Human-Centric by Nature: Prof. Anis Sefidanis at Italy’s Digital Security Festival 2024
The sixth edition of Italy’s Digital Security Festival opened in Udine on 18 October 2024 under a powerful theme: “Human-Centric by Nature” (“Umanocentrico per natura”). Conceived as one of the first Italian events to bring cybersecurity and digital culture to schools, homes and companies, the festival has grown into a travelling platform that moves across Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto, combining public events, expert talks and hands-on sessions on topics such as social networks, IT governance, ethical hacking and cybercrime.Friuli Oggi+1
In 2024 the festival ran from 18 October to 8 November, with ten in-person events and four online sessions across cities including Udine, Trieste, Padua, Vicenza, Montebelluna, Roncade, Tavagnacco and Vittorio Veneto.Digital Security Festival+1 The central idea, as explained by festival president Marco Cozzi and vice-president Gabriele Gobbo in Italian media, was to open a deep public conversation on how technology and artificial intelligence can truly serve people, rather than become instruments of power or exclusion, and to give citizens practical tools for safer, more conscious digital lives.Friuli Oggi+1
Within this human-centric framework, Prof. Anis Sefidanis was invited as one of the festival’s international guests. The DSF’s official announcement introduced him as a professor at the Faculty of Machine Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle” in Ohrid, North Macedonia, and as an expert in artificial intelligence and transhumanism known for his innovative approach to technology. Among the projects highlighted is the world’s first humanoid DJ robot, which blends AI and creativity in real time.Digital Security Festival The same announcement underlined that his contribution would focus on how emerging technologies are redefining human potential and reshaping our future.
The opening day of the festival, hosted at the Auditorium A. Comelli in the Palazzo della Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia, placed AI and cybersecurity at centre stage. According to regional press coverage in Friuli and Lombardy, more than fifty experts from Italy and abroad contributed across the programme.Friuli Oggi+1 After the introductory greetings, the morning’s first keynote belonged to Prof. Sefidanis, with a talk titled “Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life: The Invisible Friend of the Future”.Friuli Oggi+1 Addressing an audience that included many high-school students, he showed how AI already operates as a quiet collaborator in daily routines—from navigation and mobility systems to digital assistants and recommendation engines—while asking what it means to ensure that this “invisible friend” remains aligned with human values.
His afternoon session at Palazzo Torriani, headquarters of Confindustria Udine, went even deeper into the festival’s theme. Under the title “Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism: How to Redefine Human Potential?”, he invited participants to explore advanced technologies not simply as tools, but as extensions of human cognition, creativity and embodiment.Digital Security Festival+2VareseNews+2 The official DSF article describing the talk notes how he distinguished between “weak” AI, built to solve specific tasks, and “strong” AI, imagined as capable of general, human-level reasoning, before focusing on the very real systems that already augment medical diagnostics, mobility and communication.Digital Security Festival
In the same article, the festival team highlights several of his signature projects as concrete illustrations of human-centric technology. One example is the Smart Monument dedicated to the Macedonian poet Kočo Racin: an intelligent installation that combines artificial intelligence, virtual reality and holographic technologies to “bring the poet back to life” and let visitors hear him speak in his own local dialect.Digital Security Festival By emphasising dialects as carriers of identity and the roots of standard languages, Prof. Sefidanis argued that advanced technologies should protect and amplify cultural diversity, not erase it.
Another project that drew attention in Udine was his humanoid DJ robot, developed within the Sefidanis research ecosystem. The DSF coverage describes it as an experiment at the intersection of AI, robotics, music and performance, where a robot can manipulate physical objects and sound live, opening new questions about the role of machines in traditionally human domains such as art, entertainment and nightlife.Digital Security Festival+1 For Sefidanis, the point is not to replace human artists, but to explore how shared stages between humans and robots can create new forms of expression and collaboration.
