“When we think about the leaps in technology, we often find ourselves talking about ‘humanless technologies – driveless cars, unmanned vehicles, factory machines that minimize the need for human labor, smart homes that operate without humans. What we need to do is to realize the human element within them. "

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The World Economic Forum opened the doors of its Center for Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco. Turkcell (NYSE:TKC) (BIST:TCELL), which is among partners of the Center, participated in the inaugural roundtable where more than 120 participants discussed extending the benefits of technological transformations to the society as a whole.

"When we think about the leaps in technology, we often find ourselves talking about ‘humanless technologies - driveless cars, unmanned vehicles, factory machines that minimize the need for human labor, smart homes that operate without humans. What we need to do is to realize the human element within them. We should work on these technologies with the purpose of facilitating human lives, augmenting human capabilites in education, work, health and nameless other fields." said Kaan Terzioglu in his speech in the opening session of the roundtable. "Only through this vision can we extend the true value of the Industry 4.0 to the entire society and to the future. I feel privileged to be a part of the mobile communication industry which has a leading role in this, and we are proud to be among the partners of World Economic Forum Center for Fourth Industrial Revolution which will be a platform for us to discuss these issues with leading global stakeholders."

Representatives of Microsoft, Huawei, the United Nations Organization for Coordination of Humanitarian Affiars (UNOCHA, UNHCR), World Bank and University of California - Berkeley were among the participants of the day-long discussion in San Francisco.

What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the process through which the current evolutions in technology transform our lives in ways and with an intensity not experienced before. The increasing overlap between information and communication technologies, the break-throughs in processing power and machine learning, and the integration of technology into every sphere of human life have countless consequences. They enhance the capabilities of human bodies, redefine the experience of work and the workplace, change the ways in which we learn and access information and entertainment, influence how we build trust and interact with the society. Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, biotechnology and energy storage are likely to bring further, exponential changes.

World Economic Forums Center for Fourth Industrial Revolution brings together more than 120 technology companies, start-ups, universities, researches, representatives of governments, NGOs and international organizations to discuss and to work on projects which will analyze the influence of these dynamics on society. Among the topics the Center will address are the jobs of the future, artificial intelligence and ethics, Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), cross-border data flows, civil drones, autonomous vehicles and the environmental commons.

About Turkcell: Turkcell is a converged telecommunication and technology services provider, founded and headquartered in Turkey. It serves its customers with voice, data, TV and value-added consumer and enterprise services on mobile and fixed networks. Turkcell launched LTE services in its home country on April 1st , 2016, employing LTE-Advanced and 3 carrier aggregation technologies in 81 cities. In 2G and 3G, Turkcells population coverage is at 99.67% and 96.04%, respectively, as of December 2016. It offers up to 1 Gbps fiber internet speed with its FTTH services. Turkcell Group companies operate in 6 countries - Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Northern Cyprus, Germany, Azerbaijan - as of December 31, 2016. Turkcell Group reported a TRY14.3 billion revenue in FY16 with total assets of TRY31.6 billion as of December 31, 2016. It has been listed on the NYSE and the BIST since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey.

About the Center: The Center is set up by the World Economic Forum with support from its inaugural partners Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Palantir, SAP, Huawei, IDEO, Reliance Industries and Turkcell among others. The Center can host meetings for over 120 people and has initial capacity to grow to up to 80 staff.