At one moment, I’m sipping my morning coffee in the living room of Uncle Bernt — the man who, together with Tim Berners-Lee, co-created the World Wide Web — and then catching a train to the EPFL campus, where some of the world’s biggest companies have offices working side by side with professors and students on research projects (out of which some of their most famous products were born). I’m rushing to hear about the technologies of the future, presented by the very experts who invented them.
The next moment, I’m back home — with my family and friends, in the place that feels like home after 10 years of studying around the world, where I am loved and where I love…
…and where people who received millions to write a part of some national artificial intelligence strategy ask me, after their donor meeting, to first explain what artificial intelligence actually is.
That contrast — between the global tech scene and everyday local reality — always reminds me how important it is to build bridges between knowledge and its application. That’s exactly why it meant so much to me to have the privilege of being one of the speakers at IBM TechXchange Dev Day at EPFL.
At this event, I spoke about AI governance (or perhaps more fittingly, the responsible leadership and management of artificial intelligence) and the importance of digital sovereignty, especially from the perspective of developing countries.
Standing before an audience of experts working on products such as Docling, Langflow, Apertus, Mellea, BeeAI, and IBM Granite, and discussing ethics, responsibility, and the future of artificial intelligence was truly an unforgettable experience.
I’m deeply grateful to Dr. Eduardo Solana, Antoine Bosselut, Panos Vagenas, Maksym Lysak, Nikos Livathinos, Lindsey DeWitt Prat, Tejas Kumar, and Hendrik Strobelt for sharing their knowledge and inspiration.
A special thanks to Mirza Ćutuk, Susan Malaika, Michelle Kovac, Michele Dolfi, Peter W. J. Staar, the COMMON Suisse Romande team, and everyone from EPFL Innovation Park.
These are the moments that remind you why you do what you do — and that knowledge only truly gains its value when it’s shared.
