Digital Technology transforms the world, from the individual level up to the ongoing geo-political powerplay. From an ontological point of view, it influences how we perceive the world and how we think about it. This transformation process started relatively recently and continues at a very high speed. We highlight some features of this process, which, besides its enormous achievements, shows also serious shortcomings and risks. The key issue arising is a two-sided one : Digital technology, currently spearheaded by AI, may help deal with some of the world’s multiple crises and make it a better place. At the same time it is part of some these crises (some even see it as the cause). We understand Digital Humanism as an approach to developing and regulating digital technologies so that they are used for the benefit of people and nature. It is a proactive approach that focuses on the integration of technical policy and social innovation for the collective good.

In the world of technology, thousands, millions or - in the case of the new large language models - billions of variables are often optimized in parameter spaces. In contrast, our society is the result of a centuries-long power struggle between sometimes incompatible and sometimes complementary principles. These relatively few principles, including the fundamental rights of freedom, equality, justice, human dignity and self-determination, by their very nature cannot all be realized simultaneously, nor can there be an appropriate, lasting balance between them. Rather, Western democracies, through the rule of law, separation of powers and within democratic systems, are in a constant balancing process that becomes a solution through the process itself. This process requires participation, deliberation and autonomy on an individual, group, and societal level. In this talk, we will look at the potential impact that algorithmic decision-making and new AI-supported processes, especially from the field of generative AI, can have on human thought and action and what this can mean for the basic principles of Western democracies.

In our lecture we will discuss new approaches to using AI-based tools in practice. We look into their impact on work-related skills, expectations & understanding of the work of a public servant. Groups of 2-3 students select one of the following use cases:

• A) Draft a reply to a citizen complaint about the spending on a research funding programme.
• B) Draft a first version of a new European law clarifying and enforcing the GDPR in the context of generative AI platforms.
• C) Summarise the AI Act to explain its main purpose to a general audience.
• D) Analyse the citizens answers received in a public consultation.
• E) Identify mistakes in an AI-generated text.
• F) Reply to journalists' questions /an expert audience about the tasks of the European AI office.

Imagine you are working for a public body at EU or national level and use the AI-Based Multilingual Services, in particular eBriefing and eSummary, to assist with your work. How would you perform your tasks? What opportunities and risks do you see? What would really help your work and what would cause negative stress for you? When the focus is put on reviewing instead of drafting, how does it change the nature of your work and the skills needed? Who may benefit the most from using AI-assisted tools?

Public Event including a panel discussion reflecting the achievements of the Digital Humanism initiative and its future perspective.

Welcome Address: Gerti Kappel (Dean of the Faculty of Informatics at TU Wien)
Moderation: Peter Knees (UNESCO Chair on Digital Humanism, TU Wien)

Panelists:

• Moderation: Hannes Werthner
• Veronica Kaup-Hasler (Councillor of the city of Vienna for culture and science)
• Jens Schneider (Rector of TU Wien)
• Noshir Contractor (Web Science Trust)
• George Metakides (Digital Enlightenment Forum)
• Christiane Wendehorst (University of Vienna)

Location for this event is Boecklsaal at Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna. See a map here.
More details here.

This lecture explores the intersection of digitalization and sustainability in environmental monitoring. It begins with an introduction to the possibilities of environmental monitoring on the ground, highlighting its importance and impact and presenting networks such as LTER and GLEON as well as a concrete example of an ecological monitoring program at Lunzersee. This is followed by an in-depth look at the digitalization of environmental monitoring, covering key technologies, citizen science initiatives, sustainable computing practices, and case studies such as the SWAIN Project. The session concludes with a discussion on bridging the gap between information technology and environmental science, addressing interdisciplinary approaches, ethical considerations, and strategies for effective collaboration.

Digital Identity Systems are on the rise worldwide. While global majority countries already have ample experience with their pitfalls and human rights implications, Europe just concluded its big digital identity reform without any concern for the experiences of other regions. Thomas Lohninger works for Austrias biggest digital rights NGO epicenter.works and has shaped the 2,5 year negotiations for the new EU law. This presentation will showcase realistic use-cases of the technology from age verification, online identification, customer tracking up to replacing CAPTCHAs. We will discuss essentials safeguards that attempt to make such systems of government certified personal data exchanges less dangerous in a world of surveillance capitalism and rising authoritarianism.

The speaker lead the NGO coalition of privacy watchdogs that advocated for strong human rights safeguards in the EU legislation. He since became Chair of the UN DPI-safeguards Governance Working Group, advices the EU Commission on the technical specification of the new system, is in the Jury of the German government about their Wallet implementation. This talk tries to bridge the technical, legal and social implications of such systems and how society might be shaped by what some are calling the operating system of modern society.

In our lecture we will discuss new approaches to using AI-based tools in practice. We look into their impact on work-related skills, expectations & understanding of the work of a public servant. Groups of 2-3 students select one of the following use cases:

• A) Draft a reply to a citizen complaint about the spending on a research funding programme.
• B) Draft a first version of a new European law clarifying and enforcing the GDPR in the context of generative AI platforms.
• C) Summarise the AI Act to explain its main purpose to a general audience.
• D) Analyse the citizens answers received in a public consultation.
• E) Identify mistakes in an AI-generated text.
• F) Reply to journalists' questions /an expert audience about the tasks of the European AI office.

Imagine you are working for a public body at EU or national level and use the AI-Based Multilingual Services, in particular eBriefing and eSummary, to assist with your work. How would you perform your tasks? What opportunities and risks do you see? What would really help your work and what would cause negative stress for you? When the focus is put on reviewing instead of drafting, how does it change the nature of your work and the skills needed? Who may benefit the most from using AI-assisted tools?

