Labs Talk 2026 Kick-Off: AI, Tech Conferences, and Upcoming Topics

Post-Holiday Reflections & Unconference Insights

• ❄️ The hosts reconnected after the holidays, with Sven sharing his experience at an unconference in Northern Finland amidst extreme cold.
• 🧠 Sven's unconference sessions focused on AI and knowledge management, exploring tools like LogSeq and Obsidian for building a "second brain."
• ⚠️ A key discussion point was AI privacy, specifically the concerns about trusting American corporations with personal data when using tools like Notebook LM.

Chaos Communication Congress Highlights

• 🇩🇪 Andreas attended the 39th Chaos Communication Congress (39C3) in Hamburg, Germany, highlighting several impactful talks.
• 🔒 Meredith Whittaker (Signal Foundation) presented "AI agent AI spy," discussing AI privacy issues and the trust implications of cloud-hosted LLMs.
• 🌐 Cory Doctorow (EFF) spoke on achieving a "post American shitification safe internet," advocating for digital independence and switching from big tech to free alternatives.
• ✅ The congress also promoted an initiative for a Digital Independence Day, encouraging users to switch off big tech services for free alternatives monthly.

Geopolitical Tech & AI Future

• 🌍 The hosts discussed the geopolitical situation and its potential impact on IT and AI services, particularly tensions between the US and Europe.
• 🚀 There's hope for the AI bubble not to burst, aiming for meaningful, paid services and ethical considerations in AI development.
• 💡 The concept of ActivityPub-based services (like Wanderer for trails) was introduced as a potential decentralized alternative to current social media and activity tracking platforms.

Upcoming Guests & AI Focus

• 🎙️ Future episodes will feature Yaad Oren (SAP Labs USA, Global Head of Research & Innovation at SAP) to discuss SAP's technology interests.
• 🤖 Shardul Vikram (Head of Application AI at SAP) will join to explore how SAP delivers customer-centric AI solutions.
• 📊 Other planned sessions include Felix Sasaki on knowledge graphs for enterprise software and AI, and a partner discussion on AI's impact in sales.

Deep Dive into Sports Tech & Quantum Computing

• ⚽ The podcast will revisit sports technology, engaging with Las Lamade and Sasha Schmidt to discuss its evolving role.
• ⚛️ A significant focus for the year will be quantum computing, with guests like Dr. Fabio Scafirimuto (IBM Quantum Education) and Richard Milbrand (Push Quantum).
• 💰 Discussions will move beyond academic theory to practical use cases and the reality of revenue-generating quantum computing startups.