AI takes center stage at correspondents’ weekend TGAIFriday Lunch

Washingtonians delved into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) on Friday at the Washington AI Network’s inaugural White House correspondents’ weekend TGAIFriday Lunch.

The event, held at The House at 1229’s headquarters, was presented by Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — and featured demos of the company’s latest technology.

Spotty, Meta’s robot dog, showed off its skills to guests, including moving a penguin plush toy from one table to another and navigating around an employee who blocked its way.

Spotty, Meta’s AI dog, is seen at the TGAIF Lunch in Washington, D.C. on Friday, April 26, 2024. (The Hill/Julia Shapero)

In adjacent rooms, guests tried out Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which now feature multimodal AI capabilities, and the company’s Quest 3 mixed reality VR headsets.

After some mingling and hors d’oeuvres, guests filtered into a room filled with chairs – and some couches – to listen to a conversation between Tammy Haddad, founder of the Washington AI Network, and Joelle Pineau, vice president of AI research at Meta.

Spotted guests included Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter, social media influencer and Washington, D.C., resident Tony P., NBC Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, MSNBC’s “The Weekend” co-host Symone Sanders Townsend and CNN chief investigative correspondent and anchor Pamela Brown.