ATO Meetup: AI 3-in-1: Agents, RAG, and Local Models

Note: This Meetup if free to attend, but you must register.

We’re thrilled to be back at Fidelity Investments in Durham for our May meetup! We were last onsite in April of 2023 and it was a truly wonderful experience.

The topic this month is a really good one – AI 3-in-1: Agents, RAG, and Local Models.

*Please note, the topic originally scheduled for this meetup was How AI can help Platform Engineers build better platforms focusing on Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure. That topic and speaker (Carlos Santana of AWS) will be featured at the June meetup taking place Tuesday evening, June 10 at IBM.

Doors will officially open at 5:30 pm for networking and food and beverages, live programing begins at 6:30 pm ET sharp. We’ll begin the evening with a few community announcements, then we’ll quickly move to our speaker.

*Our speaker, Brent Laster, will also be signing and giving away a limited number of his book “Learning GitHub Actions” at this event.

Registration and Government ID Required

Please note, security protocols onsite require everyone attending to register ahead of time using your first and last name as it appears on your government ID. *Note, by RSVP’ing for this meetup on Meetup.com you are “registering” for the event.

You’ll need to bring that ID with you to the event.

Upon entry you will be directed to a table where your id will be checked and you will be given your pre-registered nametag and you will be escorted into the event space. This will help speed you through the lobby and get you to the food, swag, and content without delay.

Venue Location & Directions:

Location: Fidelity Investments, Durham, NC
[https://goo.gl/maps/VGu89aYsn8qt5xqa6](https://goo.gl/maps/VGu89aYsn8qt5xqa6)
If you enter “Select Dr, Durham, NC” into your navigation it will take you to the parking lot access road and then just follow the signs to Visitor parking and then to the building we will be meeting in. Once you have arrived at the Guest Parking area, proceed to the large building on the left.

Parking: [https://goo.gl/maps/VGu89aYsn8qt5xqa6](https://goo.gl/maps/VGu89aYsn8qt5xqa6)

Speaker: Brent Laster – President & Lead Trainer, Tech Skills Transformations LLC

Talk Title: AI 3-in-1: Agents, RAG, and Local Models

Abstract:
Learning and understanding AI concepts is satisfying and rewarding, but the fun part is learning how to work with AI yourself. In this presentation, author, trainer, and experienced technologist Brent Laster will help you do both! We’ll explain why and how to run AI models locally, the basic ideas of agents and RAG, and show how to assemble a simple AI agent in Python that leverages RAG and uses a local model through Ollama.

No experience is needed on these technologies, although we do assume you do have a basic understanding of LLMs.

This will be a fast-paced, engaging mixture of presentations interspersed with code explanations and demos building up to the finished product – something you’ll be able to replicate yourself after the session!

Questions? Contact us at info@allthingsopen.

Speaker
Brent Laster

Brent Laster is a global trainer, author, and speaker on open-source technologies, as well as an experienced developer, manager, and director. He is also the founder and president of Tech Skills Transformations, LLC – a company dedicated to making technology understandable and usable. Throughout his career in software development and management, Brent has always made time to learn and develop both technical and leadership skills and share them with others. He believes that regardless of the topic or technology, there’s no substitute for the excitement and sense of potential that come from providing others with the knowledge they need to accomplish their goals.