The start of the Democratizing AI Newsletter which focuses in the first edition on "Artificial Intelligence a Key Exponential Technology in the Smart Technology Era" coincides with the launch of BiCstreet's "AI World Series" Live event, which kicks off both virtually and in-person (limited) from 10 March 2022, where this theme, amongst others, will be discussed in more detail over a 10-week AI World Series programme. The event is an excellent opportunity for companies, startups, governments, organisations and white collar professionals all over the world, to understand why Artificial Intelligence is critical towards strategic growth for any department or genre. See the 10 Weekly Program here: https://www.BiCstreet.com)). We live in tremendously exciting times where we already experience the disruptive and far-reaching impact of a smart technology revolution that seems to be on track to comprehensively change how we live, work, play, interact, and relate to one another.

In this newsletter I future a recent recording from BusinessDay TV - a panel discussion I was involved in. It was hosted by Michael Avery and our guests were Tumisang Nkosi (Tumi) Director: Executive Education & Programmes at Johannesburg Business School (JBS) & Kanshukan Rajaratnam (Kanshu), Director: School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University. I also include an article I wrote for BusinessDay newspaper on the same topic. The smart technology era is a revolution characterised by the blending of the physical, digital and biological worlds. Artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, genetic engineering, and quantum computing is spurring on the creation of products and services that are rapidly becoming more important in today's world.

We are excited to announce our next MIIA event that will be hosted by PwC in V&A Waterfront, Cape Town on the 16th of August 2017 at 6pm. The theme of the event is "Data Science Applications to help businesses thrive in the Smart Technology Era" and we have speakers from PwC, Dimago, Cortex Logic and UCT. The Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa (MIIA) has also recently partnered with the Africa Data Forum and will be participating in the upcoming All Things Data Conference at the Westin, Cape Town on 29-30 August 2017. MIIA has decided to join forces with the Africa Data Science Association and will also have Board representation in this non profit organization that aims to ensure alignment between the academia and corporates on data science curriculum. We are excited to have many of the MIIA community members also participating in the upcoming Deep Learning Indaba at Wits, Johannesburg from 10-15 September 2017.