Experiencing the future at the NTS SUPERFORUM

This year’s Superforum in Bolzano focused on IT topics of the future. Under the title IT QUANTUM ERA, top-class speakers highlighted current developments in artificial intelligence and quantum technology.

Agostino Santoni from Cisco gave exciting insights into Cisco’s strategy for an AI-driven future. Thomas Plückebaum showed how AI and high-performance networks create concrete potential for South Tyrol. Matteo Flora added a critical perspective on ethics, communication and responsibility in dealing with AI. As an extreme mountaineer, Tamara Lunger, The Soul Mountaineer, pointed out how crucial balance is. Not only in the mountains, but also in business.

Ciao a tutti

Host and Sales Director of NTS Italia, Matthias Ploner, welcomed around 150 guests in the atmospheric setting of Maretsch Castle in Bolzano. With a pleasant opening speech, he looked back on the development of NTS, gave an outlook on the future of IT and covered the spectrum up to quantum technology. Alexander Albler, CEO and co-owner of NTS, then welcomed the guests. With palpable joy, he recalled that NTS ventured into Italy over 14 years ago and is now successfully anchored in the Italian market with a strong team.

No AI without a data strategy

Agostino Santoni, Senior Vice President South EMEA at Cisco, provided exciting insights into the technology group’s strategic direction in the age of artificial intelligence. Santoni showed what Cisco is currently working on and what challenges the company is facing, such as secure access to AI, the expansion of cyber technologies and sustainability. “The technological progress we are currently experiencing is unprecedented and will have a lasting impact on society.” One example of the potential: what would have taken 2,500 years in the past can now be calculated in a minute with the help of quantum computing.

A particularly impressive example of energy-efficient AI infrastructure: Cisco relies on innovative cooling in server technology, which has been used successfully in the banking sector, among others. Servers are immersed in oil to make processes more energy-efficient.

Finally, Agostino Santoni talks about Splunk, for him the “nirvana” of modern data analysis. He emphasizes that there can be no successful AI projects without a data strategy. Cisco and Splunk are working together to create infrastructures that make the efficient and scalable implementation of AI possible in the first place. This is because AI not only brings more computing power into play, it also requires real added value to be generated from data. The importance of the right transport capacity for computing power is often underestimated.

“Today, technology development is not just about developing features. It’s about data sovereignty.”

Agostino Santoni Senior Vice President, South EMEA Cisco

South Tyrol’s digital future

Thomas Plückebaum, Senior Advisor at WIK-Consult, spoke specifically about the South Tyrol region and demonstrated the potential that terabit networks can develop in South Tyrol. He emphasized the importance of a well thought-out and responsible use of technology. Many users do not even know where the actual “computing elements” are located or how they interact with each other in the background – much happens invisibly in the cloud and can change dynamically. His conclusion: South Tyrol is well positioned technologically, with forward-looking, secure platforms that can actively shape change.

“Be careful with artificial intelligence, what it can or cannot do.”

Thomas Plückebaum Senior Advisor, WIK-Consult

Sono Matteo

In his presentation, Matteo Flora, Adjunct Professor für AI & Superintelligence Safety, focused on the ethical challenges of dealing with artificial intelligence. Using specific examples, he showed how easily AI-generated content can become manipulative or even dangerous. For example, he described a case in which a deceptively real, familiar Italian voice used conversational AI to engage a caller in a conversation about cryptocurrencies.

The possibilities and risks of image generation were also discussed: AI can now create content that is almost indistinguishable from reality, with enormous potential but equally great responsibility. One example from the world of work was particularly impressive. At Shopify, for example, it was pointed out in a circular that employees had to prove why a task could not be done better by an AI agent. AI becomes the benchmark for human performance here.

Flora also mentioned the so-called “me-maw problems”. Cases in which chatbots deliver recipes for the production of dangerous substances such as nerve gas via detours. Despite protective mechanisms, many systems can be circumvented by skillful conversation. A worrying aspect of the discussion about AI safety: “Shit in, shit out. It’s quite simple. If I feed the machine like this, that’s what comes out.”

“We are experiencing the first industrial revolution that will affect people who work in offices.”

Matteo Flora Adjunct Professor

The Soul Mountaineer

Tamara Lunger, extreme climber and „The Soul Mountaineer“, provided an emotional change of perspective. She spoke about the power of the balance between performance and mindfulness, between summits and retreats.

“Listen to your intuition. We all have this voice. For free.”

Tamara Lunger Extreme climber

She has been used to facing challenges since her childhood. Performance and headwinds are simply part of it for her. At the age of 12, she decided that the mountains would shape her life and had the dream of one day climbing an eight-thousander. She set off on her first expedition in 2009 and knew immediately: this is where I belong. Numerous other tours followed, including K2, a milestone in her impressive mountaineering career. In 2021, she returned for an extraordinary project: the first winter ascent of K2. While ten Nepalese climbers actually reach the summit and make history, Tamara’s expedition is overshadowed by tragedy. Her team colleague Sergi Mingote suffers a fatal fall. These heavy losses shake her to the core. Tamara Lunger then consciously withdrew – she took a step back from winter mountaineering to process what she had experienced and to reflect anew on what mountaineering means to her.