AI Research & Technology | The Hessian AICon Day 2 Review
The first public day of the Hessian AICon on July 5th was dedicated to “Research & Technology.” Renowned speakers and leading AI experts presented current findings and discussed developments in the field of AI fundamental research to an audience of over 400 interested participants.
They were welcomed by a video message from Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, who, like Prof. Mira Mezini and Prof. Kristian Kersting the evening before, emphasized that AI must serve humanity. She also highlighted the excellence of Germany’s research landscape, particularly in the field of AI in Darmstadt:
AI research in Germany is well-positioned, and Darmstadt is part of it. […] hessian.AI, the Center for Artificial Intelligence, is now a fresh part of the network of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). TU Darmstadt has also succeeded in the competition to establish an AI service center as one of four locations. […] hessian.AI is driving cutting-edge research forward.
The presentations were opened with a keynote by Prof. Wolfgang Wahlster, Chief Executive Advisor of DFKI, who was honored with the second hessian.AI Fellowship the previous evening. He took the audience on a journey through the world of advanced language models. What started as “Superparrots” has now evolved into human-like dialogue understanding – with all the associated opportunities, risks, and challenges.
With speakers such as Mirella Lapata (University of Edinburgh), Tim Baldwin (Mohamed bin Zayed University of AI), Emtyiaz Khan (RIKEN Center Japan), as well as Humboldt Professors Angela Yu, Marcus Rohrbach, and Georgia Chalvatzaki (all TU Darmstadt), the program covered nearly the entire spectrum of current AI research, including NLP, facial recognition, robotics, and multimodal artificial intelligence.
The conference day concluded with Martin Jaggi from EPFL delivering a talk on collaborative and decentralized learning, and Holger Hoos, Humboldt Professor at RWTH Aachen, discussing the future of AI in Europe.
About The Hessian AICon by hessian.AI
The Hessian AICon by hessian.AI, held from July 4th to 6th, provided an extensive insight into the realm of Artificial Intelligence and the AI ecosystem of Hesse and beyond.
Over the course of three exciting days, every facet of Artificial Intelligence was illuminated, discussed, and demonstrated. The AICon showcased the latest developments and trends in this dynamic field. After the Welcome Ceremony on July 4th, on July 5th, the spotlight was on “Research & Technology,” featuring captivating talks and invaluable networking opportunities. This was the chance to meet distinguished researchers and experts from both academia and industry, expanding your professional network. July 6th was all about “Startups & Impact,” offering numerous networking possibilities with startups from the AI ecosystem and industrial partners.
