Dr. Jonas Fegert had the opportunity to attend the “Forum on the Transformation of Society” at Bellevue Palace on July 10th, where Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave a keynote speech on the digital public sphere and AI.

Steinmeier emphasized the importance of understanding, responsibility and trust in dealing with AI. He made clear that we need to understand AI in order to be able to shape it and called for promoting digital literacy and participation. It was particularly important to him that we develop European answers to the “technologies of immaturity” (“Technologien der Unmündigkeit”) - an AI that serves people and the common good. Afterwards, Signal’s President Meredith Whittaker and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa discussed and specified precisely these challenges and how they can be met.

This is closely related to our work on solutions for resilient digital democracies at the IISM and the FZI’s House of Participation. Steinmeier's speech showed where the needs lie and made important appeals to us researchers. Here you can find his entire speech (in German): https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Reden/DE/Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/Reden/2024/07/240710-forum-bellevue-no3.html