Aritificial intelligence enthusiasts from Portland to the Bay Area met at Ashland Hills Hotel

By Damian Mann for Ashland.news

A lightning bolt left Stephen Sklarew in pain for six months in 1996, igniting an interest in artificial intelligence (AI) systems as a way to help heal the natural world.

Sklarew went on to found Portland-based Synaptiq, which uses AI to solve some of the world’s environmental problems.

His journey from entomologist to AI leader riveted the attendees at the Ashland RegenAI Summit on Sept. 13-15, an event that showcased how various issues that confront local communities can be aided by artificial intelligence.

At the Ashland Hills Hotel, 150 attended the summit, attracting many from Southern Oregon but also others from Seattle, Portland and the Bay Area.

On Saturday, Sept. 14, a dance troupe using a backdrop of mind-bending fractal images wowed the audience with an artistic palette that drove home the message that AI can be a force for humanity and the environment.

During the dance, a voiceover described how plants harness the energy around them, with “leaves so sensitive they eat light.”

Micah Blacklight, the emcee of the event, said the dance showed “the blurring of the line between natural-made technology and human-made technology.”

Aurora Quinn, who founded the local dance collective known as Songbird and Starling and was one of the event organizers, used words and pantomime to urge audience members to reach for the stars, while also gathering seeds and logs.

Quinn, with the aid of a software program, inspired attendees by also connecting them to various groups that underscored the theme of connectedness and sharing. The groups were identified as “root, seed, nurture, activate, pollinate and decompose.”

Lilith Andromeda, one of the dancers, said the groups show how everyone works together to provide “the knowledge that we all need each other to contribute.”

Other organizers were involved in the summit:

• Ian Ingram is a computer science major at Southern Oregon University and founder of the startup AI consulting firm Neuraven.

• Thor Muller is a local entrepreneur and AI strategist at the venture-strategy firm Mach49.

• Jay Golden is founder and chief storyteller of Retellable.

• Aaron Moffatt is chief technology officer at Immersion Analytics and director of the documentary, “Klamath.”

Other partners include ScienceWorks, Rogue Valley AI Lab and Architects of the New Paradigm, Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library, and Southern Oregon University.

The event’s theme of AI and nature was underscored by the story of the lightning bolt that struck Sklarew and changed the trajectory of his life.

In 1996, he was in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia pursuing his career as an aquatic entomologist.

Sklarew had set up sample logs in various locations to see how organisms thrive in them.

He was checking one of the logs when he was struck down by a tremendous jolt.

“I crawled out of the river and drove home two hours, crying all the way to an apartment in West Virginia,” he remembered.

He had a long recovery time, and his father, whom he described as “zero-tech,” gave him a computer to help Sklarew deal with his convalescence.

“I spent the next six months building websites in my bed,” he recalled.

His shift into the world of tech eventually led him back to his passion for nature.

In 2015, he became CEO of Portland-based Synaptiq, a company that represents 100 clients and 200 projects.

One of the projects was an effort by Coral Vita to restore coral reefs in the Bahamas, which was a time-consuming, labor intensive and difficult to scale up project.

With the help of AI , it helped automate the process, which has now been deployed to help coral reefs around the world, Sklarew said.

Coral Vita “realized there was a global reach for this kind of operation,” he said. “AI is giving people superpowers.”

While there is much fear about AI’s potential, Sklarew said, “There are a lot of practical applications for this. It doesn’t have to be scary.”

Another keynote speaker, Haylee Ulrey, senior operations manager with Rogue Workforce Partnership, described how AI systems have played a pivotal role in improving operations for the nonprofit, which helps provide training, recruiting and staffing in Jackson and Josephine counties.

Ulrey said it was previously difficult for Rogue Workforce to stay in compliance with federal and state forms and it was also struggling with many fiscal errors.

She described a number of AI software tools that helped fix these problems.

“It’s cool to be in compliance,” Ulrey said. “We don’t have any fiscal errors.”

She said many of the tools use natural language so they’re relatively easy to use, and some of the AI tools are able to analyze multiple sources of data.

Ulrey said Smartsheet is her favorite application, which uses artificial intelligence on the backend to provide a sophisticated spreadsheet program.

On a daily basis, Ulrey uses programs such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, PowerBI and others.

As a result of using AI, Ulrey said it has reduced manual data tasks, saving $41,280 annually, an amount that is significant for a small nonprofit. She expects to double that savings in the near future.

“We’re chipping away at the hours spent collecting data,” Ulrey said.

Federal and state form compliance was at 34% a few years ago but is now 100%, she said.

Financial accounting errors are now nonexistent, she said.

Also, the nonprofit can access real-time performance data.

“We’ve used these tools that are already out there to make this happen,” said Ulrey, whose comments were punctuated by applause from the audience.

One of the attendees was Ashland resident Michael Monarch, who was formerly in the cannabis industry. He is a sales representative with Purelight Power, a solar installation company.  He said he was interested to attend the summit to see how the new AI technologies would help the community.

“How do we make the local economies more resilient?” he said.

Reach freelance writer Damian Mann at [email protected].