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Research Profile Digitalization/AI

 Digitalization/AI

The research area 'Digitalization/AI' addresses the integration of digital technologies and intelligent systems in various aspects of science, business and society. The projects in the profile area 'Digitalization/AI' reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the topic and deal with the various effects, opportunities and obstacles of digitalization and artificial intelligence - which is now indispensable. Different facets, such as society, governance, science and ethics, are examined.

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Prof. Dr. Huw Price, who was Bertrand Russel Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge until 2020, supports our profile area 'Digitization/ AI' as one of our Distinguished Emeritus Professors1. He is considered one of the leading philosophers of science today.

The expertise of this profile area is also supplemented by Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe, who has already started at the University of Bonn in December 2020 as an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for ‘Applied Ethics of Artificial intelligence’.

Projects in the profile area 'Digitalization/AI'

Project leader
Prof. Dr. Caja Thimm
Jun.- Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gramelsberger (RWTH Aachen)

Prof. Dr. Frank T. Piller (RWTH Aachen)

Staff
Anna Böhmer (WHF)
Christina Chalkidou (SHK)
Phillip Engelhardt (WMA)
Stefan Gronsfeld (SHK)
Mara Nazaretyan (WHF)
Merle Rittinghaus (SHK)

Johanna Toussaint (WHF)

Former employee

Vincent Rastfeld (SHK)

Information about the project
In times of digitisation, datafication and the increasing use of artificial intelligence in many areas of society, the idea of autonomy has gained new attention. The researcher are investigating the possibilities of extending, simulating and replacing human agency through technology and promotes interdisciplinary cooperation at the project level. In particular, they explore the attribution of autonomy to technical artefacts such as robots, voice assistants, drones or vehicles. The common research goal is to answer ethical, regulatory, political and cultural questions that autonomous technologies pose for the digital society.

Events
Teaching Events
Publications
Further activities
Paul Ruben Asmuth (WHF)
Judith Eifler (SHK)

Information about the project
Handwritten and printed tables contain a rich treasure trove of data for economic and social history. Using neural networks, we recognize the layout of handwritten and printed sources, extract en masse the data contained in the tables, and make them useful for economic history. From the computer science side, segmentation problems and their solution by means of so-called neural networks are an important field of research. So-called U-nets dominate in this respect, and we are continuing to research and improve their application in historical science in this project.

Events
Further Information will come soon.

Teaching events 
Project leader

Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel

Information about the project
In the framework of the competence platform KI.NRW, the CST is developing a certificate for artificial intelligence together with the Fraunhofer  IAIS, the BSI, the University of Cologne, RWTH Aachen University,  DIN e.V. as well as numerous DAX-30 and other companies from different industries. The project is one of the KI.NRW flagships financed by the state ministry MWIDE.

The aim of the project is to develop procedures to examine generally accepted standards for AI systems and their verification, as well as to explore business models for an AI certification. To this end, we will write interlinked catalogs of requirements with technical, legal and ethical-philosophical criteria. Our research investigates the certification of ethical aspects. The theoretical basis for this is provided by a social ontology of AI, which is also being developed in the project. In accordance with the research interest of the CST, both the double autonomy of AI and the applied concept of intelligence constitute a special research focus.

In order to make this philosophical basis operationalizable in the certification's context, use cases of AI applications are  -  in close exchange with our partners from law - analyzed and categorized according to ethically relevant parameters. Ethical minimal requirements for a certification will be defined.

Events
Teaching Events
Publications
Further information
You can find more information here36.

    Closed projects in the profile area 'Digitalization/AI'

    Project leader
    Dr. Ying Huang
    Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer

    Nicolas Huppenbauer

    Information about the project
    The initiative addresses the interactions and implications of the idea of digital sovereignty on the one hand, and the increasing fragmentation of cyberspace and Internet governance on the other (further Information39).

    Events
    Teaching events
    Publications
    • Maximilian Mayer, “Autonomie und Polarisierung. Machttheoretische Perspektiven auf globale digitale Plattformen”, in: Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, ed. Macht und Machtverschiebung Schlüsselphänomene internationaler Politik – Festschrift für Xuewu Gu zum 65. Geburtstag. De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2022, 127–145.
    • Ying Huang and Maximilian Mayer, “Digital Currencies, Monetary Sovereignty, and U.S.-China Power Competition”, Policy & Internet, Vol.14, Issue 2, 2022, pp.324-347.
    • Ying Huang, Nicolas Huppenbauer and Maximilian Mayer, “Infrastructuring Cyberspace. Exploring China’s Imaginary and Practices of Selective Connectivity”, International Quarterly for Asian Studies, Vol.53, No.3, 2022, pp.413-439.
    • Ying Huang, Cyberspace Fragmentation from the Perspective of Technology Trends), The Journal of International Studies),2022, 95-119.
    • Nicolas Huppenbauer mit J.-F. Vögele, "Vulnerabilities Disclosure mit chinesischer Prägung: Nutzen und Gefahren", Inside IT, 01.02.2022.
    • Ying Huang and Maximilian Mayer,“Power in the Age of Datafication: Exploring China’s Global Data Power”, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Vol.28, Issue 1, 2023, pp.25-49.
    • Nicolas Huppenbauer, “Connectivity, centrality, and adaptation: The coproduction of political space in China’s standardization of autonomous driving technologies”, Global Media and China, 8(3), 2023, S. 414-430.
    Further information

