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The Coffee Talk Series, a new weekly format taking place every Tuesday from 11:30 to 12:15 at the TUM Think Tank. In just 45 minutes, our Friedrich Schiedel Fellows will present their projects and discuss them in an open, informal and creative setting with participants from a wide range of disciplines. Join us for this fun event! The Coffee Talks are open to everyone, so feel free to invite your colleagues, students, or anyone else who might be interested. We look forward to seeing you there – and to many inspiring conversations over coffee! Feel free to bring your own lunch!

 

This interactive Soft Launch Event marks the start of the Public Interest AI Initiative (PI-AI-I) under the Global Digital Futures Architects. Hosted by the TUM Think Tank, the event will take place at the margins of the Munich Security Conference and as an official Side Event of the AI Action Summit (Paris).

 

 

 

Agenda: Advancing Public-Interest AI

Following the opening remarks, we will launch into an expert panel discussion on:
“Advancing Public-Interest AI for Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Societies.”

This session will explore:

  • Sustainable financing and governance models for AI.
  • Community-driven co-design of AI solutions for diverse contexts.
  • Innovative citizen engagement and talent acquisition strategies.
  • Connections to global AI initiatives, including the Global Digital Compact, AI Action Summit, and AI4Good Summit.

Interactive Breakout & Collaboration Session

After the panel, we invite participants to engage in an interactive breakout session to discuss:

  • Shaping a shared understanding of public-interest AI as a basis for the PI-AI-I project collaborations.
  • Practical strategies for implementing Public-Interest AI.
  • Co-designing repositories of AI use cases.
  • Innovative models for financing sustainable AI ecosystems.

This session is designed to bring diverse perspectives together, shape regional consultations, and initiate real-world collaborations that advance AI for public good.

The Public Interest AI Initiative (PI-AI-I)

The Public Interest AI Initiative (PI-AI-I) is the ‘Global Digital Futures Architects’ first research-to-action initiative and blueprint, powered by the TUM Think Tank at the Technical University of Munich. PI-AI-I advances context-sensitive and rights-based public-interest AI for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through research and community-driven co-design of AI use cases, best-practices, risk frameworks and learning modules across regional, national and local contexts. It will advance these goals through three core work streams: 

  1. Mapping the state of the art of national and regional implementation of AI policy recommendations and frameworks (e.g., UNESCO Readiness Assessment Reports, Global Digital Compact) across regions, diagnosing financial, political and societal barriers for implementation and defining areas for hands-on action. 
  2. Co-designing a repository of rights-enhancing public interest AI use cases and risk/safety frameworks in various regional, national and local contexts through effective community engagement, co-ideation and regional innovation challenges. Application fields may relate to: climate/security and climate adaptation, inclusive societies, disinformation and elections.
  3. Scaling investments in ethical and sustainable public-interest AI by developing innovative financing mechanisms, business cases and incentives for private sector and philanthropic investments and matching innovators and investors.

On Thursday, January 16, 2025, we hosted the premiere screening of Data Shadows, an artistic film created by our Ethical Data Initiative. The event took place at Rio Filmpalast in Munich and featured a thought-provoking panel discussion with the film’s creators: Sabina Leonelli, Jacob von der Beugel, and Oliver Page.

Data Shadows is a 20-minute cinematic journey that reimagines data through the lens of natural elements—soils, stones, earth, and plants—highlighting its intersections, materializations, and movements. The absence of human presence underscores the film’s central question: Where does data come from, where does it go, what forms does it take and at what does it cost?

Data Shadows challenges conventional perceptions of data as virtual and immaterial. Instead, it unveils data's reliance on tangible resources, raising awareness about the environmental and ethical implications of data extraction, collection, sharing, and storage. The film unfolds in three distinct chapters—Extraction, Repository (depicting water and light), and Journeys—each capturing a different aspect of data's lifecycle.

Data Shadows implies in its very title a compelling metaphor: shadows. These symbolize the dependencies and absences surrounding data. As viewers, we are left pondering not only the presence of data but also its contexts, clusters, and gaps.

Behind the Vision

During the panel discussion, the filmmakers shared their creative process and deeper insights into the film’s themes:

Jacob von der Beugel spoke about the challenge of visually conveying the material journey of data, describing how the film builds layers of narratives to depict data's complexity and how data are always extracted and decontextualized when produced.

