November 12, 2020

The latest event in the series “Grand Challenges: Answers from North Rhine-Westphalia” addressed the topic “AI made in NRW: Sustainability and Trust for Artificial Intelligence Technologies” and was co-organized by the ML2R. The virtual event took place on October 29, 2020 and gave researchers from North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with EU representatives. The speakers of ML2R helped to shape the program and gave impulses within the framework of Germany’s Presidency of the EU Council: Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrobel conducted the moderation and Prof. Dr. Katharina Morik gave a lecture on “Trustworthy machine learning”.

The Grand Challenges event series organized by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW) and the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union addresses current issues that pose challenges for society. The series provides a forum for the presentation of solutions from NRW and the exchange of ideas between political actors, companies and researchers at the European level. The competence center ML2R was significantly involved in the organization of the newest edition “AI made in NRW: Sustainability and Trust for Artificial Intelligence Technologies”.

ML2R offers innovative approaches to trustworthy and sustainable AI technologies

Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrobel, speaker of the ML2R, acted as the moderator throughout the virtual event. Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, Minister for Culture and Science NRW, opened the event, followed by a keynote speech by Eric Badiqué, consultant for Artificial Intelligence of the European Commission (Directorate General DG CONNECT).

In her lecture, Prof. Dr. Katharina Morik, spokeswoman of ML2R, spoke on the topic of “Trustworthy machine learning” and highlighted the research foci of the competence center: Research on trustworthy Machine Learning (ML) that meets sustainability standards and is designed in a way that is understandable for users. In addition, Katharina Morik presented efforts for a holistic certification of ML processes: from algorithms and ML pipelines to platforms.

In addition, researchers Prof. Dr. Thorsten Holz (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) and Prof. Dr. Barbara Hammer (Bielefeld University) presented their answers to the question of sustainable and trustworthy AI technologies. A Q&A session gave external viewers the possibility to ask questions to the presenters.

In a concluding discussion, the participating experts emphasized that the common European understanding that Artificial Intelligence is based on values centered around privacy, trustworthiness, reliability and security as well as the interaction between users and technologies. These values are the basis for strong and competitive European AI solutions. The competence center ML2R and other research institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia address these aspects and offer an ideal ecosystem for the development of value-oriented AI technologies. They hence pave the way for an ‘AI made in Europe’.

More about the event “Grand Challenges: AI made in NRW”

The brochure accompanying the event is available online and provides an overview of the AI research landscape in NRW.

You missed the event? A recording of the livestream is available here.