Simon Haworth: Poetry, Pharma & the Life Sciences AI Underground | Vancouver AI May 2026

0:00Incoming transmission from the future. Vancouver AI community meetup. >> These same conversations are happening in all these different groups that we have, including the education group, the life sciences group. Where's Simon? You got your poem on the handy? Come on up, sir. Let's hear from Simon from the life sciences group. >> [applause] >> An artist in fat cats clothing.

0:28>> [laughter]

0:32>> Thank you so much for that. Uh life sciences, so this is a serious topic. And we have a really interesting group. And one of the reasons it's taken so long to get this going is the diversity of the group is ridiculous. We have doctors on the one end who are being challenged every day by patients self-diagnosing with AI.

1:02We've got folk like me creating new drugs by analyzing molecular data. We've got venture capitalists who the time horizon of a 10-year closed-ended fund really it just means nothing in this environment. We've got data folks, we've got AI folks. And the great thing about the community it's got two real um outputs we're trying to do. One is literally to make connections between those people because the diversity of that group offers itself up to that to connections. But secondly, we've got a global and a local objective. So the global objective is to promote this weird connected community globally so that we can actually be part of the same crew as Cambridge and San Francisco and Boston and Zurich and

1:52Shanghai. Uh and that's an active thing. So all these groups are all different. The second thing is local. So, we're trying to focus on what can we do with AI actually locally and make a difference. So, it's a very active kind of group of folks around the table. Um and then there's me.

2:09And my style sometimes is with my children, they'll tell you, you know, if the birthday's coming up, they dread the poem from dad. >> [laughter] >> And my 15-year-old always says I I I showed her this piece of work and she said, "Your [clears throat] rhymes are terrible." So, I was quite proud of that.

2:39Uh so, global and local. So, this is a five-stanza call and response poem. So, you guys are part of this. So, we've done this before. Um Where's Pennefather? Where's We've done this before with um There's an AI for that, right? We've done You know, you guys are skilled in this this thing. So, let's just do a quick practice before we start.

3:03So, if I say, "Chatting to my friends with the hours flying by, we never get bored when we talk about >> AI. >> Okay. So, you're at this rate, you're going to be a lot better than the people we had it when I did this the other night, okay? Okay. So, what I need is enthusiasm.

3:27>> [laughter] >> This is life sciences AI. This is serious stuff, okay? [snorts] Hold on. It's gone too small. I can't read it. >> [laughter] >> Oh, I'll tell you what. >> [cheering] >> Why on earth blurred? Hold on. I've got a picture here which is Oh, that's the um >> I wish your family was here to laugh at you right now.

3:54>> different >> They would tell you not to do your poetry in public, Simon, and this is what might happen. >> [laughter] >> And I would ignore them. So, here we go. So, five stanzas. Are you ready? >> [cheering] >> Right. At last and boy, it took us a long time. At last we have a life science meetup.

4:15Now we all know why. It's because we see the market heat up, driven by data security concerns.

4:31The evening the evening was the first time that a group like this could link, each a different slice of this new pie. Personal perspectives, sharing everything we think. Do we really like this new creative plagiarism? We know our needs more clearly and we state them with a sigh. We need some new technology and most of all we need more effective regulation.

5:08>> [laughter] [cheering] [applause] >> Technology is power for which community can vie. Delivered to us all by our beloved American technology giants. Look, guys. I've got one more stanza here. >> [laughter] >> And you've not done very well so far. Can you just try a little this time, okay? If my phone will let me.

5:39Okay, so last time, this is your last chance. For some the future glistens. Whilst for others end is nigh. But let's all make the best of it and use AI to destroy the pharmaceutical industry as WE KNOW IT. >> [applause] >> SIMON HAWORTH, CEO of Intellomx. Ladies and >> Anyone wants to come along and and take life sciences seriously, we have another event on Tuesday.

6:15There will be casserole. There will be discussion. Uh and I'm afraid there will be some creativity. >> [applause] >> I'm trying to give a talk all night long about the BCAI ecosystem and how our membership has grown and how our groups have grown, but you guys are just like pretty much like doing a better job of painting the picture than I ever could.

6:37So like life sciences meet up at his home in the British properties with his wife and father-in-law, with doctors and like there was people from the health authorities there. There was people from the major funding agencies there. Do yourself a favor and get yourself invited to Simon's house for the life sciences meet up dinner. It's not It's inclusive like everything is, but it's at his home. So you just got to talk to him and and stuff. But um thank thank you for being here.

7:02>> Come along. Come along. >> Simon also sponsors this event monthly. So thank you for that. [applause] I don't actually know if it's a sponsorship cuz I think I just do like AI coaching and development for you or whatever. So I think you're actually just hiring me and I pay the nonprofit and I know.

7:22>> [laughter] >> You my model? Come back. Let's talk about that. >> So the we we built this amazing model. The the AI knows all my 160 Fireflies meetings from the last period. It knows all my uh email from the last 10 years. It goes everything I've written da da da da da da. And we put all this stuff together to think about targeting pharmaceutical guys who are doing drug discovery, right?

7:52>> [clears throat] >> And I ask this thing questions, and what does it say? >> So, you're talking about the custom GPT that you made for this >> It says pharmaceutical companies are very interested in marketing knowledge about their competitors. >> [laughter] >> What the hell has that got to do with me?

8:12Because we hadn't constrained it to fix on what's happening with intelligent omics and what we do in drug discovery. So, it came I spent hours doing this and created a marketing plan and everything. And it we we shall adjust it. >> I'm sorry to get watch Have you guys watched the sausage sausage bringing ground? But what I'm learning here is that like your next class needs to be about prompting because you have the system at the at your fingertips. In fact, I was going to tell you So, I've set up a bunch of Claude code animations on automations on this thing that we built for Simon which takes his top 10 companies, looks at the top 10 job

8:49titles in those companies he's looking for and says where they're going to be at conferences presenting papers so he can fly there and >> my personal stalker. >> Yeah. So, it's been a week since we did our sessions, so I got the automation notification today and so I ran it and I think you're going to be very intrigued at the report or whatever. So, like we built him a bunch of things a GPT and knowledge base and then this whole surveillance system kind of for your industry for your industry. So, >> No, Intellomx stalker is a really effective piece of work.

9:18Uh but all I can say to you is populate your systems with your own uh information, whether it's thousands of photographs or thousands of meetings, and it works. >> Yeah. Thank you, buddy. Thanks for being here. Thanks for sharing your poetry. Thank you for opening up your home and um and for collaborating with me on this whole life sciences meetup thing, man, I'm really stoked about it.