Sabina Leonelli emphasized the film’s aim to counter the misconception of data as immutable and purely virtual. She explained how the visual narrative highlights data’s fragility and its dependence on patterns and clusters, akin to natural ecosystems.

Oliver Page elaborated on the cinematographic choices, such as zooming in and out, to represent the abstraction and decontextualization inherent in data production and usage, as well as the decision to abstract the journeys of data.

The audience was captivated by the film's innovative approach to a complex topic. By combining artistry with critical inquiry, Data Shadows offered a fresh perspective on the hidden realities of data. The panel discussion further enriched the experience, providing nuanced interpretations and sparking engaging conversations.

As Data Shadows illuminates, data is never just an abstract entity; it is tangible, extractive, and interwoven with the material world. This groundbreaking project challenges us to reflect on the ethical and environmental dimensions of our data-driven lives. The event marked a meaningful step in fostering dialogue about data ethics and materiality, leaving the audience inspired and eager for future explorations. Thank you to the filmmakers Jacob von der Beugel and Oliver Page for traveling to Munich to share their thoughts into their artistic processes and to Sabina Leonelli for sharing her reflections on Data Shadows.

The film will be made openly accessible in 2026.

Further information and clips about the film are available on https://opensciencestudies.eu/datashadowsfilm/

Register now

AI that Understands the Complexities of the Learning Environment

The integration of AI into learning environments is filled with promise and, yet, is still in its infancy. For AI to enact transformative change for education, it is essential that we use leading theories of learning when designing new AI technologies. Kylie Peppler will present several new research designs that leverage AI, which take a cross-sector, co-design method of research and development to encourage the design of new AI that allows for the complexities of the learning environment. Findings from a recent co-design and initial testing of Symphony Classroom—an AI hub, remote control, and AI software platform built for educational settings—led to significant reductions in teacher technostress (i.e., stress related to technology use), and significant increases in time for teaching and learning. This is representative of how we can reshape our design process as well as use insights derived from the learning sciences to transform the educational landscape at scale.

About the speaker

An artist by training, Dr. Peppler is a professor of Informatics & Education at University of California, Irvine who engages in research that focuses on the intersection of arts, computational technologies and interest-driven learning. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Schooling from UCLA, where she was part of the NSF-sponsored team that designed and studied the Scratch platform, which garnered her a Dissertation Research Award from the Spencer Foundation. After serving as a UC Presidential Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Irvine, Dr. Peppler joined the Learning Sciences faculty at Indiana University-Bloomington in 2008. Upon joining the UC Irvine faculty in 2018, Dr. Peppler brought her research group, the Creativity Labs, to be a part of UCI’s Connected Learning Lab, where she brings together educators, designers, artists, and learning theorists interested in supporting learning by leveraging youths' interests in digital culture, design, and making.

 

In cooperation with

New Friedrich Schiedel Fellows

At this event, we will introduce our new Friedrich Schiedel Fellows and provide insights into their exciting and innovative projects. Under the motto "Human-Centered Innovation for Technology in Society," our fellows work to build new bridges between social sciences and various other disciplines. Their interdisciplinary research projects focus on how technologies can be developed responsibly, human-centered, and democratically, serving the public good.

Program Highlights:

• Introduction of the Friedrich Schiedel Fellows
• Lightning talks on the fellows' projects at the intersection of technology and society
• Opportunities for networking and exchange with the fellows and other participants

Be inspired by the ideas of our fellows and take the opportunity to make valuable contacts. We look forward to your participation and stimulating discussions!

Please register here.

Viewing Algorithms as Emerging Institutions

A conversation with Virgilio Almeida

April 10, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

In the presentation, we introduce an innovative idea: algorithms can be seen as emerging institutions in modern societies. They function as rule sets shaping norms and environments for both humans and machines. As a result, algorithms impact individual behaviors and have broader societal effects. We illustrate this concept by examining examples of algorithms used in public security, government platforms, and recommendation systems across different domains. Our conclusion emphasizes the need to democratize algorithms, similar to how other complex institutions have been democratised in the past, to mitigate the risks they present to contemporary societies.

