Issues in focus

Governing AI: Political players between vision and regulation

Not only tech giants in Silicon Valley influence the development of artificial intelligence (AI): supranational political institutions, states and parties are also active leaders and regulators. They set legal standards, formulate strategies for the future, explore potentials and dangers, promote and sanction or even adopt controversial positions. How do political actors position themselves in the AI debate between economic interest, ethical controversies and the common good? Where do their strategies differ? Is politics here more of a driver or a driven force?

Explore further issues in focus

Governing artificial intelligence

Christian Katzenbach | 21 May 2019

“I miss imaginaries that spell out ideas of AI as a public good”

Christian Katzenbach recently worked with his colleague Jascha Bareis on a project that compared the strategies of various countries such as France, the US and China to partake in a…

Christian Djeffal | 26 March 2019

Where are we heading? – AI in public administration

The public sector is one of the fields of action in the AI strategy of the German government. Artificial intelligence has great potential for modernizing administration, while modernizing administration through…

Isabella Hermann | 20 December 2018

Terminator won’t save us

New technologies like AI open up a lot of chances but also bear many risks. Couldn’t we just learn how to deal with this from science-fiction films having already played…

Olumide Babalola | 6 December 2018

Harnessing artificial intelligence the African way

While all eyes are on Western industrial nations, Nigerian human rights lawyer Olumide Babalola is concerned about AI regulation in Africa. He fears that some countries will adopt the repressive…

Jascha Bareis | 29 November 2018

Global AI race: States aiming for the top

There hardly exists a buzzword today that fires everybody‘s imagination in the tech world like “artificial intelligence” (AI). But not only giants like Google, Facebook, Baidu or Alibaba are trying…

Christian Djeffal | 8 May 2018

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence the European Way

Will 10 April 2018 be remembered by many as the day of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before the US Senate? The hearing was covered by the media in all aspects down…

Aljoscha Burchardt | 3 April 2018

Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a controversial and much-discussed topic of our digital future. Aljoscha Burchardt sees a huge gap between the machines of today, which are able to act intelligently, and the…

Rebecca Kahn | 20 March 2018

Omens and algorithms: A response to Elena Esposito

Can algorithms actually predict the future? And if so, does this make them the gods of our modern society? In her lecture ‘Future and uncertainty in the digital society’, Elena…

Christian Djeffal | 8 August 2017

Algorithms, robots and smart machines: How German parties deal with AI

Will it be necessary in the future to have the algorithms of your digital assistants checked by state authorities? This might depend on the results of the German parliamentary election…

Christian Djeffal | 17 May 2017

AI – A metaphor or the seed of personality of machines in a digitised society?

Is artificial intelligence a metaphor, or can machines be intelligent in the same way human beings are? This has been a contested question ever since the concept was developed. While…

Videos on the topic

Jeanette Hofmann at German Bundesrat

AI: Profit or danger for free opinion formation and democracy? (German)

Christian Djeffal at #ÖFIT2017 Conference

Lecture: Normative Guidelines for AI in Public Administration (German)

Lecture Series: Making Sense of the Digital Society

Elena Esposito: Future and uncertainty in the digital society

Selected publications

Inclusive Design – Methods To Ensure A High Degree Of Participation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems

To mitigate and address biases within AI systems, this paper analyses current practices in dataset compilation, use and AI system design before highlighting some state-of-the-art work being done in this domain. This is followed by recommendations to improve and build upon that work.

Normative Guidelines for AI in Government and Public Administration

This article examines AI systems in public administration and raises the question of what guidelines already exist for artificial intelligence and what trends are emerging. The paper concludes with a call for interdisciplinary research and moderate regulation of technology to exploit its positive potential.

Artificial intelligence in public administration

Even at the present stage of development, artificial intelligence technologies have the potential to fundamentally change public administration. The chances for this always lie in the design of the technology. These are the results of a short study on the use of AI in public administration, funded by the National E-Government Competence Centre in Germany.

HIIG Podcast

Podcast

The Digital Administrative State

The research project investigates the relationship between technologies like AI and public institutions as well as their modes of action.

Digitaler Salon: Zahlen, die malen

AI can be creative. But who can be called the artist in this process: programmer or machine? What do we expect from art in the digital age?

Read further

Researchers of the NoC European Hub discuss the role of law and ethics: Discover our issue in focus on algorithmic decisions and human rights!