On their journey, the delegation members amongst others visited Georgetown University and George Washington University, Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. In addition, their schedule also included meetings with different members of the House of Representatives. In Montréal, Minister Sibler met with Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy and Innovation, and Jean-François Roberge, Minister of Education and Higher Education to exchange views on collaboration possibilities in the field of education, science and research.
“In a research context, the topic of artificial intelligence is of major importance for many universities we visited. In the exchange with the respective representatives, it became evident that technological development in this field has already made significant progress and offers great potential. On the other hand, however, participants in the discussions agreed that this field also opened up new ethical questions and consequences for society that needed to be addressed”, reports Vice President Stüwe. The KU approaches this development amongst others by actively participating in the recently established Ingolstadt research center for artificial intelligence. The KU’s involvement aims at investigating said ethical questions – both in view of the effects of AI technology for society as a whole or regarding its potential, also for the humanities.
At the end of the journey, the Bavarian Minister of Science Sibler emphasized that the Bavarian offer for collaboration in research and science was very well received by the American partners. “The exchange on current research topics such as artificial intelligence or digitalization showed that our higher education institutions and universities of applied sciences are among the international players when it comes to future-related topics “, says Sibler.
