First KI.NRW Roundtable at Birlinghoven Castle
New exchange forum offers networking opportunities for AI stakeholders from NRW and beyond
On Friday, April 8, the first AI.NRW Roundtable took place on Schloss Birlinghoven at Fraunhofer IAIS in Sankt Augustin. Together with NRW Innovation Minister Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, members of the European Parliament, the managing director of the KI-Bundesverband and experts from AI business and research, the topic of AI regulation, the framework conditions for AI reallabs and current AI trends were exchanged at the invitation of KI.NRW.
Getting into conversation with each other and shaping progress together – that was the focus of the first AI Roundtable organized by KI.NRW at Schloss Birlinghoven on the 8th of April. For an entire afternoon, AI experts from business, politics and research talked about current developments in the field of applied artificial intelligence and discussed together what is needed to push NRW forward in the field of AI.
At the first edition of the roundtable, the following experts from the KI.NRW network were present (in the picture from left to right): Dr. Thomas König, Group Leader “Innovation” MWIDE, Ulrike Daniels, AI Manager KI.NRW, Christel Caninenberg, Speaker MWIDE, Daniel Abbou, Managing Director KI-Bundesverband, Jens-Peter Seick, Project Manager Reallabor Lemgo Digital, Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, Tilmann Walch, Speaker for AI at NRWalley & Founder of milia GmbH, Dr. Meike Wocken, Data Scientist & Site Manager Bielefeld at CodeCentric, NRW Minister Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Axel Voss, MEP, Svenja Hahn, MEP (both members of the AIDA Committee), Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrobel, Director of Fraunhofer IAIS, Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Rostalski, University of Cologne and member of the German Ethics Council, Dr. Christian Temath, Managing Director KI.NRW, Karl-Alois Bläser, Head of Unit “Fundamental Issues of European Law, EU Coordination” MWIDE, Esther Hilboll, Desk Officer MWIDE, Dr. Tobias Traupel, Head of Department “Europe and Law”, MWIDE, Dr. Tobias Herken, CEO of IANUS Simulation GmbH, absent: Jennifer Gerwing, Desk Officer, MWIDE, Kai Zenner, Office Axel Voss MEP.
After an introductory presentation by KI.NRW Managing Director Dr. Christian Temath on the AI landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia and the activities of the competence platform, the aim was to bring together the diverse expertise on the topic of AI, exchange experiences and identify needs and requirements in research and industry in order to then talk about which topics need to be addressed for AI systems to be brought into use even faster, more securely and also more profitably in the future. One of the issues discussed was how AI reallabs can be used to better explore the potential of AI in close cooperation between science and industry. Also discussed was how AI regulation can be in harmony with European values, and what role artificial intelligence will play in the transformation of the economy toward greater sustainability and resource efficiency. However, the focus was on getting to know each other better and creating points of contact for joint activities:
“North Rhine-Westphalia is increasingly developing into a real hotspot for artificial intelligence. Here, excellent research meets curious pioneering spirit and courageous entrepreneurship – a lively and diverse AI ecosystem with potential. To leverage this potential, we are offering the new KI.NRW Roundtable, an exchange format that provides good networking opportunities for the various AI players from NRW and beyond. After all, AI works best as a team. We look forward to exciting events,” says KI.NRW Managing Director Dr. Christian Temath.
From now on, the AI.NRW Roundtable will be held at regular intervals and with changing guests in order to accompany the progress of technological, social and political developments in the context of applied artificial intelligence.