Faramarz Farhoodi Chairman and Chief Executive Officer AI Nexus Inc. is a dual UK/US national, currently residing near Chicago. As a pioneer in commercial applications of Artificial Intelligence, Faramarz has been at the forefront of the migration of AI concepts from academia to practical, real-world applications.

In the early 1980s, Faramarz completed his B.Sc. (Honors) in mathematical economics at University College Cardiff in the UK. As a SciFi fan, and an early computer gamer, he realized that the science and art of decision making could be leveraged to create intelligent machines, but he did not have the technological knowledge to pursue his vision. He accepted an offer from Essex University in the UK to pursue a masters degree in computer science specializing in Artificial Intelligence. At that time, Essex was among the top centers of excellence for post graduate studies in AI. Using his extensive knowledge of computing algorithms and AI techniques, he created the first ever AI chess playing program for his dissertation. This program combined computational algorithms with the knowledge of strategies and tactics of grand masters and played the end game at a masters’ level.

Faramarz realized that the most practical way to create intelligent machines is to combine computational algorithms with human expertise. This realization was the foundation of his future work that led to the first digital brain technology that can emulate human-like intelligence. Faramarz began his career with a small startup where he was a part of the team that created the first AI programming language for personal computers in the mid-80s. He also built two ‘first in the world’ commercial AI applications: Loan credit scoring for Midland Bank and Itinerary planning application for Thomas Cook. Both programs had to run on the very limited 640Kb memory personal computers of that era.

Faramarz was recruited by UK-based Logica, joining the Cambridge future computing center. Logica was renowned for its culture of innovation and achievements in industrial automation, finance, space and defense. Logica Cambridge had the most advanced high-power workstations for artificial intelligence development along with a highly talented team with diverse skills. At Logica, Faramarz figured out how to combine human expertise with computational algorithms to create a digital brain that could sense the world, recognize patterns, reason, act, and learn. Using his technological and analytical skills, he created a unique approach to integrating isolated subfields of AI (machine learning and cognitive AI) with traditional computing, operations research algorithms and applications. He was able to deploy fit-for-purpose combinations in the small computing platforms of the 1980s and 1990s and, notably, achieve massive scalability and high performance. This expertise helped Faramarz bid for and win carefully selected projects for Logica. Faramarz has led more than 1,000 person-years of AI application development in defense, healthcare, manufacturing and finance. Drawing on that experience, he has created the unique enabling technology of AI Nexus, an AI operating system and digital brain technology that can be used in any industry and can deployed in any device to solve previously intractable problems.

Faramarz has held a variety of senior management and C-level positions (including COO, CTO, CIO, CMO) at various companies - public and private, venture backed, growth - including: • Amazon • InterActiveCorp (IAC) • Logica UK (world leader in IT now a part of CGI Canada) • Computer Sciences Corporation • Perot Systems (Acquired by Dell) • Nationstar (4th largest mortgage servicer in the US) • Auction.com (Google Ventures) • MotoSport (Sequoia) Advances in computer technology have created the opportunity to bring true Artificial Intelligence to the consumer and commercial world.