Virgilio Almeida is a  Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He is also  Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.  He held visiting positions in several universities and research labs, such as Harvard University (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), New York University, Boston University, Santa Fe Institute, HP Labs. Virgilio served as the chairman of NETmundial, the Global Multistakeholder Conference on the Future of Internet Governance, held in São Paulo in 2014.  He is co-author of five books covering topics such as web technologies, e-commerce, performance modeling, and capacity planning, published by Prentice Hall. He is also the author of "Governance for the Digital World," published by Palgrave MacMillan, and his most recent book is "Algorithmic Institutionalism: The Changing Rules of Social and Political Life," published by Oxford University Press. Almeida . His current research interests revolve around social computing, governance of algorithms, the social impact of AI, and modeling and analysis of large-scale distributed systems.

The biggest cited risks of AI are that it will ruin our society, take our jobs, increase inequality, or in the extreme, cause the extinction of humans. On the other hand, it is also being predicted that AI-augmented human intelligence can solve our most pressing problems in medicine, technology, climate change, and interplanetary travel, and unleash a new era of scientific breakthroughs and artistic creativity.

The stakes are high, risks are real but there is also a lot of promise! Through a series of discussions within the panel, we will attempt to distill the current state and progress of AI in various areas and how each of us can have a voice in the direction of the most beneficial outcomes. We are looking forward to the discussion with Nandini Shah, Christoph Lütge & Yasmin Al-Douri. The event will be moderated by Rajesh Sharma.

This event will be held both online and in person and will have an interactive format that will allow each participant to give feedback and opinion on future guidelines proposed by civil 20.

Please register through Eventbrite.

Brown Bag Lunch Presentation (13:00 - 14:00): Professor Wachter will be presenting her paper, “The Theory of Artificial Immutability: Protecting Algorithmic Groups under Anti-Discrimination Law” at the TUM Think Tank from 13:00 - 14:00. In her presentation, Professor Wachter will discuss the rise in the use of artificial intelligence for making pivotal decisions, such as the success of a job application or of a university admission. In order to support these decisions, AI often categorizes individuals into groups that have not been previously used by humans. These algorithmic groups are not covered by non-discrimination law, which is an important aspect that needs to be covered, as decisions based on these types of groupings can be harmful. This protection will be challenging as the European Court of Justice has historically been reluctant to extend the law to cover new groups.  She will present her argument on why algorithmic groups should be protected by non-discrimination law and will show how this could be achieved.

Evening Panel (17:30 - 19:00): Professor Wachter will also take part in a panel discussion with members of our Generative AI Task Force; including Professor Enkelejda Kasneci, Professor Urs Gasser, and other members. They will be discussing the current standings and the future of Generative AI. This event will also be hosted in the TUM Think Tank from 17:30 – 19:00 with a small reception afterward.

The problem of criminal content on the Internet, such as punishable forms of hate speech or child pornography, is increasing. On October 27, 2022, the Digital Services Act was published and most of its provisions will come into force on February 17, 2024. This means that the federal legislature will have to act in 2023 and tackle the adjustments to national law required as a result of the Digital Services Act providing answers as to how these problems can be effectively combated.

Svea Windwehr (Google Germany), Anna Wegscheider (HateAid) and Teresa Ott (Hate Speech Officer at the Attorney General’s Office) will debate the challenges for legislators, law enforcement and social platforms. The panel discussion will be moderated by State Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich together with Urs Gasser from the TU Munich and Munich School pf Politics and Public Policy.

Following the panel discussion, there will be a standing reception with snacks to round off the evening with lively discussions.

The innovative use of data promises many benefits for research, business and society. In 2021, the German federal government adopted its data strategy aiming for the greater and more responsible use of data. The related plans for a data institute will help to better exploit the economic and social potential of data, while also keeping an eye on the challenges and negative sides.

This leads to many questions about the release of data, the required infrastructure, and privacy concerns. What can the realization of these plans look like? Are there best-practice examples we can follow? What challenges do we face in implementing these strategies, and What added value do we see for science and society in increasing data sharing and use?

We want to discuss these and more questions with our guests from academia and politics: Amélie Heldt (Digital Policy Officer at the Federal Chancellery), Benjamin Adjei (Member of the Bavarian State Parliament and Digital Policy Spokesperson for Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), and Andreas Peichl (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Ifo Institute & Member of the Founding Commission of the Data Institute). Moritz Hennemann (University of Passau) will kick-off the event by contextualizing the discussion in current debates on the national and European level.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Noha Lea Halim (TU Munich).

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