DLD20s collage showing innovators unter 30 who spoke at DLD Munich 2025

DLD/Hubert Burda Media

DLD20s: These Young Innovators Are Shaping a Positive Future

Meet the brilliant minds who offer bold ideas to solving some of the world’s most trickiest problems, from improving social equality and education to taking AI to the next level.

Tali Schill

March 26, 2025

DLD25

AI | Culture | Innovation | Society & Politics

The big decisions of today will shape the world of tomorrow – so why not involve those who will live in it? DLD20s is a new initiative designed to do just that. It aims to empower the next generation by introducing young visionaries to the DLD community, creating a space where intergenerational exchange sparks innovation, and where the leaders of tomorrow are heard today.

By fostering dialogue across age groups and disciplines, DLD20s ensures that the future isn’t just built for the next generation – it’s built with them. Because the best way to predict the future is to create it. Together.

DLD20s saw its debut at the recent DLD Munich 2025 conference, where the first batch of speakers presented their ideas to a worldwide audience. Their talks ranged from AI and robotics to education, art and society. Because creating a positive future knows no bounds. Take a look and get inspired!

Print Me a School!

Can you imagine a world where barriers to education are broken down by innovation? Maggie Grout is making this dream a reality – one 3D-printed school in underserved communities at a time.

For Maggie, this mission is deeply personal. Born in “a rural village in China, very much similar to the areas ThinkingHuts is now serving”, she understands firsthand what it means to lack access to education.

After being adopted into a new life, she was “inspired by the opportunity that education harnesses for people to have a completely different future”. Determined to give others the same chance she had, she founded ThinkingHuts when she was just 15 years old.

A bold vision, a groundbreaking approach – Maggie is proving that with determination, even the biggest challenges can be turned into life-changing opportunities.

Education for a New Era: Watch Maggie Grout in conversation with Ronit Levavi Morad (Google Research), Esther Wojcicki (Global Moonshots) and Katja Speck (VisualVest).

Goodbye Chatbot, Hello Reasoning Engine

Shravan Nageswaran, Co-Founder and CEO of Atman Labs, took the stage with a bold message: it’s time to rethink AI. While large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have wowed billions of users around the world, they tend to stumble in the face of ambiguity and strategic problem-solving, he argues.

At just 26, Shravan and his team are reshaping how AI systems can think and adapt. Their “reasoning engine” combines knowledge representation with reinforcement learning, which allows the groundbreaking system to tackle real-world complexity and outperform traditional models.

“Our reasoning engine is actually context independent”, Shravan told the DLD audience, “which means that just by simply connecting it to a different world model and an interface that can perform actions, we can emulate and even supersede any type of expert behavior in the digital world or even in the physical world.”

How can this approach help us live longer? What applocations look most promising? And where does the Oktoberfest fit in? Watch Shravan’s talk to find out.

Beyond LLMs – The Next Frontier of Machine Reasoning: Watch Shravan Nageswaran’s DLD25 presentation.

Information Overload No More

In a world where digital information is abundant but often overwhelming, DLD20s member Mona Ismail is working to make sense of the chaos. As founder of Arca, she is developing an AI-powered assistant to filter and personalize content, so that users only get to see what really matters to them.

The big question she and team are asking is, “could we utilize technology to help us to bring relevance out of the clutter?”, Mona told the DLD25 audience. In a panel discussion with Esther Dyson, Mitchell Baker and Fred Vogelstein, Mona emphasized the need for practical solutions that adapt to how younger generations engage with technology today.

Advocating for open systems and data portability, she envisions a future where individuals have more control over their digital experiences rather than being confined by closed platforms and fragmented ecosystems.

“I’m one of the luckiest persons to be alive, because what a time to build!”, she said enthusiastically. “What a time take action, get your hands dirty, and be like, ‘Okay, we have this super big problem, let’s build a solution around it!’“

Tech History – An Outlook to the Future: Watch the DLD25 panel discussion with Mona Ismail, Mitchell Baker and Esther Dyson, moderated by Fred Vogelstein.

