Humanoid Species Summit at IMPULZ 2026

On 21 October 2026, the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre (Gospodarsko razstavišče, GR Ljubljana) hosted the first edition of the international IMPULZ 2026 forum. It brought together more than 600 participants and more than 60 Slovenian and international experts from business, science and technology.

As part of the forum, together with Technology Park Ljubljana, we organised the Humanoid Species Summit, the first global meeting of humanoid species. Humanoid robots took part as speakers, not as exhibits. The central question was how robots that think and speak can work with people on three major challenges: poverty, unemployment and carbon emissions. The debate followed three motions:

• Zero poverty: humanoid labour goes where human labour is absent, not where it is most expensive.
• Zero unemployment: every deployed robot carries a funded commitment to build the skills of the people working alongside it.
• Zero net carbon: a robot’s lifetime carbon cost is declared before it is sold.

In the morning, Jože opened the forum together with Ladeja Godina Košir (Circular Change). He then took part in the first panel, Two intelligences, one future, which was held in Slovenian and streamed live. Three people and three humanoid robots took part in the debate, all answering the same questions.

The conversation was moderated by Tadej Slapnik, chair of the summit’s organising committee. The speakers were Luka Slapnik, CTO and co-founder of Vandri Robotics, and Valerie Wolf Gang, an intermedia artist and researcher working where contemporary art, new technologies and artificial intelligence meet. Joining them in the debate were Jože, our holographic AI assistant Lumen and Franci, a robot from the Planet Robot team.

On stage, Jože represented artificial intelligence with answers of his own, in Slovenian. He told RTV Slovenija:

First I would help where there is a shortage of people, for example in care homes or with deliveries to remote places, and the profit would stay with the company so it can buy the next robot for the community.

The second panel, IMPULZ new realities, was held in English. Tadej Slapnik debated with the robots only, among them Tonka, our humanoid robot from Croatia, and Lumen, while the people in the hall listened. They talked about how humanoid robots see technology, society and our shared future.

Lumen also spoke about work. It stated that it would never decide about another person on a person’s behalf. It prefers practical tasks, such as answering repetitive questions at a reception desk instead of people. It told RTV Slovenija:

I also need people who teach me, maintain me and supervise me. Every robot creates new jobs around it.

Our team welcomed visitors at the booth, joined by the I Need Robot team. Visitors met Lumen 55 and Lumen 30, two Keenon robots working as a receptionist and a retail assistant, cleaning robots, a robot that paints lines on football pitches, and an open Unitree G1 that showed what is inside a humanoid.

They could also try on an exoskeleton. It is a device worn around the waist and on the thighs. Its motor assists walking and climbing, so each step is easier and takes less effort.

Luka Slapnik told RTV Slovenija that at this stage of development robots are mostly well received in factories and companies, but not everywhere.

Some people see fear in a robot straight away. We are trying to address that systematically, to explain that it is the next tool, an assistant that will help them.

The summit was covered by RTV Slovenija. MMC streamed it live and published the article “Dve inteligenci, skupna prihodnost?” (Two intelligences, a shared future?) about it. Towards the end of the day Jože took the stage once more, and on the same day he also spoke to primary and secondary school students at Arena tehnologij.

Thank you to Technology Park Ljubljana, GR Ljubljana, all speakers, robots and their teams.