Vancouver Korea IT Conference 2023 Explores Future of Computing and Impact of AI

Co-hosted by the Consulate General of Vancouver and KDD

The 2023 Vancouver Korean IT Conference, co-hosted by the Consulate General Vancouver and the Korean IT community KDD, was held with over 250 attendees at UBC Labs Square downtown on July 15, following last year’s May event.

The conference revolved around the theme “Dive into the future”. The first part included a forecast of IT trends and a panel discussion with hiring managers. This was followed by sessions where industry recruiters provided practical help to jobseekers navigating the IT job market.

Attendees also had the opportunity to sit in on meetings with hiring managers from IT companies, enabling them to gain insights into strategies for weathering the jobs downturn. Networking sessions and mentoring opportunities were available for job seekers and students, with mentors from various industries, including major tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, as well as gaming companies and finance startups, sharing their working know-how.

During the conference, Professor Jeeho Ryoo, Faculty of Information Systems Technology at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), gave a lecture on ‘Research Advances in Computer Architecture for Performance and Energy Efficiency’. Additionally, University of British Columbia (UBC) Associate Professor Dongwook Yoon gave a lecture on ‘The impact of AI on selfhood and relationships’.

Professor Jeeho Ryoo highlighted the growing demand for computer systems that can handle complex workloads while saving energy. He highlighted the surge in research into specialized hardware accelerators, advanced memory architectures, and new approaches to parallelism to improve performance and power efficiency. He also mentioned the development of energy-friendly programming algorithms that optimize resource allocation and reduce power consumption while meeting performance requirements. These advances hold promise for the future of computer technology and offer exciting job opportunities for engineers. In particular, large companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are investing heavily in energy-efficient computing systems, while startups are focusing on specialized hardware and software for efficient computing.

Associate Professor Dongwook Yoon’s lecture delved into the impact of artificial intelligence on selfhood and relationships. He discussed how AI agents can learn from data and mimic human appearance, thoughts and abilities, and emphasized the need to consider individuality, such as individuality, values ​​and relationships, in AI discourse. His speech is drawn from the recent discoveries of design fiction studios, which have explored people’s perception of the impact of AI on individuality and relationships through speculative scenarios involving near-future technologies. These findings highlighted potential tensions related to non-human beings, such as the Uncanny Valley, distrust and impression management. They have also had implications for the ongoing discourse on the social impact of AI, touching on areas such as ethics, justice and sustainability.

Meanwhile, job seekers who attended the conference expressed concern about the high thresholds companies set for hiring. Major Vancouver tech firms, including Amazon and Apple, have been reported to have had a hiring freeze and are laying off existing staff.

© Korea IT Times