Youth to the Front

Chmba Ellen Chilemba is a force for change. At just 16, she launched a microfinance program to support young women’s education in her home country Malawi, a mission that eventually led her to become the manager of We Are Family Foundation’s Youth To The Front Fund.

As a passionate advocate for young leaders in the Global South, she highlighted the urgent need for greater funding in regions where resources are scarce but the potential for impact is immense.

“I remember my parents would always say, ‘If you don’t wake up in school, you’ll be poor’”, Chmba recalled in her DLD25 session with the foundation’s creators, music legend Nile Rodgers and his partner Nancy Hunt. “And for me, going to school, making sure that I get the best grades, was survival.”

Her inspiration for starting the microfinance program came from learning about the work of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus who pioneered the concept with his Grameen Bank. (Watch his DLD20 talk “Business With A Conscience” here.) Right on day one, “there was a long line of women”, she recounted. “There’s, like, one hundred fifty people. I’m like, ‘No, no, no, listen, I don’t have a lot of money for everyone.’”

In search of additional funding she came across the We Are Family Foundation, which gave her the chance to have an even bigger impact. “Today I feel so privileged in the role that I serve“, Chmba noted, “where we give funding to young people around the world.“ More than 40,000 have already received financial support, and “anyone, anywhere can apply for funding”, she emphasized.

WE act creatively. WE lead with purpose. WE Are Family – Youth to the Front! Make sure to watch the DLD25 conversation between Chmba Ellen Chilemba, Nancy Hunt and Nile Rodgers, moderated by Ralph Simon, all the way to the end – which features an improv performance of “Let’s Dance”, one of Rodgers’ greatest hits.

Painting by Numbers

Art and robotics are two fields that rarely go hand in hand. But Chloe Ryan is proving that when they do, the results are nothing short of extraordinary. As an artist, robotics engineer, and founder of Acrylic Robotics, Chloe is challenging the exclusivity of the art world by using robots to create paintings on canvas.

Currently, the art market relies on “restrict, restrict, restrict”, Chloe noted at DLD25. “VIP this, VIP that, and you have to increase the value of your works, make them more scarce and sell to these high net worth individuals for thousands of dollars.”

Her vision is an entirely different one: By giving artists full creative freedom, but letting robots do the manual work, she hopes to fill a gap between mass-printed posters and VIP exclusivity. “My goal as an artist is to broaden access to my work. I want as many people to be able to enjoy it as possible”, she explained in to moderator Tim Brown of IDEO in her session with Kor and Agi Kajanaku, co-founders of OpenStudio.

To Chloe, the Acrylic Robots resemble the priting press – they’re a means to replicate unique works of art without lessening their value. As in writing, this should be based on “how many people resonate with it, and not based on scarcity”, she argued.

Her mechanical painters will also help creatives who have a vision, but lack the skills to put their ideas on paper, she hopes. “Whenever a new tool is invented, it leaves all sorts of space for new ways of creating and new forms of art, new art movements to come through”, Chloe said. “And I think we are going to see the birth of all sorts of new creative forms.”

AI & Creativity – Powering Human Innovation Through Design: Watch the panel discussion with Chloe Ryan, Agi Kajanaku and Kor Kajanaku, moderated by Tim Brown.

The Power of Shared Experiences

Haseeb Iqbal is on a mission to create spaces for human passion in an increasingly digital world. In his talk at the DLD20s launch event at Public Possession, he shared his perspective on the importance of fostering meaningful conversations and authentic interactions in an increasingly fast-paced world. He highlighted DLD20s as a prime example of how the next generation is building communities that bring people together to exchange ideas, collaborate, and inspire change.

“The beauty of the arts, and the beauty of spaces like Public Possession and gatherings like DLD, is that we can all come together”, Haseeb noted. “And in an age where we’re all so attached to the screens and the algorithm, we can break out of that a little bit and reconnect to our sense of humanity and pulse and a sense of who we are.”

By emphasizing the power of shared experiences, Haseeb’s insights underscored the need for spaces that encourage creativity, dialogue, and deeper connections. His vision is a reminder that innovation isn’t just about technology – it’s also about the people it brings together.