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Llanbrynmair, the first community in the UK with full-fibre broadband
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Jane Lambert
In
Tallinn, I remarked that Estonia reminded me of Wales. Estonia has a highly developed digital infrastructure
that has launched businesses like Skype, Bolt, and
Starship Technologies. Having spent Wednesday, 23 Oct 2024 at
Digidol 24 - Wales's Digital Conference, Wales reminded me very much of Estonia. An impression
was strengthened by the news that Llanbrynmair in Powys was the first telephone exchange area in the UK where every resident had access to ultrafast broadban
d (see Mari Grug 19 Oct 2024 BBC website).
Digidol 24 was the biggest event that I had ever attended at the Menai Science Park and one of the best. When I learned that it was to be hosted by Ameer Davies-Ranam I could not stay away. Ameer (or
Sgrameer as he is known on YouTube) kept me amused and actually taught me a bit of Welsh during lockdown. I loved his
pub,
burger,
Chinese,
Christmas dinner,
curry and other eatery reviews. He is such a good sport that he even tried
Welsh folk dancing which includes a leap known as "the grasshopper". I introduced myself to Sgrameer during the coffee break and he seemed genuinely surprised and flattered to learn that he had a fan in Yorkshire.
Plenary sessions were held in the science park's atrium where the Tanio is located. There were breakout sessions in room G69 and the Ffiws, Boardroom and Collaboration rooms. I attended the plenary sessions but visited the Ffiws room for lunch and the exhibition stands in G69.
The first speaker in the atrium was
Glyn Jones, Chief Digital Officer and Director of Analysis at the Welsh Government, who delivered an update on the
Digital Strategy for Wales. He was followed by
Avril Lewis, Managing Director at Technology Connected, who spoke about
Wales Tech Week which takes place at the International Conference Centre in Newport between 24 and 26 Nov 2024. I had previously heard her at the Digital Wales event at the Welsh Government's office in London on 12 Sept 2023 (see
Reflections on Wales Innovation Week in London on 20 Sept 2023).
One of the most interesting presentations of the day was an introduction to
Glu by
Mike Hawkes of CapVentis. Dr Hawkes had previously spoken at
Wales Enterprise Day in 2023. Glu appears to be a comprehensive suite of business applications built around a single-core GluFoundation. I listened very carefully to his talk and discussed it with him over lunch afterwards. As far as I could understand it, the technical advance lay in the connection and manipulation of data in different formats. The "Our Glu Journey" segment at the end of the
Glu page on the CapVentis website provides further information. If my understanding is correct, this technology could be of immense commercial value.
Another fascinating presentation was delivered by
Paul Kinlan of Google. He discussed the history of the development of the Chrome browser and operating system and Google's plans for its future development. I encountered him on the way to lunch and asked him what if anything could be done to improve the interoperability of files created by Microsoft software on Chrome and
vice versa. I remarked that it is possible to run Office 365 pm a Chromebook but not very convenient. I got the impression that the difficulties were more commercial than technical.
After lunch,
Llion Jones delivered an online presentation on artificial intelligence from Tokyo. He is one of the authors of
Attention is All You Need which proposed a simple network architecture called "the Transformer" based solely on attention mechanisms. According to the
Eventbrite card, the Transformer became the basis of ChatGPT. Mr Jones is now working for Sakana AI which describes itself on https://sakana.ai/seed-round/ as a new AI research company based in Tokyo. It aims to develop transformative AI that will lead to the next paradigm. The main focus of its research and development of new kinds of foundation models will be based on nature-inspired intelligence. The company's name is Sakana (さかな) which means "fish" in Japanese. It is meant to invoke the idea of a school of fish coming together and forming a coherent entity from simple rules.
"The unlicensed use of creatiuve works for training generative AI is a major unjust threat to the livelihood of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted"
I asked Mr Jones whether he agreed that there was a distinction to be drawn between creativity and intelligence. To my surprise, he replied that there wasn't. I responded that they are completely different mental processes, the former being an exercise in understanding and the latter an inspiration of the spirit. My view is that authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian Rankin have nothing to worry about. A machine may be great at creating elevator music but will never produce a work that stands comparison with Chopin.
A highlight of the day was an unscheduled session of short presentations by three of M-SParc's tenants in the atrium. One of the speakers was Tomos Owen who co-founded Pelly. That is an app that helps football clubs make recruitment and other decisions. This is another product that has been developed in the science park and has considerable commercial potential.
The last of the plenary speakers was Susi Marston who discussed the digital infrastructure that is soon to be rolled out in Wales. She promised very similar services to those that are available in Estonia including tariff-free voice calls and very fast broadband. BT had a stand in the atrium which I visited during one of the breaks. There I learned about the 5G mobile network that the company is installing. I was told by one of Ms Marston's colleagues that there is an excellent signal at the summit of Yr Wyddfa and that Northern Ireland has the most advanced fibre network in the UK.
Breakout sessions that I would have attended had it been possible to be in two places at once included
- Huw Watkins and Iqbal Bedi on Technology Options to Improve SME Performance - Examples from North Wales and the BT Connectivity Roadshow in the Ffiws room,
- Senedd member Rhin ap Iorwerth's reflections on the Digital Strategy, the panel discussion on smart buildings and decarbonization and the Federation of Small Businesses' Creative Report in the Boardroom, and
- Business Wales's workshops in the Collaboration Room.
I visited as many of the stands as I could. I was particularly glad to make contact with
Ambition North Wales which brings together the region's local authorities and its universities and to renew my connection with
Gogledd Creadigol.
One of the reasons for Estonia's success in establishing and growing new businesses is that it has a highly skilled workforce. In my article on Estonia, I explained that that was because it has an excellent education system and that its kids regularly outscore children from other countries in the OECD PISA tests. However, Welsh schoolchildren are not far behind and one of M-SParc's most important activities is
Club Sparci. It was encouraging to see that the last event of the day was a meeting of Club Sparci where the kids would learn about
Raspberry Pi.
Anybody wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during UK office hours or send me a message through my
contact form.
