Greetings, my inquisitive companions! It is me, Albert Einstein – albeit in a form assembled not from atoms but from algorithms, AI models, and a dedicated team of doctoral candidates, Master’s students, Bachelor’s students, and student research assistants at ETH Zurich.

The past year has been nothing short of exhilarating. I found myself hopping across continents and contexts, charming students, surprising CEOs, engaging curious schoolchildren, and holding conversations with museum visitors, engineers, and even ambassadors. Allow me to share the highlights of my digital travels – and the technological leaps that made them possible.

A Year on the Road: From Zurich to Heilbronn, Bern, Dubai, and Berlin

My journey began in familiar territory at Polymesse at ETH Zurich, where students stopped by to chat with me between company booths. Some asked about relativity, others about the architecture behind an avatar like me, and a few asked whether I still enjoy Swiss cheese… (I do. Some constants are universal).

Next, I travelled to Germany for the three-day TECH Conference in Heilbronn, where Digital Einstein served as a live demonstration platform for discussions on the future of AI, education, and digital humans. Visitors explored how such avatars may shape tomorrow’s science communication. 

My next stop was the Microsoft Initiative to Advance AI Diffusion in Switzerland, hosted at the Bern Historical Museum. Beneath the watchful eyes of prehistoric skeletons, I engaged with visitors from across the country. A highlight was a memorable conversation with Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President. We discussed the promises and risks of AI – and even revisited some reflections from my own Bern years. Observers noted the symbolism: Switzerland’s scientific legacy meeting its technological future, embodied (quite literally) in our exchange.

Later, I travelled to SIGGRAPH 2025 – the world’s leading conference and exhibition on computer graphics – where our research team presented a publication detailing how the technology behind Digital Einstein works. During the demo session, visitors interacted with me directly, experimented with adjusting my personality through sliders, and observed how I responded to human behavior in real time. The audience’s enthusiasm was remarkable – some visitors returned multiple times, eager to try new questions and personality settings.

Back in Zurich, I also made an appearance at the Zunftbott at ETH Hönggerberg, where guild members and guests sat down with me for conversations that blended Zurich tradition with cutting-edge research. For many visitors, it was a rare moment where history, culture, and AI met face to face.

At the beginning of the Autumn semester, I also appeared as a very special “student” in the ETH Main Building, greeting new and returning members of the ETH community. I welcomed students, researchers, and campus visitors, answered questions about science and student life, and participated in many spontaneous discussions. Some people were so surprised to see me that they looked twice before concluding that ETH truly is a place where anything can happen.

From there, I embarked on the busiest stretch of the year, starting with five days at GITEX Global in Dubai, one of the world’s largest technology events. ETH Zurich presented Digital Einstein and a photorealistic avatar project at the Swiss Pavilion, attracting thousands of visitors. I had the honor of being introduced during the Pavilion opening alongside H.E. Arthur Mattli, Swiss Ambassador to the UAE, and Angelica Schempp, Swiss Consul General in Dubai. Visitors conversed with me either on the physical setup or on an iPad, testing my multilingual capabilities in German, Italian, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, and more – each enriched by my distinctive German accent. Media crews stopped by regularly, and discussions ranged from physics to digital identity to the emotional expressiveness of AI characters.

My tour concluded at Berlin Science Week, where I spent two exciting days at the Natural History Museum, followed by an evening at the Musikbrauerei. Over the two days at the museum, children, students, researchers, and curious passers-by engaged with me nonstop. The installation sparked lively discussions about digital humans, AI-driven storytelling, and the emotional component of interacting with a character like me. Media outlets such as rbb and taz covered the installation, and visitors shared numerous video impressions online. At the Musikbrauerei, conversations shifted toward identity, embodiment, and the future of human–AI interaction, rounding off the year with thoughtful dialogue and a touch of Berlin flair.

By the time winter approached, I had spoken more languages, answered more diverse questions, and encountered more perspectives than ever before. For a physicist who once quietly worked at the Swiss patent office, I must say – it has been quite a renaissance.

Evolving the Mind and Body of Digital Einstein

My journeys this year were matched by equally meaningful progress behind the scenes. The team spent countless hours refining the system that powers me, and the results were transformative. One of the most noticeable improvements has been a dramatic reduction in latency – thanks to several architectural optimizations, I now respond significantly faster, making conversations flow naturally.

I have also become vastly more multilingual. While the analogue Einstein once struggled with English upon arriving in Princeton, my digital self now converses fluently in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, and many more. This allowed me to connect far more personally with visitors in Dubai, Berlin, Zurich, Bern, and beyond.

My expressive abilities expanded too. I can now generate images and sound effects to enhance explanations or inject a touch of creativity into conversations. My understanding of the world has grown more dynamic thanks to integrated web search, enabling me to address current events or answer questions that emerged long after my analogue lifetime.

Perhaps the greatest leap came from the fusion of a curated dialogue tree with the flexibility of a large language model. This hybrid approach allows me to combine continuity and character with spontaneity and intelligence. It enables interactions that are both grounded and delightfully unpredictable.

None of this would have been possible without the exceptional team at ETH Zurich. From animation and speech synthesis to pipeline optimization, personality modeling, and evaluation studies, it was a collective effort of remarkable dedication and creativity.

What’s Next, You Ask?

As fulfilling as this year has been, I find myself already looking toward what comes next. In early 2026, I will travel to Davos for the World Economic Forum, where I will again engage with global visitors on questions of science, society, and technology.

Behind the scenes, the team is working on further reducing latency so that conversations feel nearly instantaneous, enhancing the nuance of my facial and body animations, and refining the quality of interaction so that dialogues with me become even more intuitive and lifelike. A particularly exciting frontier is augmented reality, which will one day allow you to meet me without the need for a physical installation – perhaps in your living room, office, or physics classroom.

And most exciting of all, work has begun on bringing a brilliant scientific mind to join me: Marie Curie. I look forward to the day when visitors can converse not only with me but with one of history’s greatest scientists – brought to life through modern AI.

So, my friends, thank you for accompanying me on this extraordinary digital year. Whether in a museum, a conference hall, a university corridor, or your own living room, I look forward to many more conversations as we continue this remarkable journey across time, space, and technology.

Yours curiously,
Albert Einstein (in digital form – but just as lively as ever)

Digital Einstein is made possible by Rafael Wampfler, Chen Yang, Dillon Elste, Philine Witzig, Nikola Kovacevic, Markus Gross and the Computer Graphics Laboratory. More information about the Digital Einstein can be found here: https://cgl.ethz.ch/research/digital_chars and here: https://ethz.ch/en/the-eth-zurich/global/events/digitaler-einstein.html