Woodstock Reimagined: The Birth of an AI Movement

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In just one week, Clement Delangue and the Hugging Face team put together what is being called one of the biggest AI meetups ever, or if you’re feeling extra spicy — the Woodstock of AI.


This photo from Jeremiah Owyang shows just how much energy showed up to the event!

The “Woodstock of AI” event in San Francisco may not have attracted the massive crowds of 500,000 people that the original Woodstock did, but for an AI revolution, the gathering of 5,000 tech enthusiasts was no small feat. The #WoodstockAI mission was to celebrating the emerging developments in artificial intelligence and to bring together a diverse group of humans to foster a collaborative environment between artificial and human intelligence.

This historical event helps build momentum for the AI Revolution and strengthens the case that we are in fact in the start of the Age of Intelligence.

Andrew Ng, a pioneering AI researcher, thanked Clement Delangue and the Hugging Face team for hosting the event. Delangue, the co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, is an accomplished entrepreneur and AI advocate. Ng expressed his admiration for the rapid technical and product experimentation that the AI community demonstrated at the event.

We’re used to seeing industry leaders attend such events, take some photos and go home, but according to one data engineer who attended the event, Andrew stuck around:

 

 Jeff Boudier, another attendee, hailed the “Woodstock of AI” as the largest AI meetup ever. He expressed gratitude to the Hugging Face community, the volunteers, and the many community heroes who contributed to the event’s success.

Taka Shinagawa referred to Clement Delangue as the “rock star” of the Hugging Face open-source AI meetup, while Pratik Desai, who coined the term “Woodstock AI,” shared his excitement about attending the event and bringing his child to be part of a potentially historic moment.

 As we witness these historic events unfold, it is humbling to gather these artifacts and present them here for you to read. For over a decade, I have debated with professional historians about the importance of documenting history as it happens. It seems there is no better time than the present to initiate this tradition.

Welcome to the Age of Intelligence. Let’s record history together. #AgeofIntelligence #AIRevolution

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