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Belgium 9-6-26 Invitation Only Virtual english
Data availability keeps growing, but decision-making often feels slower. Every function builds its own dashboards, metrics multiply, and reports begin to contradict each other. What was meant to improve transparency now creates confusion. The problem is not access to data but alignment on interpretation. When information becomes noise, confidence in reporting collapses. People hesitate to act, functions challenge each other’s numbers, and trust in analytics erodes. The challenge lies in restoring clarity: deciding which metrics matter, who owns them, and how reporting connects back to action. Let’s discuss how to simplify information flows, define consistent metrics, and reconnect dashboards with decision-making. How ownership, cadence, and shared understanding bring alignment back. A closed conversation on rebuilding confidence in data, where clarity replaces overload and information once again supports action.
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Belgium 10-6-26 Invitation Only Physical english
In the middle of the night, 200 miles from the coast, the alarm sounds. The "Man Overboard" cry isn't just about a person in the water; it’s the ultimate test of a crew’s preparation, psychological grit, and split-second communication. For the modern European CIO, the "Man Overboard" moment happens in the data centre, the boardroom, or the headlines. When the system fails, the pressure doesn't just sit on the servers; it sits on you. Join CIONET for an exclusive VIP evening at the coast, a deep dive into the Human and Digital Anatomy of a Crisis. We will explore why some leaders thrive under the crushing weight of a "Black Swan" event while others capsize, and how data serves as the steady keel that keeps the ship upright.
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Belgium 12-6-26 Invitation Only Physical english
AI started small: a few pilots, some dashboards, a couple of chatbots. But then it spread, quickly. Now every department wants a model, every vendor adds “AI-powered” to their pitch, and every regulator is asking about risk and transparency. Governance suddenly went from a nice idea to a full-time job. Scaling governance is harder than launching AI. Policies look great on slides, but in practice, ownership blurs and enforcement stalls. Central control slows things down, while local freedom invites risk. Everyone agrees AI should be safe and ethical, but no one agrees on who signs off when something goes wrong, all leading to AIs living as permanent PoCs. So how do you scale oversight without creating bureaucracy? How do you distribute responsibility between IT, business, and compliance? And what controls actually hold up when AI keeps changing after deployment? Let’s explore how organisations make governance part of daily operations, not an afterthought. A closed conversation for those trying to keep AI credible, compliant, and under control while it spreads across the enterprise.
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June 9, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual english
Data availability keeps growing, but decision-making often feels slower. Every function builds its own dashboards, metrics multiply, and reports begin to contradict each other. What was meant to improve transparency now creates confusion. The problem is not access to data but alignment on interpretation.
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June 12, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english
AI started small: a few pilots, some dashboards, a couple of chatbots. But then it spread, quickly. Now every department wants a model, every vendor adds “AI-powered” to their pitch, and every regulator is asking about risk and transparency. Governance suddenly went from a nice idea to a full-time job.
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June 18, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english
Becoming event-driven sounds like the logical next step: real-time visibility, faster response, tighter integration. The promise is appealing, no? But turning that vision into reality is another story. Where do you start, with technology, operating model, or mindset?
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CIONET Trailblazer: CISO: The Shift from Prevention to Resilience: Turning Visibility into Execution
Published on: January 28, 2026 @ 9:48 AM
CIONET Trailblazer: AI Transformation: Bridging the Cultural Divide to Achieve Competitive Advantage
Published on: December 17, 2025 @ 9:16 AM
Character.AI and Google Cloud Partner to Build the Next Generation of Conversational AI
Character.AI is using Google Cloud gen AI infrastructure to deliver new conversational AI features faster.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. and PALO ALTO, Calif., May 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Character.AI, a full stack conversational artificial intelligence (AI) platform that gives consumers access to their own deeply personalized superintelligence, today announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud and has selected it as its preferred cloud infrastructure to build and train sophisticated AI models with advanced reasoning and greater accuracy.
