Our Dialogue about Artificial Intelligence

Julia Kaltenborn is currently completing her M.Sc. in Computer Science at McGill University and Mila in Montreal. Under the supervision of Prof. David Rolnick, she uses machine learning to optimize climate models. She is a DeepMind scholar, Mitacs Globalink Graduate fellow, and German Academic Scholarship Foundation fellow. While completing her B.Sc. in Cognitive Science, Julia was repeatedly and enthusiastically tutoring various AI lectures. Julia cares especially about science communication and hopes that we will build a foundation of AI knowledge in the general public. 

Jonas Kraasch is completing his master’s in Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver this year. In collaboration with Metacreation Lab, he develops creative AI. During his B.Sc. in Cognitive Science, Jonas founded a reading group focused on AI and deep learning. Until today, students use this platform as a meeting point and to share and expand their knowledge. With his research, Jonas develops systems that support artists in automating their artistic practices. His research focuses on how AI can be used as a tool rather than a replacement for humans. Jonas cares especially about the ethics behind data collection and model development and the accessibility of new technologies for the general public. 

© Fotostudio Meister

Elisabeth Paar is a legal scholar and researches at the intersection of constitutional law, legal theory, technology law, and medical law. Currently, she is a research assistant at the Institute for Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University of Vienna and a doctoral candidate at the University of Graz. Her Ph.D. thesis investigates the constitutional limits of using AI in court proceedings. Before that, she studied law at the University of Graz and graduated top of her class in 2018. From August 2022 to May 2023, she is completing an LL.M. program at Yale Law School. 

Michael Kramarsch is the CEO and founder of the hkp/// group – an international management consultancy at the intersection of HR, finance, and strategy. As a consultant, he focuses on corporate governance, the distribution of added value – from employee participation to executive compensation – and strategic HR questions regarding digitalization. He is the initiator of the ethics committee HR Tech. Additionally, Michael Kramarsch is a chairman of the executive board of the Association of Independent Compensation Consultants (Vereinigung unabhängiger Vergütungsberater, VUVB) and an advisory board member of the HHL Center for Corporate Governance, Leipzig. As an expert, he has advised several commissions, including the German government commission “Corporate Governance” chaired by prof. Dr. T. Baums (2001), and the government commission “Deutscher Corporate Governance Kodex” (DCGK), chaired by Klaus Peter Müller and Dr. Manfred Gentz (2012 to 2014).

In 2009, Tobias Thelen received his Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Linguistics at the University of Osnabrück and has since then worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Computer Science. Since 2019, he is additionally teaching at the Institute of Cognitive Science. He is also the university’s academic manager for web technologies and e-learning. Furthermore, he is deputy manager at virtUOS, the Centre for Digital Teaching and University Didactics at the University of Osnabrück.

© Jana Hofmann

Ariana Dongus is a researcher in the field of Critical AI studies. In 2021, she was awarded as „AI Newcomer“ by the German Ministry of Education and the Society for Informatics. Between 2018 and 2022, she worked as researcher and teacher at the University of Karlsruhe HfG where she also coordinated the research group KIM (Artificial Intelligence and Media Philosophy). At HfG, she also coordinated a research project in the program “AI and the Society of the Future” funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. In exploring the intersection of biometrics, colonial pasts, new forms of work and machine ‘intelligence’, she contributes to a critique of today’s digital economies. She has held workshops and lectured nationally and internationally, for example at Ars Electronica, transmediale, PACT Zollverein, Bern University of the Arts, Shanghai Ming Contemporary Art Museum, the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts or during the European Media Art Festival.

© DFKI, Annemarie Popp

Joachim Hertzberg is a computer scientist and has been a professor of computer science at the University of Osnabrück since 2004. Additionally, since 2011, he has been the head of the research department on plan-based robot control at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in Osnabrück. His research and teaching topics are AI, Mobile Robots, and their application, especially in agriculture, logistics and production. Among other fellowships and awards, he received the Fellowship of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI) in 2014.

Eva Gengler is a Ph.D. in the International Doctorate Programme “Business and Human Rights – Governance Challenges in a Complex World”. She is also a research associate at the Schöller chair of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her research is dedicated to the problem of human rights, especially women’s rights, in the age of AI. In her research, she examines with a multi-level approach how discrimination against women by AI can be counteracted. Before, she worked on the ethical implications of AI in recruiting and was also an IT consultant in this field.

Theresa Züger is a research group leader at the AI Society Lab of the Humboldt University Berlin. Her research focuses on “Development of AI in the interest of the public”. In 2018-19, she led the Third Engagement Report, a report on the impact of digitalization on social participation, on behalf of the German federal government. Previously, she was head of the media policy lab at the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg after completing her Ph.D. on civil disobedience in the age of digital media at the Humboldt University in 2017.

© Julia Bornkessel

Anne Mollen is the senior policy and advocacy manager at AlgorithWatch. There, she focuses primarily on Automated Decision Making systems in public administration, at the workplace, and on the sustainability of such systems. Before her work at AlgorithmWatch, she conducted various research projects concerning digital media technologies and their connection to society and democracy.