Richmond’s thriving tech community came together in force for the Richmond Technology Council’s rvatech/tech’s annual Women in Tech event. BIML’s Katie McMahon delivered the opening keynote address to a packed audience at the Dewey Gottwald Center. This year’s event saw record attendance, drawing engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity specialists, CIOs, CTOs, entrepreneurs, product leaders, members of the state administration, and representatives from the Governor’s AI Task Force.

In her keynote, McMahon broadly addressed the topic of “AI Overwhelm,” and delved into BIML’s architectural risk analysis of large language models (LLMs). She left the audience more aware of the risks associated with LLMs, while also encouraging a thoughtful and mindful approach to building products and services.

McMahon also spoke about “GenV” – Generation Voice – a term she coined in 2015 to describe those born from 2010 onward, the first digital native generation to grow up accustomed to speaking with computers. With the meteoric rise of ChatGPT and other increasingly sophisticated LLM chatbots, the implications for the user experience are far-reaching, as users increasingly leverage voice interactions and natural conversational ‘dialogue’ with computing power.

The audience was exceptional, fully attentive, engaged, and receptive to the keynote. One of the biggest compliments came from two data scientists who were scheduled to present a technical workshop later in the day, titled “Clearing the Fog: Diagnosing Hallucinations in your LLMs.” After the keynote, they approached McMahon and enthusiastically announced, “We loved your talk! And we are now going to start calling it ‘Wrongness’!”

This year’s Women in Tech event at RVA Tech once again demonstrated the depth and breadth of talent within Richmond’s thriving tech ecosystem. The keynote address that Katie presented provided thought-provoking insights into the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.

Note: Katie would like to expressly thank rva/tech and their wonderful planning committee, including Emily Mercer (pictured in photo with Katie), Chris Burroughs and Jazmyn Ward, for producing a wonderful event and graciously hosting her.