A multi-stakeholder, inter-disciplinary approach…
Government
Industry
UN Agencies
Civil Society
International Organizations
Academia
Summit Goals
Connect AI innovators with problem owners, to identify practical applications of AI to accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Ensure trusted, safe and inclusive development of AI technologies and equitable access to their benefits
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Summit Speakers
Inventor, Futurist & Best-selling author of ‘The Singularity is Near’
*remote
Ray Kurzweil is one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a thirty-year track record of accurate predictions. Called "the restless genius" by The Wall Street Journal and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes magazine, he was selected as one of the top entrepreneurs by Inc. magazine, which described him as the "rightful heir to Thomas Edison." PBS selected him as one of the "sixteen revolutionaries who made America."
Ray was the principal inventor of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition software.
Ray received a Grammy Award for outstanding achievements in music technology; he is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, holds twenty-one honorary Doctorates, and honors from three U.S. presidents.
Ray has written five national best-selling books, including New York Times best sellers <em>The Singularity Is Near</em> (2005) and <em>How To Create A Mind</em> (2012).
CEO, Space Ambassador. AI for Gender Inclusivity Breakthrough Co-Chair
, XPRIZE Foundation
Anousheh Ansari is CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges. Ansari, along with her family, sponsored the organization’s first competition, the Ansari XPRIZE, a $10 million competition that ignited a new era for commercial spaceflight. Since then, she has served on XPRIZE’s Board of Directors.
Prior to being named CEO of XPRIZE, Ansari served as the CEO of Prodea Systems, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) technology firm she co-founded in 2006, and continues to serve as the executive chairwoman. She captured headlines around the world when she embarked upon an 11-day space expedition, accomplishing her childhood dream of becoming the first female private space explorer, first astronaut of Iranian descent, first Muslim woman in space, and fourth private explorer to visit space.
Ansari serves on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Council and has received numerous honors, including the WEF Young Global Leader, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, among others. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and serves on the board of Jabil and Peace First, as well as several other not-for-profit organizations focused on STEM education and youth empowerment.
Ansari also co-founded The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, announced in October 2018 at the Tri Hita Karana (THK) Forum on Sustainable Development in Bali, with a goal of investing $1 billion in women-founded companies by 2020.
She published her memoir, My Dream of Stars, to share her life story as inspiration for young women around the world.
Ansari holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University; and honorary doctorates from George Mason University, Utah Valley University, and International Space University.
Chief Executive Officer
, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Vicki Hanson is <a href="https://www.acm.org/media-center/2018/june/acm-names-new-ceo">the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)</a> of <a href="https://www.acm.org/">the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)</a>, globally serving computing professionals and students. She was President of ACM from 1 July 2016 – 30 June 2018.
Vicki was a <a href="https://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=67035">Distinguished Professor</a> in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology (2013 – 2018), and a Visiting Professor at the University of Dundee in Scotland, and Lancaster University in England. A <a href="http://researcher.ibm.com/person/us-vlh">former Research Staff Member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center</a>, she has been working on issues of inclusion for older adults and disabled people throughout her career, first as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. She joined the IBM Research Division in 1986 where she founded and managed the Accessibility Research group. She has been at the University of Dundee since 2009 and at RIT since 2013.
She has served on research advisory boards and agenda setting committees in both the US and the UK. <a href="https://vickihanson.org/research/">Her research</a> focus is on accessibility of technology for people with disabilities, the aging population, and related research ethics. At RIT, she, along with <a href="http://huenerfauth.ist.rit.edu/">Matt Huenerfauth</a> and <a href="http://www.kristenshinohara.com/">Kristen Shinohara</a> direct the <a href="http://cair.rit.edu/">Center for Accessibility and Inclusion Research (CAIR)</a>.
