Swiss Digital Days 2023: Together into the digital future

Anthony Corbaz, co-lead of digitalswitzerland's Swiss Digital Days: "The Swiss Digital Days 2023 united the population, cities, cantons and regions of Switzerland under the guiding theme 'Our digital future is now! Between September and December, with the support of our 59 partners, we talked to more than 3,000 citizens about topics such as AI, the future of work, diversity, equality and inclusion. Our Lighthouse event on December 6 celebrated the spirit of the movement."

"AI Hope Machine": What are the hopes of youth? 

Dreams are one of the strongest drivers of our progress. For this reason, digitalswitzerland unveiled the "AI Hope Machine" at the closing event of the Digital Days. The project aims to create a collective image of the future - from the perspective of the next generation. With the possibilities of artificial intelligence, thousands of voices of the next generation will become one unit, one point of contact that can provide concrete answers to questions in the interests of young people. The AI Hope Machine is being created in cooperation with Ringier and Samsung Electronics.

Swiss Museum of Transport and digitalswitzerland set the tone for Switzerland's digital development

The Swiss Museum of Transport is breaking new ground and, in cooperation with digitalswitzerland, is creating a permanent presence for current developments and milestones in the field of digitalization. Martin Bütikofer, Director of the Swiss Museum of Transport, and Marcel Stalder, Executive Committee member of digitalswitzerland, emphasized at the Lighthouse Event: "We are convinced that with this commitment, we will one day create indispensable access to initiatives of the digital present and future for the whole of Switzerland." The aim of the cooperation is to create a permanent meeting place where the population can find out about digitalization, generate enthusiasm and overcome reservations. In order to do justice to the ambitious project, digitalswitzerland - financed by Swiss Post - has commissioned a corresponding study. The results are expected in the middle of next year, on the basis of which the concept will be developed. 

#herHACK: victory goes to sustAInos

With a share of just 20 percent, women are still severely underrepresented in the technology sector. With #herHACK, digitalswitzerland offered women and underrepresented groups the opportunity to engage with technology and sustainability topics and develop solutions in a safe environment for the third time. More than 450 people took part in the activities in 2023 (3 regional networking events, 6 training workshops), with 162 participants taking part in the two-day hackathon in November. Out of 32 teams, six made it to the final. The winning title went to the "SustAInable shopper" project.

With SustAInable shopper, the sustAInos team aims to transform the Migros shopping experience into a measurable and effective personal sustainability journey. Migros customers should be empowered to act according to the values that are close to their hearts. The innovative, AI-powered add-on for the Migros app aims to revolutionize the grocery shopping experience by analyzing consumers' behavior on the go and encouraging them to make sustainable shopping decisions on the go. It compares this with extensive data on the carbon footprint, matches it with the customer's stated sustainability preferences and delivers a personalized sustainability performance metric at the end of each purchase.

NextGen brings artificial intelligence into Swiss classrooms

Artificial intelligence (AI) does not stop at Swiss schools. Between September and November, over 1000 children and young people aged 13-16 from all over Switzerland took part in the workshops. Not only did the participants gain fascinating insights into the world of future skills and artificial intelligence, they also tackled the challenges of the future in a practical way. The learning content was developed together with experts from Pro Juventute, Kids.Code and the education agency kik and led by Kids.Code. At the Lighthouse event, prizes were awarded for the best images created by the workshop participants with the help of AI. The series of events was made possible by digitalswitzerland and a donation from Swiss Post of the proceeds from the auction of the special editions of the Swiss Crypto Stamp 3.0 as part of #RicardoForGood.

Digital Xchange involves the Swiss population in particular

More than 250 participants came together at a total of 5 Digital Xchange events to discuss today's digital topics. At this year's events, a special focus was placed on artificial intelligence and its influence on our everyday lives. The Digital Xchange format creates space for the hopes, fears and needs of the Swiss population - the expression of different opinions is explicitly encouraged. At the end of the format, four select panel guests discussed the role of artificial intelligence in ensuring diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) at the Lighthouse event. The conclusion of the discussion: Artificial intelligence offers numerous opportunities for DEI, while being aware of the risks of bias. The key is to ensure that the data provided to train AIs such as ChatGPT is of high quality and meets DEI standards so that it produces unbiased results. This requires conscious human effort.

Source: www.digitalswitzerland.com