talk

ML, Vectors, and Philosophy: Oh my!

Tyler Hannan

As a technologist trained by Jesuits in comparative religion, I am wildly intrigued by the philosophic underpinnings of ML and AI. In particular, how we can leverage vector search to explore interesting artistic concepts (cubism + realism - picasso = ?) and the process to "judge" the output thereof.

I've spent almost 30 years (yes, I'm old) in the database space and the underpinnings of modern data infrastructures is compelling as it impacts the data applications that we build and consume.

In this talk we will use ClickHouse vector search (but it's not a product pitch) to talk about the notion of "meaning" and "context" and what those are in terms of the broader lived lives of humans. And how the transition from relational databases and associated data architectures toward the knowledge bases and graphs that support AI-enabled architectures is influencing how we build software but also what we build.

Tyler Hannan

Speaker Linkedin Page

Tyler Hannan is an experienced technologist with a passion for human interaction. With a career that has spanned the private and public sectors, large enterprises, consulting, and startups of varying success, he has maintained a focus on data persistence and analysis. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, called on to provide commentary about market trends impacting the design and deployment of database solutions and distributed systems.