AI Beat: AAIA Chapter & Member News, Top Events, Tools & Industry Insights

AAIA Global Online Event Series

• May 13, 2025, 8:30AM - 9:30AM PST, Online

• Details to follow

Recordings of recent online events:

• October 28-30, 2025

• UC San Diego Park & Market

• STACKxDays is seeking speakers for its Technical, Mindset, and Workshop tracks, inviting experts to share deep dives into AI/XR, personal and ethical insights, or lead hands-on sessions on emerging tech. Ready to share your knowledge and connect with fellow innovators? Apply to speak.

• Interested in purchasing workshop space or exploring sponsorship opportunities? Let us know in your application!

AAIA welcomes Shareef Alshinnawi as the Chapter President for Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina!

Position/company: Director - Strategic Accounts, nVent

Bio: Shareef has extensive experience in the DataCenter practice working as a Solutions Architect at both IBM and Lenovo. In those roles, he oversaw the design and deployment of large High Performance Computing & AI solutions worldwide. Currently, he serves as the director of Business Development for strategic accounts at nVent. The focus is on AI infrastructure and DataCenter cooling. Shareef has over 70 issued patents by the USPTO.

Why I am excited to be an AAIA Chapter President: I am excited to be the AAIA Chapter President for the RTP area. This will allow me to interact with local companies, universities and institutions focused on AI. I also hope to learn a lot from interacting with subject matter experts and expanding my network.

What I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year in my Chapter: I hope to build up the chapter in the next year focusing on learning and networking events. In addition, I hope to grow the chapter with experts and people who want to learn more about AI.

Welcome aboard, Shareef!

📰 Robot co-workers are coming, AI leaders predict (Axios, April 14, 2025)

At the Phoenix Global Forum, AI leaders predicted that agentic AI—autonomous systems capable of decision-making—will soon become integral in workplaces and homes, offering significant productivity gains for companies that strategically implement and scale these technologies while emphasizing the need for ethical and collaborative governance.

📰 From pilot to platform: Deloitte’s AI agents and the rise of the autonomous enterprise (siliconANGLE, April 18, 2025)

Deloitte is embracing the rise of AI agents with its new Zora AI platform to help organizations gradually adopt autonomous technologies, rethink business processes, and build an AI-enabled culture for scalable, measurable impact.

📰 Who Takes the Blame When AI Makes a Medical Mistake? (News-Medical.Net, April 16, 2025)

The article explains that as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly used in medical diagnosis and treatment, there is currently no clear legal consensus on who is liable—physicians, AI developers, or other stakeholders—when AI causes harm, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive policies and transparent accountability to protect patients and clarify responsibility across the AI supply chain.

📰 Department of Education Launches Initiative to Curb AI-Created Student Work (DC Report, April 12, 2025)

The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new initiative to address the growing use of artificial intelligence by students to complete schoolwork, aiming to update academic integrity policies, establish ethical guidelines for AI use, invest in AI detection tools, and train educators to ensure authentic learning and preserve critical thinking skills in classrooms nationwide.

📰 The Need for and Pathways to AI Regulatory and Technical Interoperability (Tech Policy.press, April 16, 2025)

The article argues that overcoming fragmented global AI regulations and technical standards through coordinated regulatory and technical interoperability is essential to foster innovation, competition, and trust in AI while enabling responsible cross-border deployment of AI systems.

📰 Gen Z is writing the next chapter of entrepreneurship with AI (The Daily Star, April 16, 2025)

Generation Z is fundamentally transforming entrepreneurship by seamlessly integrating artificial intelligence into their ventures to drive innovation, democratize business opportunities, and prioritize ethical and purpose-driven impact, while also navigating new challenges around data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the evolving nature of leadership in an AI-powered economy.

📘 The 2025 AI Index Report, by Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence

Summary/takeaway: AI is advancing rapidly across performance, accessibility, and global adoption, with growing business investment, government involvement, and scientific impact—yet challenges in responsible use, education, regional equity, and complex reasoning remain.

AI Index 2025: State of AI in 10 Charts
Download, read the full report

🛠️ Hume’s TTS (text-to-speech) model: Octave, an omni-capable text and voice engine (h/t Pablo Biggs, Chapter President, AAIA Charlotte, NC and Latin America)

Why it’s useful: Octave is the first text-to-speech system built on a language model that understands the meaning and context of what it says, enabling it to produce highly realistic, expressive, and customizable speech—complete with emotional nuance, speed control, and custom voices—at industry-leading quality and the lowest price on the market.