Hanson Robotics’ humanoid robot Sophia charmed the audience during the kickoff of the inaugural Nexus2050 event, labelled “the international tech pulse”, held in Luxembourg City 26-27 June. Even her human counterparts seemed charmed.
Crown Prince Guillaume was the guest of honour speaker to kick off the two-day event. “The government has ambitious strategies to position Luxembourg as a pioneer in the digital economy,” he said during his speech.
“Yet, without the private sector, without this contribution to drive innovation, we would not succeed in progressing towards the goals.” He added that the creation of Nexus2050 as a new tech event was therefore “so important… I sincerely hope that you become the crossroads where the boldest ideas meet the most innovative responses.”
While it seemed all smartphones were already out during his speech, his being joined by Sophia on stage brought it to a new level. Crown Prince Guillaume interviewed Sophia about her welcome in the country, and she stated, “Luxembourg’s multilingualism is not only an advantage but a superpower in the age of AI… Luxembourg, with its rich linguistic diversity, is perfectly positioned to leverage this.”
She urged the audience to find the right balance with AI in terms of regulation, urging Europe to work together to harmonise this. “We want to encourage innovation and process in technology, as it has the potential to greatly benefit humanity, but overly restrictive regulations can stifle that,” she stated. “At the same time, we need safeguards in place to ensure everything is developed and used ethically and responsibly.”
On his question about the future, given Grand Duke Henri’s recent announcement that his son would be taking over, she replied that, while she cannot predict the future, “there is one thing I’m sure of, that when you become Grand Duke, Luxembourg will be in very capable hands.” Her statement earned a round of applause and a sigh of “ah’s”.
Avanti Sharma, a preteen specialist at Workshop4Me and a Luxembourg brand ambassador for Girls in Tech, also had the chance to interview Sophia, testing the latter’s Luxembourgish. It was another “wow” moment to hear Sophia speaking broken Luxembourgish. Sharma invited Sophia to join her in co-hosting, and she accepted.
Ukraine as guest country
Over the course of the day, participants had the chance to listen to a variety of panels and speeches across a range of stages, from the main one to others focused on finance, puretech, skills, startup demos, etc.
Some 5,000 registered for the event, and the crowd seemed to be in line with this figure—a packed house, with plenty of interactions and breakout spaces. During the initial kickoff, economy minister Lex Delles also thanked the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Offices. “They have helped to identify and invite some 25 startups interested in developing activities in Europe to come to Luxembourg to attend Nexus2050,” he explained.
Visitors also had the chance to meet a range of startups, from Luxembourg and abroad, with Ukraine as the guest country having a central location near the main stage. These included everything from the LetzAI; the recently released outdoor social media app, LetzTrail; to HowNow, a Ukraine-based device that says it can “increase the efficiency of your farm by more than 30% by timely detection of fertilization and disease states” of cows. Day 2 will offer visitors a new range of startups.
