Ex-NASA astronaut Steve Smith key speaker at Global GenAI Conclave

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 6 (PTI) Former NASA astronaut and technology executive Steve Lee Smith will be the key speaker at the country’s first International GenAI Conclave being hosted by the Kerala government in Kochi on July 11 and 12.

A veteran astronaut, Smith flew in space four times at 28,000 KMH on the space shuttle during his stint in NASA, covering 16 million miles.

He also performed seven spacewalks, including repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope, a statement said here on Saturday.

Smith will speak on ‘Lessons Learned from A Skywalker’ on the opening day of the event.

Preparations are in full swing for the flagship event that will feature the state’s core strengths as an attractive destination for a wide range of enterprises driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics.

It will showcase Kerala's commitment to fostering innovation and embracing transformative technologies.

The conclave to be hosted at Grand Hyatt Bolgatty International Convention Centre in Kochi, will bring together industry leaders, policymakers and innovators to explore the transformative potential of AI and its impact on society and the economy, it said.

Prominent speakers on the inaugural day of the conclave are Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Minister for Industries, Law and Coir Shri P Rajeeve, Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala, Dr V Venu, Principal Secretary, (Industries) A P M Mohammed Hanish, Secretary, Electronics and IT Dr Rathan U Kelkar, KSIDC MD and Director of Industries and Commerce and Secretary, I&PRD, S. Harikishore and Senior Vice President of Products at IBM Software, Dinesh Nirmal.

The GenAI conclave aims to transform Kerala as an AI destination and showcase the state’s perspectives on industry 4.0, besides giving a thrust to the growth of economy, it said.

As lead-up to the conclave, the state government, in association with IBM, conducted 'Tech Talk' in Technopark here, Infopark in Kochi and Cyber Park in Kozhikode.

Two pre-event hackathons on Watson X platform—one dedicated to university students and the other to local startups—are underway.

Besides developers, universities, students, media and analysts, the conclave will feature demos, activations, interactions with industry experts, panel discussions and lectures.

Participants will also get an opportunity to get a first-hand experience in the latest advancements in AI sector, the statement added. PTI LGK ROH