The field of generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), has made remarkable advancements in recent months and has proven to be a game-changer in AI by serving as the foundational model that outperforms previous algorithms in most natural language and text generation tasks. Character.AI is using Google Cloud generative AI and LLM infrastructure to meet the needs of its rapidly growing community of creators. By combining its own AI capabilities with those of Google Cloud, Character.AI will enhance the customer experience by inspiring imagination, discovery and understanding.
As part of the partnership, Character.AI will use Google Cloud's Tensor Processor Units (TPUs) to train and infer LLMs faster and more efficiently. Google Cloud TPUs are purpose-built to accelerate AI training and inference, speeding up the most computationally-intensive workloads with more than 100 petaflops of performance in a single pod. By leveraging Google Cloud TPUs, Character.AI can take advantage of the same reliable, secure, and highly scalable infrastructure that powers Google Search, YouTube, and other Google services. Character.AI will also employ Google Cloud's new A3 VMs running on NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, a combination that uniquely enables customers to tackle any AI workload with speed and flexibility and provides customer optionality between TPUs and GPUs to meet their needs.
"We've recognized the power and strength of Google Cloud's technology from day one," said Noam Shazeer, CEO, Character.AI. "As we continue our growth trajectory, working with Google Cloud's AI technologies was the obvious choice, allowing us to rapidly expand our compute abilities so we can deliver new features and capabilities to millions of users."
Character.AI today uses Google Cloud for core infrastructure and is leveraging Google Cloud's PostgreSQL-compatible database, AlloyDB, for increased operational uptime, speed, and flexibility. Looking ahead, Character.AI will soon deploy Google Cloud Spanner, a high availability and high performance database, to help scale its service to additional regions.
"We're offering Google Cloud's industry leading infrastructure, Google foundation models and AI tooling to companies across industries so they can build, train and deploy the future of AI creatively, reliably and at scale," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. "Character.AI's cutting-edge conversational AI technology is creating entirely new opportunities to transform how we interact with AI systems, and we are thrilled to be their partner as they continue to scale their vision."
Character.AI was founded by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who are two of the world's foremost experts in conversational AI. Noam's previous work is central to the current revolution in LLMs, while Daniel's is related to building large-scale NLP and deep learning programs. Bringing together their expertise with Google Cloud's cutting-edge technology will allow Character.AI to scale and bring this intelligence to consumers across the world at scale.
Join the growing community of millions who are experiencing the value of personalized AI at https://beta.character.ai. To learn more about the AI infrastructure powering the Character.ai platform, visit cloud.google.com/tpu.
Additional Resources
About Google Cloud
Google Cloud accelerates every organization's ability to digitally transform its business. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology – all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.
About Character.AI
Founded in 2021 by artificial intelligence researchers and former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI is a conversational artificial intelligence platform that uses large language models, deep learning algorithms that can recognize, summarize, translate, predict, and generate text and other content, to provide individuals with a personalized artificial intelligence experience. The platform lets anyone create and engage with Characters, allowing users to build their own, personalized use cases and share them with others. For more information, visit: https://beta.character.ai/
SOURCE Google Cloud
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CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.
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The Telenet Business Leadership Circle powered by CIONET, offers a platform where IT executives and thought leaders can meet to inspire each other and share best practices. We want to be a facilitator who helps you optimise the performance of your IT function and your business by embracing the endless opportunities that digital change brings.
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Découvrez la dynamique du leadership numérique aux Rencontres de CIONET, le programme francophone exclusif de CIONET pour les leaders numériques en Belgique, rendu possible grâce au soutien et à l'engagement de nos partenaires de programme : Deloitte, Denodo et Red Hat. Rejoignez trois événements inspirants par an à Liège, Namur et en Brabant Wallon, où des CIOs et des experts numériques francophones de premier plan partagent leurs perspectives et expériences sur des thèmes d'affaires et de IT actuels. Laissez-vous inspirer et apprenez des meilleurs du secteur lors de sessions captivantes conçues spécialement pour soutenir et enrichir votre rôle en tant que CIO pair. Ne manquez pas cette opportunité de faire partie d'un réseau exceptionnel d'innovateurs numériques !
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CIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.
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