Babak Hodjat

Babak Hodjat is the CTO AI at Cognizant, and former co-founder and CEO of Sentient Technologies. He is responsible for the core technology behind the world’s largest distributed artificial intelligence system. Hodjat is also the inventor of the technology that powers Apple's "Siri." His entrepreneurial journey includes founding the world's first AI-driven hedge fund, Sentient Investment Management. As a serial entrepreneur, he has initiated several other technology companies in Silicon Valley, focusing on AI and its applications.

Hodjat's career began before his time at Sentient, as he served as senior director of engineering at Sybase iAnywhere. He led mobile solutions engineering and was also co-founder, CTO, and board member of Dejima Inc. This role saw him as the primary inventor of Dejima’s patented, agent-oriented technology, which has been crucial for intelligent interfaces in mobile and enterprise computing. His extensive patent portfolio includes 38 issued U.S. patents, underscoring his prolific contributions to technology in areas such as natural language processing, machine learning, genetic algorithms, and distributed AI.

A published scholar with numerous papers in artificial life, agent-oriented software engineering, and distributed artificial intelligence, Hodjat holds a Ph.D. in machine intelligence from Kyushu University, in Fukuoka, Japan. He is a recognized speaker, often sharing his insights into the future of AI and business, and has authored works including the AI science fiction novella "The Narrator" and a collection of short stories "The Konar and the Apple." Based in California, Hodjat continues to influence the tech industry by equipping audiences with knowledge about the impact of AI on future business practices and innovation.