Throughout his intervention, he continually returned to the ethical and social implications of these technologies. The DSF write-up reports him warning that algorithms can reproduce and even amplify human biases if they are not designed and governed responsibly, and that society must confront the fact that AI systems are increasingly involved in sensitive domains such as healthcare, law enforcement and public administration.Digital Security Festival At the same time, he reminded the audience that fears about intelligent machines are not new, invoking ancient myths like the bronze automaton Talos of Crete and the etymology of the word “robot” from the Slavic “robota”, meaning work, to show how fascination and anxiety around artificial beings have always reflected our own ideas about labour, power and control.Digital Security Festival
The festival’s human-centric theme created a natural frame for these reflections. Statements from DSF president Marco Cozzi stressed that putting people at the centre of technological progress is the only way to build a sustainable future, while vice-president Gabriele Gobbo underlined that digital-risk awareness must become part of everyday life for both young people and parents.Digital Security Festival+2Friuli Oggi+2 The official festival programme and supporting articles in regional media show how Prof. Sefidanis’ keynotes were embedded within a broader day of discussions on AI skills in schools and the labour market, prompt-hacking, cyber-crime, and organisational incident response, with contributions from figures such as Clusit president Gabriele Faggioli and leading Italian cybersecurity professionals.confindustria.ud.it+3Digital Security Festival+3Friuli Oggi+3
From the perspective of Sefidanis as a brand and research ecosystem, participation in the Digital Security Festival 2024 signalled a close alignment with the festival’s mission: spreading digital-security culture in an accessible way, while insisting that AI and cybersecurity must remain rooted in human dignity, culture and identity. DSF is part of the European Cybersecurity Month initiative coordinated by ENISA, and its own communications present Prof. Sefidanis’ lectures as opportunities for the Italian public to understand how AI and transhumanism might shape tomorrow’s society.Digital Security Festival+1 In turn, his presence in Udine showed how projects developed under the Sefidanis umbrella—such as Smart Monuments, humanoid robots and AI-driven immersive experiences—can serve as living laboratories for a truly human-centric digital future.
References / sources and original publication dates
Reference 1: Friuli Oggi, “Parte da Udine il sesto Digital Security Festival. Il tema sarà ‘Umanocentrico per natura’”, local report on the opening of the sixth Digital Security Festival and the 18 October 2024 programme in Udine, published 18 October 2024. Friuli Oggi
Reference 2: VareseNews, “‘Umanocentrico per natura’ al via la sesta edizione del Digital Security Festival”, national article announcing the festival, listing key speakers including Prof. Anis Sefidanis and outlining the “Human-Centric by Nature” theme, published 15 October 2024. VareseNews
Reference 3: Digital Security Festival – official website, “Anis Sefidanis, esperto di AI, ospite internazionale del Digital Security Festival”, news item presenting Prof. Sefidanis as an international guest and describing his 18 October talk on AI and transhumanism, published 11 October 2024. Digital Security Festival
Reference 4: Digital Security Festival – official website, “Anis Sefidanis: intelligenza artificiale e transumanesimo al Digital Security Festival”, in-depth article and video recap of his keynote at the opening day in Udine, published 3 January 2025 (covering the 18 October 2024 event). Digital Security Festival
Reference 5: “Programma Digital Security Festival 2024 – ‘Umanocentrico per natura’”, official festival programme (PDF) detailing the full agenda for 18 October 2024 in Udine, including the talks “Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life: The Invisible Friend of the Future” and “Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism: How to Redefine Human Potential?” by Prof. Anis Sefidanis, dated 18 October 2024. Digital Security Festival
Reference 6: Confindustria Udine and partner communications and announcements on the opening day of DSF 2024 at the Palazzo della Regione FVG and Palazzo Torriani, confirming the structure of the afternoon programme and panel composition, published around 18–20 October 2024. confindustria.ud.it+2LinkedIn+2
Reference 7: Digital Security Festival – general festival presentation and partner list, including references to the event’s inclusion in European Cybersecurity Month (ECSM) and its sponsorship and association network, accessed December 2025 (core content originally published in 2024). Digital Security Festival+2Digital Security Festival+2
