University of Bayreuth in international AI Alliance
Since April, the University of Bayreuth has been a member of the AI Alliance for the development and promotion of open technologies for artificial intelligence software, models and tools. This makes UBT the second German university after TU Munich to join the alliance of renowned international companies and research institutions.
The University of Bayreuth made the strategic decision early on to implement AI-related research and knowledge transfer - and therefore to incorporate AI across the entire depth and breadth of the university's disciplines: There are now AI-related professorships in every faculty, and AI is an integral part of research and teaching at the University of Bayreuth. “Artificial intelligence is already shaping our everyday lives and developments are rapid. It is therefore necessary to get involved now - even beyond the boundaries of the university. This is now happening in a very concrete way in the AI Alliance,” says University President Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible. He emphasizes: „We deeply believe open innovation stands as the cornerstone of advancing AI—it represents our commitment to transparency, robustness, and ethical integrity in AI development. By embracing collaborative approaches and shared knowledge, we ensure that AI solutions are not only technically sound but also socially responsible, fostering trust and widespread adoption.“
AI at the UBT (Examples)
- https://www.uni-bayreuth.de/press-releases/artificial-intelligence-certificate
- https://www.wi.uni-bayreuth.de/en/
- https://www.baylds.uni-bayreuth.de/en/
- In May 2020, the University of Bayreuth won three professorships as part of a Bavaria-wide competition to establish AI professorships. In addition to existing research into artificial intelligence, research in Bayreuth will also be conducted in the fields of materials analysis, energy management and at the interface between mathematics, computer science and robotics.
Specifically, the Bayreuth scientists will be involved in several Alliance research groups or open up new fields of research for the Alliance themselves. Students at the University of Bayreuth will also benefit from this. In particular, the interdisciplinary activities in the field of AI policy and Bayreuth's special expertise in the field made the University of Bayreuth attractive for the AI Alliance. What is special about Bayreuth is that research on AI is not only conducted in technical or scientific fields, but also in law, economics and philosophy. Among other things, the focus is on the implementation of European regulations (in particular the GDPR and AI Act) in AI products by the industrial partners in the AI Alliance.
The AI Alliance focuses on accelerating and spreading open innovation across the AI technology landscape to improve the fundamental capabilities, safety and trust in AI and “maximize the benefits for people and society everywhere in a responsible way”, as the website states. The AI Alliance was founded by IBM and Facebook parent company Meta in response to the threat of monopolies in the field of AI.
The link to the AI Alliance is the Bayreuth focus group FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics), whose founder Prof. Dr. Niklas Kühl, Professor of Business Informatics and Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence, was the driving force behind the University of Bayreuth's admission to the AI Alliance. “After founding the AI Alliance, we realized relatively quickly that its values regarding openness and ethics were also close to our hearts,” says Kühl, explaining the opportunities of membership: “Through the AI Alliance, we have more direct access to important players in the field, for example Meta, IBM, Intel, Linux and Sony as industry partners or universities such as ETH Zurich, TUM, University of California Berkley or Yale.”
Background
The AI Alliance is an international community of developers, researchers and organizations dedicated to the advancement of open, safe and responsible artificial intelligence. It aims to do the following: Build and support open technologies for software, models and tools; Enable developers and researchers to understand, experiment with and adopt open technologies; Advocate for open innovation to business and community leaders, policy and regulatory bodies, and the public. The AI Alliance AI Policy Advocacy Working Group aims to take immediate action in support of the organization's mission. This group brings together researchers, developers, policy and industry experts to collaboratively address the challenges of generative AI in a comprehensive and open way and democratize its benefits. Through events and online discussions, it aims to create a public forum that brings together the technical community and policy makers to address opportunities and barriers to open innovation in AI. It aims to publish and disseminate information and opinions from AI Alliance members on key policy issues such as red teaming, regulation of applications and access to hardware. It aims to be a representative of the voices of the wider AI ecosystem, which relies on open source and open innovation, to policy makers. (https://thealliance.ai/)
Members
Together with the FATE members, Professors Lena Kästner (Philosophy, Computer Science and Artificial intelligence), Christian Rückert (Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and IT Criminal Law), Christoph Krönke (Public Law, Commercial Administrative Law, Sustainability and Technology Law), Ruth Janal (Civil Law, Intellectual Property and Business Law), Torsten Eymann (Business Informatics), Sebastian Baltes (Software Engineering), Christopher Künneth (Computational Materials Science) and Ruben Mayer (Computer Science), research on AI and its technological and social aspects is being conducted in Bayreuth on a national and international level across disciplines.