Executive Vice President and President, National Transformation Partnerships
, Microsoft
<p class="">Jean-Philippe Courtois is executive vice president and president, National Transformation Partnerships, focused on empowering countries’ sustainable economic growth through digital transformation. He is responsible for accelerating Microsoft’s global investment in datacenters, enabling governments, citizens and businesses to leverage the world’s largest and most trusted cloud infrastructure network.</p>
Courtois is the executive sponsor of the Microsoft Global Social Entrepreneurship Program, which empowers organizations doing good around the world. He is passionate about promoting the concept of Positive Leadership – how leaders can energize and inspire their teams to bring their very best by connecting their personal missions to their organizations’ purpose, so that they can achieve a positive impact.
Outside of Microsoft, Courtois spends much of his time working with the Live for Good foundation, which he co-founded with his family in 2015. The foundation aims to unlock the potential of young people from all walks of life through social entrepreneurship, driving societal innovation through a purpose-led community.
Courtois joined Microsoft in 1984. Most recently, Courtois led Microsoft’s commercial business across 124 subsidiaries worldwide as executive vice president and president, Global Sales, Marketing & Operations. In this role, he helped build vibrant ecosystems with small businesses, start-ups, public sector entities and partners, all the way to global industry leaders.
Courtois is a SKEMA Business School graduate and has been its chairman of the board since 2017.
Courtois sits on the board of directors for ManpowerGroup, the global workforce solutions organization.
Chief Data Officer
, Mastercard
Data expert and strategist with substantial experience building a data strategy and management program including curation, governance, analytics, quality and sourcing of data. Data ethics and responsible data practices including machine learning and artificial intelligence. Expertise in anonymization and analytics. Extensive experience as Chief Privacy Officer creating a highly functional privacy program. Significant expertise with GDPR, GLBA, FCRA and other data protection requirements. Industry expertise: Financial Services, Technology, Publishing
Business executive with broad experience in operational and financial management, including all aspects of accounting, auditing and financial analysis. Direct experience with mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, acquisition integration as well as operational excellence.
Adjunct Professor at the Graduate and Undergraduate level. Courses: Business Strategy, International Business, Intellectual Property Law, Business Law, Privacy & Cyber law, Elementary Accounting, Auditing
Specialties: Privacy program development, Business strategy for start up and mature industries, competitive analysis, mergers and acquisition, due diligence, Graduate and undergraduate professor.
Chairman
, Siemens
He serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is Adjunct Professor at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He is former co-CEO of SAP AG and holds a Master’s degree in Operational Research from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.
Through his 25-year career within the IT industry, Jim Hagemann Snabe has continuously built on his experience and knowledge, starting as Trainee in SAP AG in 1990. Throughout his career, he has held multiple leadership roles at SAP and IBM as well as leading consulting, sales, and product development organisations. He was appointed member of the Executive Board of SAP in 2008 and co-CEO of SAP AG alongside Bill McDermott in 2010.
Jim Hagemann Snabe is actively engaged in efforts related to the digital transformation of business and society. These efforts bring together policy makers, business leaders, and leaders in society to understand current issues and shape a better and more sustainable future. He is Co-author of “Dreams and Details” - a book about leadership in times of change and Co-author of “Tech for Life” - a book about putting trust back in technology as a force for good.
EVP, CFO, Information Systems, Procurement and Strategic Resources Cycles, Member of the Board of Directors
, Danone
Cécile Cabanis began her career in 1995 with L'Oréal in South Africa as Logistics Manager and Financial Controller before moving to France as Internal Auditor. In 2000, she was appointed Deputy Director Mergers & Acquisitions at France Télécom.
Cécile Cabanis joined Danone in 2004, and has served in a range of key positions in finance, including Corporate Finance Director, then head of Business Development. In 2010 she was appointed Vice President Finance for the Fresh Dairy Products division.
Since February 2015, she is Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Committee.
In March 2017, besides her responsibility as EVP Chief Financial Officer, and Strategy, Cécile Cabanis takes the leadership for Information Systems and Information Technology (IS/IT).
