Nokia chosen to lead Europe’s 6G hive-mind initiative

Hexa-X envisages 6G as a network of networks, connecting everything with a generous dose of AI, and Nokia has been put in charge of it.

As far as we can tell this is the first public mention of the European Commission’s flagship initiative for research into 6G. It seems to be one of those projects where the public sector chucks some cash into the pot in order to incentivise a bunch of companies and academic institutions to collaborate. These often yield little more than a bit of PR for everyone involved, but let’s see.

Apart from just generally giving 6G a bit of thought, Hexa-X has some specific ideas about what it should be all about. There’s talk of ‘defining a new architecture for an intelligent fabric’, a desire to ‘connect human, physical and digital worlds with a fabric of 6G technology enablers’ and ‘eventually creating a single network of networks.’ It all sounds like the stuff of science fiction, which is fine, but also raises profound questions about whether we want everything connected in this way.

“Even though there is still a lot of innovation in 5G with the release of new standards, we are already exploring 6G in our research lab,” said Peter Vetter, Head of Access and Devices Research at Nokia Bell Labs. “In the 6G era we will see applications that will not only connect humans with machines but also connect humans with the digital world.

“Such a secure and private connection can be used for preventive healthcare or even to create a 6G network with a sixth sense that intuitively understands our intentions, making our interactions with the physical world more effective and anticipating our needs, thereby improving our productivity.”

Yeah, you’re not helping, Peter. A 6G network with a sixth sense that intuitively understands our intentions? Are you having a laugh? There are already many enquiries into the ethics of automation and artificial intelligence and every new step in that direction needs to be scrutinised very carefully indeed. As ever, technology can be very beneficial, but once you combine AGI with a network of networks, it’s not paranoia to note the potential for loss of control.

Here are the six research challenges the project will be focusing on:

Let’s hope they spend a nice long time on that last one, eh? Hexa-X kicks off at the start of 2021 and is budgeted to last 2.5 years, at the end of which it will presumably present its bright ideas to the world. Ericsson is also involved, as are Orange Telefónica and TIM. There are one or two non-European stakeholders but no sign of anyone from China, so global 6G research seems somewhat balkanised at this stage.

We’ll leave you with this cheery video clip as food for thought.