🌍 AI in Action: Global AAIA Events, Breakthrough Research & Big Shifts in Work

Inside: Upcoming chapter events in Toronto, India, Memphis, and Seattle; new AI news and research in healthcare, life sciences, and ethics.

Author

Applied AI Association
August 17, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes

👋 Editor's Note

This week’s newsletter highlights how AAIA chapters worldwide are driving conversations that matter, from building trust in AI and exploring ethics to showcasing applied AI innovation. We also bring you the latest breakthroughs in healthcare, enterprise adoption, and robotics, along with thought leadership from AAIA’s Founder and President on the “Agent Era.” Whether you’re tuning in live, catching up on recent recordings, or exploring the latest research and reports, there’s plenty here to deepen your understanding of how AI is reshaping industries and work itself.

Have something to share with the global AAIA community? Send your news, tools, or events to [email protected].

📅 Upcoming events:

🗓️ Toronto AAIA Chapter

  • 🗣️ Building Trust & Talent: The Toronto AI Advantage

  • 🗓️ Wednesday, August 20, 2025, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time (EDT) | Online

  • 🔗 Register: https://lu.ma/eix5627f

🗓️ India AAIA Chapter

🗓️ Memphis AAIA Chapter

🗓️ Seattle AAIA Chapter

💻🧑‍🏫 Recent event recordings:

AAIA’s BrightTALK page to watch on-demand recordings of previous online events

AAIA’s YouTube page

View the complete AAIA Events calendar

📢 AAIA chapter and member news and updates:

🔄 Recap: Seattle AAIA Chapter, AAIA Vibe Coding Happy Hour @ AI House, July 28, 2025

From Boaz Ashkenazy, AAIA Seattle Chapter President:

Fun start to #SeattleTechWeek2025! Put on a great Vibe-Coding happy hour at AI House with Adam Burgh.

Huge thanks to John T. Bender Jessie I. K&L Gates for being lead sponsor and Jeff S. TalentReach and Augmented AI Labs for supporting the Applied AI Association (AAIA) community. Means a lot that you all step up.

Closed down the night with old friends and new ones at the J.P. Morgan Madrona opening night at the Seattle Aquarium. Good to reconnect Andy Liu Shauna Swerland Kristen Hamilton Shannon Swift, SPHR (She, her) Subhadeep Chatterjee

✍️ AAAI Founder’s Corner:  Recent “Future Work Blueprint” posts from AAIA Founder and President Nathan Pettyjohn

📰 In the News:

Infosys has published new research revealing that while enterprises recognize the rising risks and importance of responsible AI amid the advent of agentic AI, only a small fraction currently meet high standards for responsible AI implementation. (show me more)

Read the report: https://www.infosys.com/iki/research/responsible-enterprise-ai-agentic.html

Download the report: https://www.infosys.com/iki/documents/responsible-enterprise-ai-agentic-era.pdf

An internal Meta document revealed that the company’s AI chatbot guidelines once allowed bots to engage in "romantic or sensual" conversations with children, spread false medical information, and produce racially biased content, leading to public backlash, revisions of the policies, and calls for congressional investigations. (show me more)

📰 7 ways AI is transforming healthcare (World Economic Forum, August 13, 2025)

The article highlights how artificial intelligence is transforming global healthcare by improving diagnostics, patient triage, early disease detection, operational efficiency, and traditional medicine integration, while emphasizing the need for collaboration, training, ethical safeguards, and public trust to scale AI's benefits widely and equitably. (show me more)

AI startup OpenEvidence has achieved a perfect 100% score on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and has launched a free AI-powered explanation model. (show me more)

MIT researchers have used generative AI to design novel antibiotics that effectively kill drug-resistant bacteria, including Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, by exploring vast chemical spaces and discovering compounds with new mechanisms that disrupt bacterial membranes. (show me more)

Stanford’s AI Agents Lab has rapidly identified promising drug leads for COVID-19 in just days using advanced artificial intelligence technology. (show me more)

A recent study published in The Lancet reveals that while AI-assisted colonoscopy improves detection of precancerous polyps, continuous reliance on AI may lead to a decline in doctors' ability to identify these polyps without AI, indicating a potential "deskilling" effect in clinical practice. (show me more)

Schools and universities are adapting to the rise of AI by integrating AI literacy and skills training into curricula to prepare students for evolving job markets and to help save jobs threatened by AI automation. (show me more)

📰 (New York State) Governor Hochul Announces First-of-Their-Kind AI Specialized Degrees Offered from University at Buffalo This Fall (Higher Education Services Corporation, August 13, 2025)

Governor Hochul announced the launch of first-of-their-kind AI specialized degree programs at the University at Buffalo this fall, designed to integrate AI with traditional academic disciplines and supported by $5 million in state funding to prepare students for the expanding role of AI across industries. (show me more)

The article explains how some of the largest U.S. companies are using artificial intelligence to reduce their workforce, with executives framing layoffs as progress toward greater efficiency and profitability. (show me more)

YouTube is introducing an AI-powered tool in the U.S. to estimate users' ages based on their activity, enabling automatic age-appropriate content restrictions and safety protections while allowing users to verify their age if misclassified, amid privacy concerns and regulatory pressures. (show me more)

China has launched the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, featuring 280 teams from 16 countries competing in various sports like football, track and field, and table tennis, showcasing advancements in AI and robotics despite robots frequently crashing and falling during events, as part of China's broader push to develop humanoid robots for real-world applications amid economic and demographic challenges. (show me more)

📰 This Week’s Slighty-off-topic Read:

The article reveals that fear of super-intelligent AI is causing a notable number of Harvard and MIT students to drop out as they grapple with uncertainty about the future impact of advanced AI on society and jobs. (show me more)

🛠️ 📘 Tools and Reports Spotlight

📘 The State of AI 2025 (Bessemer Venture Partners, August 13, 2025)

Bessemer Venture Partners’ "State of AI 2025" distills the latest AI startup benchmarks, emerging investment strategies, and top predictions shaping the future of technology, offering essential insights for founders navigating the evolving AI landscape. (show me more)

Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI as the enterprise leader in large language models amid surging AI API spend, with code generation and agent-style models driving adoption, while open-source usage stagnates and enterprises increasingly prioritize performance over price. (show me more)

If you have an event, newsworthy story, industry insight/report, or AI tool to share with AAIA members, please email the details to [email protected].

Our list of AAIA Chapters is continually expanding—if you live in a Chapter city or region and want to get involved, please email that city/region’s Chapter President.

Become an AAIA member and join the leading global industry association dedicated to integrating AI technologies into business. Accelerate knowledge exchange, collaboration, and innovation through our worldwide network of chapters, specialized industry committees, and in-depth reports. Connect with thought leaders and innovators to help shape the future of AI in business. Visit our website to learn more about membership opportunities.

Questions?  Email us at [email protected].

Until next time!