AI and sustainable development

A working group at the University of Passau is currently developing initial ideas for an interdisciplinary research focus on artificial intelligence and sustainability. The aim is to connect researchers across disciplines and faculties, bundle AI activities and initiate new research and teaching projects. The working title is KINECT – AI and Sustainable Development at the University of Passau.

Sustainability takes on several meanings in this context. First, it means that AI-based systems are designed and deployed from a sustainability angle. At the same time, it refers to the prevailing normative, socio-cultural, economic and ecological conditions that determine how AI is used and how it can be used to promote the sustainable development of society as a whole. The University of Passau is ideally positioned for such an interdisciplinary approach.

In the medium term, the University seeks to establish structures that promote interdisciplinary networking, conceivably a platform or network that could lead to the formation of an institute or research centre in the long term.

As part of the Bavarian 'Hightech Agenda' [text in German], the University is consistently and sustainably expanding its focus areas of 'Digitalisation', 'Networked Society' and 'Europe', particularly in the field of artificial intelligence and the implications that follow from this technology. This expansion includes creating new interdisciplinary focal points, in both research and teaching, at the interface between digital transformation; methods of knowledge generation and decision support; economic, cultural and social effects of artificial intelligence as well as basic research in mathematics and computer science.

Starting in winter semester 2020–21, the University has been establishing several AI professorships, which will also be part of the working group:

• Chair of AI Engineering at the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics
• Professorship of Applied Machine Learning at the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics
• Chair for AI in Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law
• Professorship of Applied Ethics at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• Chair of Multilingual Computational Linguistics at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• Chair of Explainable AI-based Information Systems at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Information Systems.