Trent McConaghy

Trent McConaghy is working on democratizing data via Ocean decentralized data economy for artificial intelligence, BigchainDB decentralized database, and advising Estonia E-residency. These are building blocks towards his long-term goal – to help ensure that humanity has a role in an increasingly autonomous world. He started his career by doing AI research for national defense in the 1990s, while still an undergraduate. Then, in his first startup (ADA), he explored the relation between human creativity and AI-based machine creativity. Synopsys acquired ADA in 2004. He extended that work during his PhD from 2004-2008, and found a way to reconcile machine creativity with existing engineering knowledge. In his second startup (Solido), he leveraged AI to help drive Moore’s Law, which was under threat due to high manufacturing variations. Now, Solido software is used for most modern chip designs. Siemens acquired Solido in 2017. His third and current startup is all about democratizing data for the planet. He has hatched ascribe (2013), BigchainDB (2015) and Ocean (2017). website: http://www.trent.st/