Helsinki Python meetup with AI RAG and MariaDB Foundation

The Helsinki Python meetup on Tuesday 27th May was hosted by MariaDB Foundation with nearly 100 participants of the 2600+ members of the Helsinki python meetup community. 

In addition to being a successful opportunity to mingle and learn python together, we finally got to announce the winners of the MariaDB AI RAG Hackathon! (winners posing in the feature photo of the blog)

Presentations: AI and MariaDB

We welcomed participants of the meetup with a brief introduction to what MariaDB is as a software, and the sponsoring parties: MariaDB Foundation, Open Ocean Capital and verkkokauppa.com

Amazon’s AI-agents for MariaDB Contributions

We at MariaDB Foundation are thrilled to see Amazon at the forefront of applying artificial intelligence to open source contributions — with MariaDB as their pilot. 

At the May 6th MariaDB meetup in Bremen, Bardia Hassanzadeh, PhD, presented the Upstream Pilot tool: an AI-based assistant designed to help developers identify, analyze, and resolve open issues in MariaDB more effectively.

This initiative is the most promising we’ve seen for improving the open source contribution process. Bardia and Hugo Wen of Amazon gave us a preview last week and we were already very impressed.

Finally here: MariaDB Vector Preview!

We’re here, we’re open source, and we have RDBMS based Vector Search for you! With the release of MariaDB 11.6 Vector Preview, the MariaDB Server ecosystem can finally check out how the long-awaited Vector Search functionality of MariaDB Server works. The effort is a result of collaborative work by employees of MariaDB plc, MariaDB Foundation and contributors, particularly from Amazon AWS. 

Previously on “MariaDB Vector”

If you’re new to Vector, this is what’s happened so far:

The main point: MariaDB Vector is ready for experimentation 

Generative AI and MariaDB Server

“Generative AI is a can of worms that has to be opened”. That was the laconic comment from a senior industry influencer, when I shared MariaDB Foundation’s plans for successively making MariaDB Server a platform for AI solutions. The statement combines the opportunity with the inevitability, the complexity with the need for stepwise refinement.

Late to the game?

Are we late to the game? I believe not. I believe this is the right timing. Open Source isn’t a pioneer when it comes to basic research or even early product development.