Ai Everything AbuDhabi Coverage:AI sessions connect clinical discovery with new forms of performance

Healthcare, embodied systems and an interactive AI character showed the breadth of the technology debate.

ABU DHABI, 6 October 2026 — The first day of Ai Everything Abu Dhabi ranged from questions of who can perform on screen to how intelligent systems might help researchers discover medicines. The breadth of the sessions showed that the AI conversation now reaches creative work, clinical science, physical machines and everyday devices.

Tilly Norwood, the AI performer created by Particle6, was the subject of a live interactive session with Particle6 chief commercial officer Tom Davidson and APCO’s John Defterios. Its audience Q&A format put the character’s unscripted responses at the centre of the experience and sharpened questions about what counts as acting and performance when a synthetic character is involved.

In healthcare, M42 CEO Dimitris Moulavasilis, Insilico Medicine co-founder Dr. Alex Aliper, Esper Bionics co-founder Dima Gazda and PGEA CEO Philippe Gerwill examined AI-designed drugs, bionics and genomics. Aliper’s company has said its AI-discovered drug rentosertib has entered Phase III trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. A related session on Aila and the AI scientist featured OWKIN co-CEO Pascal Weinberger, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi CEO Prof. Dr. Georges-Pascal Haber and healthcare editor Rachel McArthur, bringing autonomous research systems into the medical discussion.

The afternoon shifted from software to physical and personal AI. Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence chief engineer Yong Hua Lin covered open models and embodied machines. ModelBest founder Li Dahai discussed intelligence running closer to the user in devices, with Bloomberg’s Mackenzie Hawkins. MiniMax global business president Linda Sheng joined Hawkins for a conversation on the next frontier of smaller, lower-cost and more accessible models.