Public Event: Screening of "Entangled Recurrents" (52′) 2023 by Konrad Becker/Felix Stalder, World-Information Institute/t0.

Fake news, disinformation, psychological warfare. The modern conceptions of truth and reality are in disarray. Categorical systems that have organized Western culture over the last 200 years, are broken up and eroded. We are confronted with all kinds of new hybrids.

Digital communication forces us to look not only at technical protocols but also at protocols of the human mind and nervous system. Over the last 30 years, artists, researchers, and activists, brought together by the Institute of New Cultural Technologies in Vienna, have explored alternative histories of media and the emergent digital (un)consciousness.

Their perspectives, seemingly marginal during times of techno-utopianism, are now critical as we are traversing new zones of monsters. Followed by a Q&A with Felix Stalder.

Location for this event is FAV Hörsaal 1 Helmut Veith, Favoritenstraße 9-11 Ground Floor, Room HH EG 02. See a map here.
More details here.

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence are nothing short of a revolution in computing technologies. They have become triggers of significant innovation opportunities that many entrepreneurs seek to explore and exploit for commercial success. AI poses enormous challenges regarding the ethical design of these innovations, both at the level of the individual and regarding their impact on society. In my presentation, I review calls for ethical AI and the challenges they pose for the entrepreneur. We take a closer look at AI principles that have been proposed to address the problem of ethical AI systems. While laudable, principles suffer from a lack of operational practicability. I present ways to address some of the issues systematically and discuss how to learn from the examples of other high-risk industry such as pharmaceutics, aeronautics, or medicine that successfully established practices of managing significant and residual risks.

In our lecture we will discuss new approaches to using AI-based tools in practice. We look into their impact on work-related skills, expectations & understanding of the work of a public servant. Groups of 2-3 students select one of the following use cases:

• A) Draft a reply to a citizen complaint about the spending on a research funding programme.
• B) Draft a first version of a new European law clarifying and enforcing the GDPR in the context of generative AI platforms.
• C) Summarise the AI Act to explain its main purpose to a general audience.
• D) Analyse the citizens answers received in a public consultation.
• E) Identify mistakes in an AI-generated text.
• F) Reply to journalists' questions /an expert audience about the tasks of the European AI office.

Imagine you are working for a public body at EU or national level and use the AI-Based Multilingual Services, in particular eBriefing and eSummary, to assist with your work. How would you perform your tasks? What opportunities and risks do you see? What would really help your work and what would cause negative stress for you? When the focus is put on reviewing instead of drafting, how does it change the nature of your work and the skills needed? Who may benefit the most from using AI-assisted tools?

In the first part of the lecture, basic concepts and methods of machine learning are introduced with a focus on image classification and generative approaches. Typical misconceptions and pitfalls of data driven AI methods are illustrated and discussed. In the second part of the lecture, specific approaches for trustworthy AI are introduced with a focus on explainable AI methods, making use of knowledge to guide model induction and adaptation, and human-in-the-loop approaches.

Access to information is a basic right and a key component in building inclusive knowledge societies. Recommender systems and search engines act as gatekeepers–even if their influence is not always apparent–controlling what and how we access information. News, social media, entertainment, commerce, education, and many other experiences are all delivered through systems that tailor their output to each user, fundamentally shaping people's encounters with information. This shift towards personalization has been justified in the name of efficiency and enhanced user experiences: by delivering outcomes catering to users' interests and needs, these systems make it easier to find relevant information and products in a vast online landscape.

However, the equation of personalization with efficiency overlooks important aspects of the story of contemporary information access. In this session, we will broaden this frame to address less discussed but equally crucial issues: the multiple objectives that personalized systems are optimized for, the multiple stakeholders that they serve, and the limitations of a one-size-fits-all philosophy when users have a variety of needs and backgrounds.

The digital economy has been the focus of the most intense scrutiny in the competition law context in recent years, by both scholars and enforcers. Unilateral conduct by the ‘tech giants’ is the most acute area of interest: with claims being made both for a more aggressive/innovative application of the existing competition rules and for a need for revision or augmentation of the current legal framework to address pressing problems that lie outside its boundaries. In this lecture, we will discuss, first, the distinctive dynamics of digital economy markets; second, a number of theories of harm that have arisen with frequency in this context; and third, various forms of platform regulation (DMA, DMCCA) that are aimed at providing a complementary regulatory framework for Big Tech companies. These new regulatory instruments are clearly modelled on but also going beyond the existing scope of Article 102. Many of the cases we will discuss lie at the ‘frontier’ of competition enforcement. Hence it is worth considering whether they represent the necessary evolution of competition law in its attempt to address competition issues within the digital economy – or, conversely, whether they might represent an overreaching by competition enforcers, with potentially problematic consequences in the longer term. In such circumstances, is legislation preferable, and even inevitable? What form should this legislation should it take and how it should complement competition law?

Our world is not on track in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While these goals are set to establish peace and prosperity for people and planet, we are increasingly confronted with degrading natural environments, natural disasters, military conflicts, and the effects of climate change. Digital technologies, once seen as leverages for social and economic development, are now causing concerns. There is the unregulated proliferation of AI technologies across the world, there is big tech and decision-making over technology in the hands of small groups. Unsurprisingly, people in low-resource environments in poor regions of Global South are among the most vulnerable. They are not often in the position to influence ongoing trends. In this lecture, we will look at the Digital Divide -- the growing disparity between wealthy countries and extensive regions in the Global South -- from the perspective of Digital Humanism. Can we leverage partnerships and take collective actions? What is the role of governance? Is it still possible design and build a more inclusive digital society?