Session Abstract

Large language models have been a game changer, but they have their limitations. They only know what was generally available up to the point they were trained. They don't have access to recent events, or your own private data. What's worse, if you ask them about something they don't know about, they start making stuff up! That's why we need to build more sophisticated solutions that combine different models, add some prompt engineering and RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), as well as some custom code or plugins, and then a few more layers of safety and responsible AI checks. When you want to combine multiple skills and perform tasks to achieve an objective, you can use Semantic Kernel to handle all the low-level details of handling LLMs. Semantic Kernel is an SDK, available in C#, Python and Java. In this talk, we'll focus on the C# version and build enterprise solutions with .NET. You'll see how we can use it to build an "agent", that goes beyond text responses and that actually does something.

Note to event organizers

This is the one with the fun demo with lights - and now servos!

Bill Ayers

Dr Bill Ayers is a consultant developer and solution architect who has been working with computers for over 30 years. He originally earned his PhD in applications of computers in engineering before specialising in collaboration with SharePoint and more recently Microsoft 365 and Azure. He also specialises in mobile development and agile software development practices, and has been doing AI since the 1990s. He is a Microsoft Certified Master and Charter MCSM for SharePoint, and a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft MVP for M365 and AI Platform. He has also taken over forty Microsoft certifications and is a CompTIA CTT+ certified classroom trainer. He speaks regularly at international conferences and user groups and is based in Sheffield, UK.