Artificial Intelligence: Challenges for Germany and Europe

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the rise, serving as the technology behind everything from digital voice assistants and self-driving cars, whilst revolutionising decision-making processes in business and society. Tech giants such as Facebook, Apple, Google and IBM all use AI as a driver of both innovation and growth. Germany and Europe are now faced with the challenge of positioning their research institutions and firms as a counterbalance to Silicon Valley. A number of European countries, including the UK and France, have already made AI a priority within their research and industrial policy.

At the same time, one of the main questions at the heart of the debate surrounding artificial intelligence is how to confront the opportunities and risks it presents from a social and economic perspective. Autonomous systems can act, solve complex tasks, make decisions and react to unexpected outcomes without receiving direct instructions from a human being. How is this going to change the labour markets and individual job profiles? How are companies going to have to adapt? How should governments go about setting up the legal framework for this digital transformation? For example, it is often unclear who should be held responsible for any errors made by an autonomous system. Holding a debate over values and developing an algorithm code of conduct will be imperative.

We are delighted to welcome Claudia Nemat, executive board member at Deutsche Telekom AG, to the institute to share her views on some of these issues.

We would like to thank the ZEW Sponsors’ Association for Science and Practice for supporting the lecture series “First-Hand Information on Economic Policy”.