, there’s something in this talk for you.
As a PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam, I focus on multimodal machine learning, merging images, text, and data for meaningful tasks. I am also the author of "De AI Revolutie," exploring the societal impacts of artificial intelligence.
I recently launched The AI Factory, a venture dedicated to creating a lasting and positive impact with AI. Through AI product development and strategic consultancy, The AI Factory aims to help organizations apply, scale, and control AI effectively and responsibly.
I partner with clients across various industries to deliver rapid results with AI systems.
Interested in learning more about The AI Factory? Or making a lasting impact with AI? Feel free to reach out; I'd love to chat about the possibilities!