AI Voice, Emotions and Proactive AI | SF | AI Show and Tell
Join us on Oct 8th for our AI Show & Tell monthly event. We'll have several fantastic talks, snacks & drinks, in a beautiful venue. Can't wait to see you there!
🚨 We'll be back at our usual spot at the Github HQ!
This event is part of Global AI Community https://globalai.community/chapters/san-francisco/
Agenda
6 PM: Doors open
6 - 6:30 PM: Networking, light bites and refreshments
6:30 - 7:45 PM: Program
5 min: Intro
15 min: Talk - Shannon Brownlee, Co-Founder and CTO @ Valence AI
15 min: Talk - Molly Cantillon, Founder @ Nox, an OpenAI backed company
15 min: Talk - Pol Peiffer, Head of Agent Development @ Sierra AI
25 min: Panel + Q&A
7:45 - 8:30 PM: Networking part II
8:30 PM: Event concludes
🎟 Space is limited and entry is strictly first come, first served—arriving early gives you the best chance of getting in. There will be no entry once event reaches capacity. Thank you for understanding.
AI Show & Tell is a monthly series designed to bring together enthusiasts, professionals, and experts in the field of AI. Each event features engaging presentations, interactive demos, and networking opportunities, providing a place for attendees to learn about the latest advancements in AI technology and connect with like-minded individuals.
Talks
Shannon Brownlee, CTO, Valence AI
Title: Emotion Models for Large-Scale Voice Interaction
Abstract:
As text-based generative AI systems have advanced rapidly, attention is shifting to the next frontier: voice. Unlike text, voice carries dense paralinguistic signals like emotional cues that are often lost in traditional NLP systems, contributing to the uncanny valley in voice agents. This talk will dive into the research and architecture behind Valence’s approach to real-time emotion detection at scale, where deep learning models detect emotional shifts across diverse speakers and environments. Shannon will outline the data pipelines, model training considerations, and multi-modal validation strategies that make high-fidelity emotion detection feasible, and discuss open research challenges in scaling emotion AI for production systems.
Molly Cantillon, Founder @ Nox
Title: From On-Demand to On-Accept: The AI Working Ahead of You
Abstract:
Today's AI is reactive: you prompt, it replies. Tomorrow's AI will be anticipatory— speculating on your intents, orchestrating hundreds of micro-decisions in the background, surfacing what you need before that need even materializes. Proactive intelligence will take shape in productivity software and inevitably redefine the interface of computing.
Pol Pfeiffer, Head of Agent Development @ Sierra AI
Abstract: The Agent Development Lifecycle.
The next wave of AI agents are transforming every moment of the customer experience that matters -- from product discovery to account and subscription management. Pol will show how you build effective agents reliably, from development and testing to deployment and iteration.
Bio: Pol leads Agent Product Management at Sierra. Previously, he was a Product Manager at Google, where he worked on a range of products across Pixel Hardware, Voice and Audio AI, as well as Google Search. Pol holds an MS and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich.
Thank you to our sponsor 🚀 Microsoft for Startups for making this event possible!