{"id":236997,"date":"2025-10-14T02:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/?p=236997"},"modified":"2026-07-17T09:10:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:10:39","slug":"introducing-ada-the-new-ai-assistant-from-embl-ebi-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/2025\/10\/introducing-ada-the-new-ai-assistant-from-embl-ebi-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Ada: the new AI assistant from EMBL-EBI Training"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today [publication day: 14 October 2025] marks Ada Lovelace Day, a day to celebrate the work of the acclaimed mathematician and writer. We can’t think of a better way to honour her in 2025 than by naming our LLM-driven AI assistant after the person who first recognised that computers had applications beyond pure calculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We created our training chatbot, Ada, to make it easier and more engaging for users to find the right on-demand training resources from our broad catalogue of training. It offers a dynamic, conversational way to explore materials, complementing traditional search with a more guided and interactive experience. It also improves accessibility by supporting users who may struggle to phrase effective queries, helping them quickly locate relevant content. In addition, by analysing user interactions, we can better understand common questions and knowledge gaps, which may provide valuable insights that will shape and strengthen our future training offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada works 24\/7, so no matter where you are in the world or at what time you have a question about bioinformatics, our training assistant will be there to navigate 400+ EMBL-EBI\u2019s on-demand training resources and assist you on your learning journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To access Ada, visit EMBL-EBI on-demand training<\/a>, click on the green Ada icon at the bottom right of the webpage, and start chatting. You can also find the Ada icon on individual webpages of our online tutorials, recorded webinars, and collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A screenshot showing the EMBL-EBI Training on-demand library of training. A list of available training is shown, and in the bottom right-hand of the screenshot is a small green icon to open out a chatbox with Ada. Image credit: Rebecca Nicholl\/EMBL-EBI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ada is trained on our on-demand content including online tutorials, recorded webinars, and collections. We appreciate any feedback<\/a> you can give to help us develop Ada further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who was Ada Lovelace?<\/strong>\u00b9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in 1815, Ada is the sole legitimate child of the infamous poet Lord Byron and his mathematics-loving wife Annabella Milbanke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From childhood, Ada had a fascination with machines, often designing flying machines and reading scientific magazines of the era. In 1833, Lovelace\u2019s mentor, the scientist Mary Somerville, introduced her to Charles Babbage, who had already attained considerable celebrity for his visionary and perpetually unfinished plans for gigantic calculating machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovelace was deeply intrigued by Babbage\u2019s plans for a device he called the ‘Analytical Engine’, which was to combine the array of adding gears of his earlier \u2018Difference Engine\u2019 with an elaborate punchcard operating system. Although it was never built, the design incorporated all the essential elements of a modern computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babbage and his assistants had sketched out many programs for his engine; Lovelace\u2019s were the most elaborate and complete, and the first to be published, so she is often referred to as \u201cthe first computer programmer\u201d.

The Analytical Engine remained a vision until Ada’s notes became one of the critical documents to inspire Alan Turing\u2019s work on the first modern computers in the 1940s.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b9 Text taken from www.findingada.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks Ada Lovelace Day, a day to celebrate the work of the acclaimed mathematician and writer. We can’t think of a better way to honour her in 2025 than by naming our LLM-driven, AI assistant after the person who first recognised that computers had applications beyond pure calculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":238041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7676],"tags":[12475,9802,9804,9800],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-236997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-tips-tricks","tag-ai-and-biology","tag-embl-ebi-training","tag-on-demand-training","tag-website-update"],"acf":[],"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ada-chatbot-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236997"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277629,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236997\/revisions\/277629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236997"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/course-and-conference-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=236997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}