A UC Irvine keynote on when human and AI teams outperform either alone
Ascend GenAI, Orange County's professional community for generative AI, hosts an evening on the question every startup building with AI faces: which decisions should the model make, and which should stay with people?
Join them Wednesday, August 26 from 6:00PM to 8:00PM at Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County, 1 Federation Way, Irvine, CA 92603.
The keynote comes from Padhraic Smyth, Distinguished Professor and Hasso Plattner Chair in AI at UC Irvine. He is a Fellow of ACM, AAAI, IEEE, and AAAS, has published over 250 papers on machine learning and AI, and served as academic advisor to Netflix for the Netflix Prize. His research group studies human-AI collaboration: combining human and AI predictions so the pair outperforms either working alone, and learning which tasks to route to people and which to AI agents. His talk covers recent findings with direct application to teams deciding how much autonomy to give AI. A 15-minute open Q&A follows.
The program opens with a lightning talk from Hadar Ziv, Associate Professor of Teaching in UC Irvine's Department of Informatics, titled Student Perceptions of AI in Computer Science Education. His team surveyed large cohorts of UCI computer science students in 2023, 2024, and 2026 about how they perceive and use AI in the curriculum, a data-grounded look at the next generation of engineering talent.
The evening includes open networking with Orange County engineers, founders, and product leaders working with AI, with light refreshments provided. Ascend GenAI events regularly draw attendees from companies including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and NVIDIA, alongside local startup founders and university researchers. Doors open at 6:00 PM for networking, talks begin at 6:30 PM, and the program closes with networking until 8:00 PM.
Agenda
6:00 PM · Doors open, networking
6:30 PM · Lightning talk: Hadar Ziv
6:45 PM · Keynote: Padhraic Smyth
7:20 PM · Open audience Q&A
7:35 PM · Networking until 8:00 PM
You will leave with a clearer understanding of:
When combining human and AI judgment beats either working alone
How to divide real work between people and AI agents, grounded in research
How UCI computer science students perceive and use AI, measured across three survey years
Tickets
Early Bird $22 through August 19. Standard $26.
Reserve your spot below.
Please register here to attend.
Thanks to Ascend GenAI for offering this local startup event, the details, and the graphic!