Exhibited Work: 1 & ∞ ⑁ [One & Infinite Chair]
Duration: 19–20 June 2023
Event type: Conference
Organizer: Weizenbaum Institute
Venue: Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin DEU

At the Weizenbaum Conference 2023, more than 400 participants from academia, the arts, civil society, and politics discussed the various dimensions and interconnections of "AI, Big Data, Social Media, and People on the Move" on site and online.

The global problems of the present are not AI-generated. 

With his presentation "1&∞Chairs", the interdisciplinary artist Egor Kraft, who locates himself at the intersection of art, media, technology, film and science, demonstrated the possibilities and limitations of digital technologies such as image generators, as well as the precarious role of meaning in machine learning. Against this backdrop, the discussion with David Berry (University of Sussex) and Barbara Pfetsch (Freie Universität Berlin and Principal Investigator at the Weizenbaum Institute) considered the dangers of artificial intelligence as a generative technology. After an understanding of terms such as "artificial intelligence" or "generative", the question of ownership of these technologies and their products as well as journalistic integrity and human judgment were addressed. What does it mean for social relations, social orders, and political decisions when authorship, truthfulness, and authenticity are no longer verifiable or trustworthy? At the same time, it was underscored that today's global social problems are not AI-generated, but rather produced by political, economic, and/or media structures. The central agreement of this panel debate was - in the spirit of Joseph Weizenbaum - that human judgment must remain in charge. For this to succeed, a fundamental understanding of these technologies is necessary. The prerequisites for this are, on the one hand, the creation of transparency about how these technologies work and how they come to decisions, and, on the other hand, increased efforts to promote digital literacy in education.

For a better understanding, so the unanimous conclusion, interdisciplinary international conferences like the Weizenbaum Conference are of great importance, where the concerns, questions and perspectives of science, politics and civil society come into a constructive exchange.