A Maltese start-up will be offering a service that uses artificial intelligence to help men choose the right clothes and styles to buy and wear.
The service will help thousands of men with their fashion sense, says the co-founder of Vestis.AI, Conrad Buttigieg.
Speaking from the Expo floor on the first day of Malta’s second AI and blockchain summit, Mr Buttigieg explained that every person has a unique code.
“Every person has an algorithm, whether it’s skin, hair, face, facial hair or body shape. This helps us to automatically find the best clothes that suit you, your characteristics and cultural context.”
Prior to his venture into AI, the former economist spent the last decade working in the clothing industry. From giving fashion advice to “one or two” people, artificial intelligence could help him provide a personal service to a network of thousands, said Mr Buttigieg, whose business partner is Dylan Seychell.
So far, feedback on the product has been positive, with a “couple of hundred” willing to test the product, he added.
Vestis is an AI fashiontech startup currently participating in the YouStartIt acccelerator programme funded and supported by MITA
Every person has an algorithm, whether it’s skin, hair, face, facial hair or body shape
Across the floor at the summit, held at the Intercontinental Hotel in St Julian’s, was a cryptocurrency firm providing the missing link for global companies in the cannabis sector wanting to access finance. Jan Scheele, CEO of Dutch Blockchain start-up Bitcanna, said there were large international companies in the sector struggling to obtain finance from banks, credit companies and other financial institutions like Paypal.
“They don’t want to work with cannabis-related companies,” Mr Scheele said.
He said his cryptocurrency platform has been helping around 80 companies make payments for cannabis products, with over 20 more having recently signed up to use the currency during a cannabis conference in Prague.
“People who don’t get a credit card or a banking institution to help with their payments – and we’re talking about huge companies with tens of millions in turnover – need these solutions.”
When asked what he thought of Malta’s involvement in blockchain, cryptocurrency and medical cannabis production, Mr Scheele praised the country for being the first to spearhead these industries in Europe.
Earlier in the day, the Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, Silvio Schembri, told the conference that he wanted Malta to be an “AI launchpad”.
He said the country was trying to attract entrepreneurs to test and improve their AI projects in Malta and to receive a certificate recognising that their production was done in an “ethical and responsible manner”.