As a leader in your business, you know that generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming industries and reshaping the competitive landscape — is your organization prepared to adapt?
Large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing AI (Sydney), Google’s Bard, and Meta’s LLaMA are at the forefront of the generative AI revolution, and the accessibility of these tools presents both tremendous challenges and opportunities for every industry.
AI enables organizations like yours to automate processes, support decision-making with data-driven insights, and improve client and employee experiences. But without a solid understanding of how this emerging technology functions, you may miss out on significant opportunities or fail to anticipate risks. Understanding the disruptive potential of generative AI could be instrumental in ensuring the future success of your business.
In this one-day, in-person program developed in partnership with the Faculty of Information (iSchool) at the University of Toronto, you’ll learn everything you need to know about generative AI to position your organization strategically in this rapidly-evolving space. You’ll learn from unbiased experts in the field—no sales pitches, just the information you need to make informed investments in technology that could improve your organization’s efficiency, innovation, and growth.
This course is designed to help leaders from any industry learn about generative AI and their business applications.
- Organizational leaders (executives of all levels) who wish to understand how generative AI and LLMs are reshaping the business and government sectors.
- Leaders who need to know what's required to implement LLM applications in their organizations.
- Senior managers and directors who wish to enhance their digital-ready skill sets.
- Consultants who wish to further understand LLMs and their applications.
What can attendees expect to learn in the Operationalizing Generative AI program?
- Understand relevant uses of Large Language Models (LLMs) and how they will affect the future of work
- How to bring LLMs into your organization successfully
- How to recognize and select the right tools for different LLM tasks
- How to evaluate cost/quality trade-offs when designing and deploying LLMs
- How to know where LLMs can fit within enterprise IT systems
- How to identify opportunities, risks, and barriers to implementation
- Understand the current regulatory landscape, broader societal concerns, and future talent pipelines
This program takes place in person at the University of Toronto Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus (108 College Street, Toronto, Room W240) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on December 4, 2024. Lunch will be provided.
In-person sessions include:
- Landscape overview
- Understanding Large Language Models (LLMs) and their disruptive potential
- Bringing LLMs into your organization successfully
- Deploying LLMs
- Workshop: Identifying opportunities for deployment
- Deploying LLMs responsibly
- Technical implementation
- Fireside chat: LLMs in the wild
This executive sprint offers multiple modes of learning that will allow you to get up-to-speed quickly on how LLMs are disrupting different types of organizations. This includes:
- 90-minute live sessions comprised of short presentations and in-depth peer discussions guided by Dr. Jimmy Lin at each session.
- Curated readings that will allow you to dig deeper into specific topics of interest.
- Action learning thought-starters designed to help you quickly and easily understand where, when, and how to incorporate LLM applications in your organizations.
Upon successful completion of this program, you will receive a professional education certificate from the University of Waterloo.
Refund policy
For more information, please review WatSPEED's withdrawal, transfer, and refund policy.
Dr. Jimmy Lin
Cheriton Chair, Cheriton School of Computer Science | Co-Director, Waterloo.AI
Dr. Jimmy Lin is a professor and holds the David R. Cheriton Chair in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He also serves as the co-director of the Waterloo AI Institute, which has the mission to promote cross-disciplinary research at the frontiers of artificial intelligence and its applications across the entire campus.
Dr. Lin’s area of research lies at the intersection between natural language processing and information retrieval. In addition to being one of the most cited artificial intelligence scholars in the world, he has been frequently and deeply engaged with both the private and public sectors throughout his career, including an extended sabbatical at Twitter and visiting positions at the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
He presently serves as the chief technology officer of Primal, a Waterloo-based AI company focused on creating meaning that computers can understand.
Dr. Lin holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and
is a fellow of the ACM.
Watch Jimmy Lin's ChatGPT webinar
Javed Mostafa
Professor and Dean, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Javed Mostafa is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Information. His research focuses on multimedia information retrieval, personalization and user modeling as well as cyberinfrastructure for research and learning.
Professor Mostafa came to U of T in September 2023 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he served as a Professor and the founding Director of an interdisciplinary informatics training program called the Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP) that oversaw collaboration among seven UNC academic units.
Previously, at Indiana University, Bloomington, Professor Mostafa held the Victor H. Yngve Endowed Professorship and he also served as an Associate Dean of Academics and an Associate Dean of Research.
Professor Mostafa completed his PhD in information science at the University of Texas at Austin in 1994, with a focus on developing information query models and search interfaces for video information.
Markus Grupp
Design and Product Executive
Markus is a design and product executive who has held leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, leading design firms, and start-ups in Asia, Europe, and Canada. Most recently, he has led global design and innovation teams at hyper-growth AI-native LegalTech tech companies, including a unicorn (Sirion) and a successful exit (Kira Systems). He previously designed and delivered great customer and employee experiences by embedding human-centred design practices in large enterprises, including Orange/France Telecom, Indigo, TELUS, and Rogers Communications. Markus is a co-founder of the social enterprise The Prosper Lab, serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Toronto, and is a guided hike leader for Parks Canada.