In October 2017, Cécile Cabanis adds Cycles, Procurement and Nature Sustainability to her scope of responsibility and becomes Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Technology & Data, Cycles & Procurement.
Cécile Cabanis is also member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Schneider Electric
Founder & Executive Director
, Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). Prior to that she was fired by Google in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team. She received her PhD from Stanford University, and did a postdoc at Microsoft Research, New York City in the FATE (Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics in AI) group, where she studied algorithmic bias and the ethical implications underlying projects aiming to gain insights from data. Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian highschool students, free of charge.
Senior Director AI Innovation and AI Health Lead
, Baidu
World Chess Champion
, Chess Player
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007. He has won three team gold medals and three individual medals at Chess Olympiads.
In 2000, Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov and became the Classical World Chess Champion. He defended his title in 2004 against Péter Lékó, and defeated the reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match in 2006. As a result, Kramnik became the first undisputed World Champion, holding both the FIDE and Classical titles, since Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993.
In 2007, Kramnik lost the title to Viswanathan Anand, who won the World Chess Championship 2007 tournament ahead of Kramnik. He challenged Anand at the World Chess Championship 2008 to regain his title, but lost. Nonetheless, he remained a top player; he reached a peak rating of 2817 in October 2016, which makes him the joint-eighth highest-rated player of all time.
Kramnik publicly announced his retirement as a professional chess player in January 2019. He stated he intends to focus on projects relating to chess for children and education.
Director-General
, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Seasoned executive, former Director-General @ICRC, designer of political systems, international relations expert interested in the seismic global shifts currently emerging, communications expert.
I consistently strive to work on the frontlines of new global challenges, helping to define the humanitarian, political and societal agendas in our fast-evolving world, having refined my viewpoint through work conducted for the ICRC in some of the most difficult conflict zones within our humanitarian mandate. From this exposure, I've provided thought leadership on the changing nature of warfare and its impact on our societies; leadership in extreme situations; data privacy and security.
As an inspiring public speaking and innovative thinker, I have a proven track record of engaging audiences on global stages and platforms, with an ability to translate personal insight and understanding of real-world problems into solution-oriented visions of the future of our societies.
My current focus is on the theme of our social contract and the role of cities at the age of digital surveillance and pandemics, which is the subject of a special initiative I am leading at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and society.
Co-Founder and Director
, AI Commons
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<p>My general focus is on identifying and developing emerging and transformative technologies that can impact society in significant and exponential ways. I do this by helping create interdisciplinary frameworks for understanding and planning new developments and the funding required to bring new innovations to market.</p>
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<p>I help start, grow, and run innovative ventures, and focus on working with startups and growth-oriented companies on products and initiatives that could trigger significant breakthrough with substantial economic and societal impact. Particular emphasis on machine learning and predictive systems, IoT, knowledge sharing and crowdsourcing, Education, and digital health. I usually help teams on initial market opportunity validation, product roadmap strategy, pricing and business model, go-to-market operations, fundraising and mentorship, Mergers and high-growth partnerships.</p>
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<p>I also have managed a few private and public technology investment and venture capital funds and know how to establish fund operations and their overall strategies and requirements.</p>
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<p>I enjoy teaching and have been a guest lecturer and adjunct professor at UC Berkeley, HEC Paris, Chapman University, Claremont McKenna College, and UC Irvine.</p>
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Platinum Sponsor & Strategic Partner
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Join us in Geneva, Switzerland
The Summit will take place at the International Conference Center Geneva (CICG) on Rue de Varembé 17, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. You may discover general information about travelling to Geneva below, via the International Geneva Welcome Centre (CAGI).
The Summit will take place at the International Conference Center Geneva (CICG) on Rue de Varembé 17, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. You may discover general information about travelling to Geneva below, via the International Geneva Welcome Centre (CAGI).
The portal dedicated to welcoming internationals to Geneva
