PROGRAM • PART OF THE SWISS {ai} WEEKS
The Geneva Generative AI Conference
26 September 2025 @campus biotech
08:30 - 09:15 The Initiators. Moderator: Ernesto Izquierdo
The day opened with a call for digital sovereignty grounded in civic trust and education.
Juliane Schröter urged universities to move “from research to responsibility,” while Sami Kanaan argued that “digital transformation must serve democracy before productivity.”
Hannes Gassert called for a “Swiss civic stack”—open-source infrastructure serving both public and private actors.
Together, they framed Geneva as a living lab for an ethical, multilingual, and federated model of AI governance.
Critical Usecases for Society: Summary
09:15 - 09:50 The Advisors/Transformers. Moderator: Mia Jafari
Mia Jafari, introducing her forthcoming book “Hope in the Age of AI,” described three paths ahead:
Catastrophic AI (weaponization, techno-fascism),
Flourishing AI (health, ecology, inclusion),
Stagnant AI (nothing changes).
She reminded the audience: “The story isn’t written yet; we are all shaping it as conscious creators.”
Barbara Cresti drew from her AWS experience: “AI must be introduced top-down with literacy, governance, and purpose. Without it, you lose trust and IP.”
She noted Switzerland’s 55 % workplace adoption of Gen AI—higher than Europe or the U.S.—but warned of misuse through personal accounts and a new “work-slope” of mistrust.
Haider Alleg traced AI’s echo of the social-media boom: “Boards oscillate between fear and FOMO.”
He cautioned that venture capital currently “funds deep tech over human tech,” risking inequity.
Yet he sees transformation in “liquid data” that can finally drive better decisions.
Sam Bourton, ex-QuantumBlack, was pragmatic: only 5 % of pilots reach production—“and that’s normal.”
He sees engineers now “prompting their agents,” heralding AI assistants for every role.
“We are in peak uncertainty,” he said, “but the arc of innovation remains positive.”
Mia Jafari closed: “The most innovative thing in the age of AI is still being who we are.”
Sovereignty and Swiss Startups: how far ? Summary
10:10 - 10:45 The Entrepreneurs. Moderator: Alberto Giovanni Busetto
Alberto Busetto opened bluntly: “Sovereignty isn’t nostalgia; it’s architecture.”
He challenged the founders to define value for users, investors, and entrepreneurs.
Jérôme Crettol (Diplotools) builds an “AI OS for diplomacy”—used by 30 foreign ministries—where data localization is non-negotiable.
Géraud de Laval (Recarta) turns real-estate PDFs into structured data, developing a Swiss domain LLM with EPFL.
Alex Kummerman (SGDL), whose robotics code still orbits Earth, unveiled the Logic of Space protocol for machine reasoning: “Frugal AI is sovereign AI.”
Yann Ranchère (Motley), pragmatic: “Clients don’t buy ideology. They buy compliance.”
Busetto summarized: “Sovereign AI lies on a spectrum—from infrastructure control to open collaboration.”
He cited the Apertus Swiss LLM as emblematic: shared cost, collective leverage.
A live poll showed roughly one-third of founders plan production use within two years.
Fireside chat on Founding & Vibecoding
10:45 - 10:55 The Maker
Sonya Pleshcheva (Bli Bli Dressing) & Raphaël Briner (Panoramai)
Sonya described winning an Adobe hackathon with her AI-powered handbag-valuation app.
“Vibecoding lets you build from a vibe, not a blank page.”
Briner predicted “70 % of future code will be generated under human supervision.”
Critical Infra for Society: Summary
10:55 - 11:45 The Visionaries . Moderator: Andrei Villarroel
Andrei Villarroel reframed infrastructure as “the hidden skeleton of civilization.”
The three speakers mapped the Intelligence Economy emerging from data, energy, and cognition.
David Galbraith:
“The internet monetized users; AI monetizes production networks—software writing software.”
He urged Europe to lead in clean compute, not regulation: “We have 90 % low-carbon energy. Build the data-centers here.”
Philippe Van Caenegem:
Compared AI’s substrate to Rome’s roads or Britain’s shipping lanes—a new cognitive grid.
“Robots will finance our pensions. The real question is redistribution.”
He sees hope in Europe’s ability to manage complex, long-term projects à la CERN.
Sal Matteis:
Introduced “Humanity OS”—a moral framework for tech.
“Our institutions are obsolete, not evil. They need redesign, not rage.”
He warned of political OS mismatch: short-term populism vs. long-term technology.
“Technocratic recalibration is how we restore trust.”
The session closed on consensus:
Infrastructure ≠ hardware only — it’s education, energy, cognition.
Institutions must be rebuilt for the Intelligence Age.
Society 5 = planetary-centric wisdom, integrating human and ecological systems.
Briner’s closing line: “Walk and Talk → Think and Build.”
Deep Dive Tech Workshop(s) > Vibecoding
14:00 - 15:00 The Makers > registration on luma here
Deep Dive Tech Workshop(s) > From Pilot to Production
15:00 - 15:45 The Advisor > registration on luma here
15:55 - 17:00 The Builders > registration on luma here
