Legare Kerrison : Open Source AI

* 6pm Pizza * 6:30 Presentation * 7:15 Group Discussion * 7:45 Door prizes **Building with Open Source AI** Thanks to open source, in the past year, we’ve seen a fundamental change: developers and enterprises are moving away from proprietary, closed-source models. To save costs, prioritize privacy, and allow for customization, they are building, testing, and deploying their own open models. However, this journey can feel overwhelming. Which foundation model should I use? How do I connect my model to existing data sources or build agentic capabilities to start seeing real value with AI? Join us as we get into the hard won implementation lessons, with an extended discussion to address your questions. **Legare Kerrison** is an Open Source Engineer and Developer Advocate on Red Hat's AI team. She focuses on open source tools for building and deploying AI. Currently, she works with projects like vLLM and Podman desktop. She aims to make technical complexity digestible. She loves matcha and the outdoors. Based in Boston. **UJUG** is a non-profit serving the Utah technology community since 1999, supported by generous sponsors Tek Systems, STG, Lucid, Fortify Financial, and O.C. Tanner Tech.