Call Summary: Applied AI Society Introduction & Collaboration

Overview

Introductory call between Gary Sheng and Fatma Tarlaci, who was connected through Travis Oliphant to help with the Applied AI Society initiative. Fatma worked with Travis for nearly five years at OpenTeams and remains partly employed by OT Incubator. The call established alignment on the society's mission, the January 29th launch event format, and concrete ways Fatma can contribute.

Key Topics Discussed

Fatma's Background & Connection to Travis

• Worked with Travis Oliphant for close to five years at OpenTeams
• Still in touch with him and partly employed by OTI
• Currently working at a company that's one of the portfolio companies of OT Incubator
• Travis told her about Applied AI Society before Christmas and asked her to connect with Gary

Fatma: "When we met in person, he told me that I believe hired you to kind of build that community and platform, and he wanted me to meet with you and see if we could collaborate."

Nibari Platform Discussion

• Gary expressed need to eventually learn and play with Nibari to understand it
• Fatma is also getting started with the platform
• The platform has evolved from data scientist focus to more AI and inference
• Both agreed to learn it together over time

Gary: "One of the things that I know that Travis wants the society for is for just to have a pool of engineers that can potentially adopt Nibari."

Fatma: "I am also getting started with it... It's now evolving into more AI and inference... I will be learning more about that too."

January 29th Launch Event at Antler

• Event scheduled at Antler VC (Jake's company, who Fatma knows)
• Located right next to Capital Factory

Event Format Design:

1. Case Study Presentation: AI engineer who successfully consulted for companies presents detailed end-to-end architecture of how they helped a real company with AI
2. Live Architecture Session: Real business with real AI problem presents, followed by live collaborative architecture of potential solution
3. Travis Remarks: Quick interview with Travis about why this community matters

Gary: "An AI engineer that successfully consulted for other companies will do a detailed case study of how they help the company. And the architecture. Of the presentation of a full end to end of how they helped a real company with AI."

Target Audience Discussion

Fatma asked clarifying questions about target personas:

• Engineers/Technical People: Primary audience
• Business Leadership: Decision-makers who need to understand the changing landscape
• Investors: Secondary audience
• Decision Chain People: Those deciding whether to get help upgrading internals with AI
• Tool Makers: People building tools like Nibari who want feedback

Gary: "Business decision makers, essentially people that are in the decision chain for deciding to get help upgrading their internals with AI somehow. And maybe they don't even know what questions to ask."

Community Differentiation

Fatma raised the question of what makes Applied AI Society different from other groups developers could join.

Gary: "I think it'll evolve with contact with reality... The testimonials I want to hear are like, I got my first consulting client because of this community or I hired my first AI engineer because of this community or for the tool maker like Nibari team, oh, I got super valuable feedback and so I changed these things."

Open Teams Branding

• Travis wants the society separate from Open Teams branding
• Intentionally not visible on the website
• But will be incubated by OTI

Immediate Needs Identified

Gary outlined concrete needs for the January event:

1. Photographer - Fatma has a friend who could help
2. Videographer - To record talks and workshops
3. Business Person with AI Problem - Someone genuinely wanting to hire an AI engineer
4. Event Promotion - Getting the word out to relevant audiences

Fatma's Offer to Help

• Promote in her networks
• Connect business owners needing AI help (mentioned one person she's advising who's looking to hire but doesn't have budget yet)
• Help organize events
• Brainstorm strategy
• Plug in other groups (Google Developer Groups, etc.)
• Review charter document

Fatma: "Tell me how if I can be helpful, I'm happy to help as much as I can. Travis asked me to get involved. And I really like the idea behind it."

Key Quotes

Fatma on community building approach: "I feel like, yes, Nibari, I think, is definitely going to be a part of the system. But I guess starting and leading with that, I'm not sure if that's the best way to start building the community."

Gary on the mission: "Had people continually thinking about how the tools that we have today can be turned into solutions for real businesses, real institutions."

Gary on job creation potential: "I think there's going to be a lot more jobs that can be that are creatable, but it's kind of like the individual decides, do I want to step into this role where I consult businesses."

Gary on building the muscle: "Getting people to build that muscle and just see lots of examples of that in the real world. I think that's really valuable."

Action Items / Takeaways

For Fatma

• Connect Gary with photographer friend for event coverage
• Identify business person with AI problem who could present at event
• Invite relevant people from her network to January 29th event
• Let Gary know who she's inviting so he can approve

For Gary

• Discuss photography/videography budget with Travis
• Set up social media accounts for Applied AI Society
• Continue finding AI consultant speaker (already has a friend)
• Finalize event programming

Communication

• Will stay in touch via text for now
• Gary is on Open Teams Slack; Fatma is on OTIS Slack (different systems)

Relationship Dynamics

• Warm introduction through shared connection to Travis
• Fatma is genuinely enthusiastic about the vision
• Complementary skills: Gary brings community-building experience; Fatma brings technical credibility, local network access, and event promotion capabilities
• Both learning Nibari together creates collaborative dynamic