Machine Learning Toronto - MLTO Q4 2026

Agenda
6:00-6:30 PM Arrivals and Networking
6:30-7:00 PM Tech Talk #1
7:00-7:30 PM Tech Talk #2
7:30-8:30 PM Networking & Wrap-up
8:30 PM Tear-down and Departures

Talk #1

Mike Bird, AI and Engineering Lead, BoxOne Ventures - Build Your Software Factory

As an Engineering team of one, Mike built a system to amplify his output and increase his efficiency. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions, but small changes to a knowledge worker's workflow can compound into huge advantages. Mike will cover his system and the underlying principles so you can automate and enhance more of your work.

Talk #2

Nida Arif, Senior Manager, Data Science, TD Bank - Beyond AI Skills: Capabilities That Define the Future of Work

About the Speakers:

Mike Bird is the AI and Engineering Lead at BoxOne Ventures, where he brings a hands-on engineering perspective to emerging AI technologies and the companies building around them. A software developer for roughly a decade, Mike has focused on AI tooling since 2022 and previously spent time as a core contributor to Open Interpreter, the open-source project for enabling language models to interact directly with computers. He has also served as an advisor to Menlo Research and is active in the Waterloo AI builder community, including as an organizer with AI Tinkerers Waterloo.

Mike is also the creator and host of Tool Use, a weekly podcast exploring practical AI with builders, founders, entrepreneurs, and researchers. The show covers everything from AI agents and coding tools to RAG, open-source models, automation, and bringing AI systems into production, with a strong emphasis on technology people can actually use today. A vocal proponent of open-source AI, Mike believes broad access to powerful AI technology is critical to ensuring its benefits are shared widely rather than concentrated in the hands of a few.

Nida Arif is a Senior Manager at TD Bank with over a decade of experience leading and delivering data, analytics and technology initiatives across the retail and financial services industries.

Today, her work sits at the intersection of AI transformation and Data Science, with a focus on driving better business outcomes using data and enabling AI to improve how work gets done. She is also the founder of Her Circle, a Toronto-based community focused on the personal and professional growth of women, particularly women in technology.

Supporters and Sponsors:

We would also like to thank our venue partner Rootly AI for generously providing their amazing space for the event, and PRAKTIKAI for making the event happen.

About Rootly AI

Rootly AI is the AI-native on-call and incident response platform that provides proactive support to help Site Reliability Engineers resolve incidents faster, improve system resilience, and streamline on-call operations. It’s your always-on SRE copilot that automates root cause analysis and identifies patterns that drive continuous improvement—trusted by hundreds of companies including LinkedIn, NVIDIA, Replit, Elastic, Canva, Clay, Tripadvisor, and Shell.

Speak or Support MLTO!
We are constantly looking for new speakers and sponsors to share their knowledge and help build the AI community in the GTA! If you are interested please get in touch directly or apply via one of the links below:
Speaker Application Form: mlto.ca/speak
Sponsor Inquiry Form: mlto.ca/sponsor