It is a cross-sectional and key technology with disruptive potential and is already beginning to change all areas of society. At the 2018 Digital Summit in Nuremberg, the immensely growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) once again became clear. The breadth of the topics discussed was particularly striking. AI has an impact at all levels. It affects the everyday lives of individuals as well as cutting-edge research; the entertainment industry is affected, but so is the security of the world.
Infrastructure
The digital infrastructure is essential for the implementation of AI. However, it is not just network speeds, network coverage and device equipment – i.e. the hardware – that are crucial. With regard to AI application scenarios, a global battle has also broken out for software infrastructures, which determine the development of B2C markets and thus value creation under the keyword platform economy. Municipal infrastructures and the demands placed on them are also changing in times of digitalisation and require new concepts.
Mobility
The past few years have shown that Digitalisation does not reduce mobility. The massive growth in mobility worldwide and society’s need for greater sustainability require new concepts for transportation, logistics and passenger transport. Using sensor technology and intelligent control systems, AI offers solutions for better capacity utilisation and multimodal mobility systems.
Health
Big data and AI-based developments are already being used extensively in medicine. They help with the visualisation and interpretation of clinical pictures. AI plays a particularly important role in the early detection of cancer. Its use leads to precision medicine and thus to individualised treatment options. It should be noted – and this also applies to all other areas in which AI plays a role: Humans remain the final authority. AI is only a technology that improves decision-making aids.
Administration
In the area of public administration, the focus is initially on the digitisation of data. One goal, for example, is to offer citizens more convenience when dealing with the numerous administrative procedures. A total of 575 administrative services in Germany are therefore to be digitised and made available in a kind of citizen portal by 2022 – a key factor for equal living conditions. The huge amounts of data can be used for structural policy findings and planning with the help of AI-based algorithms. E-government is therefore not only a service for citizens, but also a decision-making aid for authorities.
Education
Digital education is the key to the application and mastery of AI. An understanding of the changes brought about by digitalisation must be created at school. In the future, it will be important to have at least a basic understanding of AI for almost all professional fields. Similarly, people’s everyday lives will be permeated by numerous AI-based applications in the future, which need to be understood and classified. The basic functioning of artificial intelligence must therefore be taken into account when designing education. Kai Garrels (ABB Stotz-Kontakt) argued in Nuremberg, for example, that “thinking in systems” should be taught specifically at school.
Work
As with previous technological revolutions (the wheel, the steam engine, the assembly line), nowhere is the disruptive effect of AI more evident than in the labor market. Some studies speak of over one million, some of over three million jobs that could be lost in Germany in the coming years due to the use of AI. On the positive side, just as many could be added. This job transfer process needs to be moderated, organised and solutions developed together with those affected. To this end, education and training must be adapted to the requirements of the digital society. The first step is to quickly define new job profiles and establish new working models.
International focus
AI is a global technology. At the Digital Summit 2018, many presentations and discussions focused on the relationship between technology, market and framework conditions in Germany, Europe, the USA and Asia. The tenor: Germany has the best prerequisites for successfully shaping the fundamental change towards Industry 4.0, especially thanks to its successful industry and strong SME sector. This makes sense, especially when you think about the Internet of Things (IoT). With many “hidden champions”, including SMEs, Germany is very well positioned in a global comparison and has been producing successful products for years. In the future, global competition will depend on the successful combination of software and hardware and the implementation of artificial intelligence. The industry is already working intensively on the intelligent linking of machines, spare parts and manufactured products.
Data and concerns
In order for Germany and Europe to keep up with the international competition, a number of hurdles still need to be overcome with regard to the use of data. The balance between data availability and data protection is crucial for the implementation of digital strategies and the acceptance of AI-based developments among citizens. Currently, 59 percent of people still do not consider applications such as the smart home to be secure, said Christin Eisenschmid (Intel Germany) in Nuremberg. Not only politicians, but also companies have a greater responsibility at this point. Customers, consumers and citizens need to be taken on board, the benefits of digital applications for everyday life need to be made clear to them and trust needs to be built up. The basis for this trust is responsibility and transparency. Corporate digital responsibility is becoming the digital society’s understanding of trust.
Future and solutions
The future cannot be stopped, it must be shaped. In view of their disruptive effect, it is crucial for developments in the field of AI to moderate and realise the link between technological advantage and the options for people. In view of the global challenge of artificial intelligence, politics, in cooperation with business and science, is called upon to shape and allow change processes. The solutions are multi-layered:
- Disruptive technologies such as AI require test fields, “real laboratories” for disruptive innovations, as Peter Altmaier (Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy) and Prof. Sabina Jeschke (RWTH Aachen University) unanimously called for in Nuremberg.
- Europe-wide networking is required for the transfer of knowledge. In the digital age, nobody knows everything. This not only applies to administration and educational institutions. At the Digital Summit, many company representatives promoted cooperation across company boundaries. “Coopetition” – the simultaneous cooperation and competition will be observed in many industries in the future.
- Platform economies are key to the economic success of AI-based technology. Europe has some catching up to do here. The successful globally operating digital platforms (including Google, Amazon, Alibaba, Airbnb) currently come exclusively from Asia and the USA. The aim should be to establish one or more such providers in Europe, according to the unanimous opinion.
- A concrete approach for regions is related to this. The idea: local authorities could become platform providers themselves. They are close to the citizens, know their needs and could provide data and content and thus link various digital/digitised sectors (energy, mobility, work, health). They need support in this. It is also important to note that successful concepts and platforms do not have to be reinvented by every municipality. Instead, individual successful models used by pioneers such as the digital city of Darmstadt should be transferred.
- Participation is crucial to establishing AI with all its benefits. Too much skepticism and too many concerns are obstacles to progress. Politics, business and science must involve people, allay their fears, explain the benefits in a simple and understandable way and, in particular, make the use of data transparent.
- Europe must develop its own ethical principles for the use of AI and the use of data. Rules that allow the economy to be successful, but that reflect the European understanding of values. With a human-centered AI, a “third way” in terms of data ethics, many other stakeholders at the 2018 Digital Summit alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasised that a global competitive advantage could possibly be achieved.
In the end, AI must serve humans. Incidentally, AI will not make people immortal, but it will make them healthier, as Prof. Joachim Hornegger (President of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) made clear in Nuremberg.
Cover photo: Around 1,100 representatives from politics, business, science and society took part in the 2018 Digital Summit in Nuremberg. Nuremberg, December 3 and 4, 2018.
Photos below: Impressions of the Digital Summit 2018. Nuremberg, December 3 and 4, 2018.
Photo credit: aconium GmbH