Not a single day goes by without a new record investment in the field of artificial intelligence. The unit of measurement is no longer billions, but trillions and beyond. The arms race between tech giants seems limitless – and in any case defies the physical limits of our planet.

AI is infiltrating all areas of human activity at an unimaginable speed. Mastering artificial intelligence is the most significant quantum leap since the advent of the atomic bomb.

Does the future belong to the American and Chinese tech giants? Are Switzerland and Europe doomed to follow and submit?

There is an alternative. Sovereign, collaborative, efficient and ethical.

Giotto.ai seeks to exceed the current capabilities of AI to push the boundaries towards artificial intelligence capable of going beyond memorisation – towards reflection. Giotto.ai is developing technology that stands out for its ability to generalise tasks, solve problems and offer transformative potential for industries and society in general.

Way more efficient than large LLMs and infinitely less energy-and data-intensive, the solution advocated by Giotto.ai is based on two fundamental pillars: sovereignty and efficiency.

- Yes, it is possible to escape the frantic race for resources and infrastructure.
- Yes, it is possible to assert Swiss and European leadership in artificial intelligence that serves society, democracy and humanity.

Switzerland and Europe have all the talent, universities and centres of expertise needed to succeed. Together, let's create networks of investors, developers and conditions to control our own destiny.

Submitting is not an option. We can decide.

Problem:

Kaufmann argues that humanity stands at a turning point: machines and Generative AI will soon outperform us in many routine and even complex tasks, while our social, economic, and cultural systems are still built around compulsory work and industrial‑age roles of “Homo faber.” Without a new vision, fears of job loss, loss of control, and foreign dominance (China/USA) over AI systems will shape the future instead of our own European values.​

‍

Approach:

Kaufmann reframes robots and Generative AI as tools, like excavators or calculators, without intrinsic power fantasies, and insists we design them to augment humans rather than replace them. He sketches a near future where every person works with several humanoid or software agents that handle routine tasks, enabling humans to focus on uniquely human, hard‑to‑automate activities. He also calls for sovereign Swiss and European AI (e.g., SwissGPT, AlpineAI) to embed local values, privacy, and trust into foundational Generative AI infrastructure.​

‍

Key takeaways:

• Generative AI can trigger a shift from “Homo faber” to “Homo gaudens,” freeing people to pursue meaningful work and curiosity instead of mere survival.

• A “Eutopia” – a realistic, golden age – is possible if productivity gains from AI are used to reduce compulsory work and secure public finances.

• Trust, culture, and data protection will be the decisive “currency” in the global race for AI; Switzerland can lead by building reliable, privacy‑preserving Generative AI systems for governments, hospitals, and universities.

Large language models can reason, generate code, and hold conversations. But they remain trapped behind screens. If AI is to become truly useful in our daily environments, it needs a body, a presence, and natural ways to interact with us.
In this talk, I’ll present Reachy Mini, an open and developer-friendly robot designed to explore what embodied AI can look like today. I’ll walk through how we are building its core software stack, from multimodal perception to real-time voice interaction, and why voice is emerging as the most natural interface for physical AI. We will look at how speech-to-speech pipelines, local inference, and modular backends allow Reachy Mini to move beyond scripted demos and into responsive, real-world interaction.
You will leave with a clearer understanding of what it takes to give AI a body, why voice-first interfaces matter, and how open tools can accelerate the next generation of interactive robotics.

True AI sovereignty requires open foundations. Closed, foreign-controlled models create dependency — open models deliver transparency, local control, and data sovereignty. This talk makes the case that open-source AI isn't a philosophical preference but a strategic imperative and showcases NVIDIA's latest Nemotron 3 model as a concrete example of how open weights translate into national strength.

From generative AI transforming software development to advanced AI systems powering industry, defense, and public services, the mission for Europe is clear: AI sovereignty is no longer a political slogan, it is an economic, technological, and security imperative.

‍