Malta AI & BC Summit 'Spring Edition' Speakers

I understand that the regulators are wary of this technology but the fact is that its coming. We must be on the frontline in embracing this crucial innovation, and we cannot just wait for others to take action and copy them. We must be the ones that others copy.

Silvio Schembri is a an elected Maltese politician and academic currently serving as a Junior Minister within the Maltese Government. Hon Schembri was born in Luqa, the second child among four siblings.

His father John Schembri has been occupying the office of Mayor of Luqa since 2001. Silvio is an experienced Lecturer In Economics with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Political Communication, Negotiation, Sustainable Development, Political Science, and Analytical Skills. Strong education professional with a Master of Arts and a Bachelors Degree of Honours focused in Economics from L-Università ta’ Malta.

Founder: Draper Associates and DFJ. Founder Draper Venture Network. Global VC.
Original Innovation: Viral Marketing.
Venture Successes: Skype, Baidu, Tesla, Overture, Theranos, Parametric, Hotmail, Twitch.tv
Founder: Draper University of Heroes, Masters school for entrepreneurs.
Education: BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. MBA from Harvard Business School
Awards: “Entrepreneur for the World” from the World Entrepreneur Foundation, “Distinguished Citizen” from Commonwealth Club, “Midas List” from Forbes. “100 Most Powerful People in Finance” from Worth. Top 100 most influential Harvard Alumni. “#1 Top Venture Capital Dealmaker from Always-On.
Initiatives: BizWorld.org, entrepreneurship for children. SixCalifornias and Innovate Your State for better governance.

Dr Alexiei Dingli is a Senior Lecturer of Artificial Intelligence within the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta. He is also one of the founder members of the ACM student chapter in Malta, founder member of the Web Science Research, founder member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Malta and of the Gaming group at the same University. He pursued his Ph.D. on the Semantic Web at the University of Sheffield in the UK under the supervision of Professor Yorick Wilks. While there, he worked on various large projects but his major contribution can be attributed to the Advanced Knowledge Technologies project, one of the largest Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (IRC) funded by the Engineering and Physics Research Council (EPSRC). For this project he created two systems which were rated World Class by a panel of international experts whose chair was Professor James Handler (one of the creators of the Semantic Web). These systems were later used as a core component of the application that won the first Semantic Web challenge (2003). His recent work in Mobile Technology and Smart Cities (2011) was also awarded a first price by the European Space Agency. He has published several posters, papers, book chapters and a book in the area. For four years, he also worked as a Senior Manager in a large government corporation where he got insight into the needs, potential and deficiencies of digital natives. During this time, he also pursued an MBA with the Grenoble Business School in France specialising on Technology Management.

SingularityNET was born from a collective will to distribute the power of AI. Sophia, the world’s most expressive robot, is one of our first use cases.

Today, she uses multiple AI modules to see, hear, and respond empathetically. Many of her underlying AI modules will be available open-source on SingularityNET.

My main focus these days is the SingularityNET project (http://singularitynet.io), which brings AI and blockchain together to create a decentralized open market for AIs. It’s a medium for the creation and emergence of AGI, a way to roll out superior AI-as-a-service to every vertical market, and a way to enable everyone in the world contribute to and benefit from AI.

For general links to various of my pursuits present and past, see my website http://goertzel.org

My passions are numerous, including AGI, life extension biology, philosophy of mind, psi, consciousness, complex systems, improvisational music, experimental fiction, theoretical physics and metaphysics … and more other stuff than I’m going to mention here!!

Jonathan Peter Marland, Baron Marland is a British businessman and politician, having served as Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy, Minister for Energy and Climate Change and Business, Innovation and Skills, and Treasurer of the Conservative Party. He was awarded a life peerage on 8 June 2006 as Baron Marland, of Odstock in the County of Wiltshire. In December 2015, he was awarded the Order of Merit of Malta.

Dr. Max Ganado has been practising law for over 35 years. He started his career as a maritime lawyer dealing with all aspects of shipping, including ship finance. He became a Partner of the firm in 1986 and moved on to develop the Financial Services practices at GANADO Advocates. He has been heavily involved in the drafting of new legislation required for the development of Malta as a financial centre, including the revision of the law relating to trusts and the law on legal persons and foundations, as well as on netting, securitisation and aviation. He is now heavily involved in the design and development of laws and practice around DLT and smart contracts as Malta takes a proactive stance in this regard.

Max has been delivering lectures on varied subjects for a number of years, having been actively involved in disseminating education to the Maltese legal professions and Maltese law students. He has published various articles and has acted as editor of a number of publications.

Max was the firm’s Managing Partner for 6 years. In 2015, he moved into a Senior Partner position within the firm, taking over a mix of duties, some professional and others relating to strategy.

I write a daily email newsletter on the blockchain and crypto markets. You can subscribe here: https://offthechain.substack.com/