UPDATED 15:05 EDT / JANUARY 17 2019

EMERGING TECH

Amazon launches new re:MARS conference for cutting-edge tech and science

Every year, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos hosts an invite-only event where attendees get a chance to see the world’s richest man recreate a scene from the Alien franchise, walk a robotic dog or put on some other tech-themed spectacle. Today, Amazon announced plans to launch a spinoff conference that will be open to the public.

The inaugural re:MARS show is scheduled to take place from June 4-7 at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The name uses the acronym of the original Bezos-hosted event, which stands for Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics and Space. All these topics are slated to appear on the agenda.

“We’re at the beginning of a golden age of AI,” Bezos said in a prepared statement. “Recent advancements have already led to invention that previously lived in the realm of science fiction — and we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible.”

Amazon has assembled an impressive lineup of speakers for the event. The roster includes Jet Propulsion Laboratory Chief Technology Officer Tom Soderstrom, economist Andrew Lo, who serves as the director of the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, plus executives from Amazon itself. One of them will be Jeff Wilke, the head of the company’s core Worldwide Consumer division.

The online retail is promoting re:Mars as an educational event. Besides keynotes, Amazon is promising hands-on workshops, “technical deep dives” and other interactive sessions that will, among other things, showcase the company’s own efforts in fields such as artificial intelligence.

Amazon might use the conference to share new details about some of its internal research initiatives. In today’s announcement, Amazon said the event will include sessions dedicated to highlighting how AI is used across its robotics projects, Prime Air drone delivery program and Lab126, an internal product development group credited with creating the Echo smart speaker.

Photo: Jeff Bezos/Twitter

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