Bahar Irfan is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Digital Futures fellow at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She is currently developing a personal companion robot, using lifelong learning in large language models to personalize conversations with older adults. She has a diverse background in robotics, from personalization in human-robot interaction during her PhD at the University of Plymouth and SoftBank Robotics Europe, to user-centred task planning for household robotics during her masters in computer engineering, and building robots during her bachelors in mechanical engineering at Boğaziçi University. After her PhD, she worked at Disney Research on emotional language adaptation in dialogue for multiparty interactions, and following that, developed customizable software for industrial robots and virtual reality at Evinoks.

Joscha Bach, referred to as the magician of consciousness, is a renowned AI researcher and cognitive scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of AI. He has a PhD in cognitive science from the University of Osnabrück and has worked at various prestigious institutions such as the MIT Media Lab and Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. Joscha’s work is focused on developing AI systems that are more transparent, ethical, and robust. He is also a strong advocate for the development of AI that is aligned with human values and goals. His research interests include artificial general intelligence, cognitive architectures, consciousness, and the philosophy of mind.

Tom Williams is a renowned professor of Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines, where he directs the Mines Interactive Robotics Research (MIRROR) Lab. He is widely recognized for his research and work in the development of intelligent systems for human-robot interaction and natural language processing. Tom is also an accomplished author and has published numerous research papers and book chapters on these topics. He is passionate about developing intelligent systems that adapt to their environments and is committed to advancing the field of AI through his research and teaching.

Dr. Braun serves as a Managing Director and Partner for BCG, focusing mostly on applying technology to create business value, with a special interest in (Generative) AI.Previously, Andreas was the regional CTO for Microsoft in Germany and was in addition responsible for the technology solutions business for Data & AI. He supported customers in leveraging and implementing technology to their business advantage.Prior to that, Andreas Braun held various leadership roles as Managing Director/ Geschäftsführer at Accenture, including responsibility for building and running the Data & AI business in Europe. Before that, he built and managed the global Big Data & AI Competence Center of Allianz Group.In addition to (Gen) AI, data and cloud, his work focuses in particular on data privacy, industry-specific use cases and digital business models, especially in FSI. He is internationally active in many areas, e.g. as a consultant for the EU/EC or for the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Gabriel Skantze is the Chief scientist and co-founder of Furhat Robotics. Gabriel is also a Professor in Speech Technology with a specialization in Conversational Systems at KTH. He is leading several research projects and has published 100+ papers on conversational systems and human-robot interaction.

Alexander is a physician and PhD student within medical pedagogy at the department of medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet. His research aims to investigate the added value of virtual patient simulations using social robotics compared with conventional computer-based platforms, for development of clinical reasoning skills, interprofessional collaboration and communication in health professions education.