      Project leader
      Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter
      Prof. Dr. Kathrin Friedrich
      PD Dr. Christoph Ernst

      Staff
      Fiona Torke (WHF)

      Information about the project
      The starting point of the planned Research Group is the reflection of the current understanding of 'digitalization' along a critical reexamination of the analog/digital distinction. For this purpose, historical-systematic and cross-cultural reappraisals of the concepts of analog and digital operations in paradigmatic fields of knowledge and practice are conducted. On the basis of the conceptual pair continuation/discretization we can arrive at an understanding of digitization processes that is historically grounded and sensitive to cultural differences. This culminates in a program of comparative digitization research which allows for a systematic and culturally specific assessment of contemporary discourses and practices of 'digitization' and their (dis)continuities to past digitization phases.

      Publications
      • Ernst, Christoph/Schröter, Jens/Warnke, Martin (2020): »Der Quantencomputer – Ein zukünftiger Gegenstand der Medienwissenschaft?«, in: MEDIENwissenschaft. Rezensionen 02 (Rubrik »Perspektiven«), S. 130-150.
      • Schröter, Jens/Ernst, Christoph/Warnke, Martin (2021): »Quantum Computing and the Analog/Digital Distinction«, forthcoming in Grey Room (in print). Classical Digital Machines, New Analog Computers, or Future Post-Digital Media? Quantum Computing and the History of the Analog/Digital Distinction, Vortrag an der Univ. Luxemburg (Februar 2022)

      Project leader
      Dr. Charlotte Gauvry

      Information about the project
      A cycle of interdisciplinary conferences to study the philosophical, political and medical (neurological and psychiatric) effects of the use of AI systems on mental health.

      Events
      Teaching Events

          Project leader
          Dr. Sergio Genovesi
          Dr. Scott Robbins

          ehem.: Dr. Katharina Kaesling

          Staff
          Marie Bente John (SHK)
          Luis Nussbauer (SHK)

          Information about the project
          The project attempts to define ethical and legal foundations for the development and regulation of so called Recommender Systems. Recommender Systems, e.g. Facebook News Feed Algorithm or Youtube Video Recommendation Algorithm, are software systems that quantify the interests of users for a given content in order to recommend precisely those items to the user that she is most likely to be interested in.

          Events
          Teaching events
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          Further information

            Project leader
            Prof. Dr. iur. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider
            Prof. Dr. iur. Daniel Zimmer

            Information about the project

            The transdisciplinary Research Grouping  analyzes legal and regulatory issues in the area of digitalization. These include the regulation of the use of algorithms by public institutions and companies, legal standard setting in the field of artificial intelligence, building ethical foundations for programming, e.g. in the field of autonomous driving, limits set by the need for sufficient competition etc.

            Events
            Teaching events
            Publications
            • Zimmer, Daniel (Hg.), Regulierung für Algorithmen und Künstliche Intelligenz. Tagung an der Universität Bonn am 7. und 8. September 2020, Baden-Baden 2021 (Schriften der Wissenschaftlichen Vereinigung für das gesamte Regulierungsrecht; 5).

            Project leader
            Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel
            Jan Voosholz
            Prof. Dr. Huw Price59 (Cambridge, Dist. Em. Prof. Universität Bonn)
            Dr. Stephen Cave (Cambridge)
            Kanta Dihal (Cambridge)

            Staff

            Apolline Taillandier

            Information about the project
            The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge and the Center for Science and Thought at the University of Bonn currently employ various postdocs, who spend half of their time in Bonn and the other half in Cambridge, and who are working on joint research projects. The focus here lies mainly on programmes such as 'Kinds of Intelligence' (researching the concept of intelligence from a multidisciplinary perspective) and 'Philosophy and Ethics of AI' (connecting ethics of AI with meta-etchics, ontology and philosophy of science).

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            Teaching events
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            Further information

              Contact for further information

              Johanna Tix

              Manager of the TRA

              Contact

               +49 228 73 54468

              johanna.tix@uni-bonn.de

              tra4@uni-bonn.de


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