2 / 2025 // LEOPOLDINA / NEWS 5
to find even better proofs, doctors are supported in their routine diagnostics and can also make better decisions about rare diseases if an AI tool is sitting at the table, so to speak.
ANNUAL ASSEMBLY“ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE”
These are positive effects of AI, but the conference will also discuss the potentially negative social consequences. Is this a clash of two different views, of two scientific camps? Lengauer: We are not dealing with two camps at all. In my view, the age of techno-optimism is long gone. We all know that AI is an incredibly sharp weapon that can also be misused in catastrophic ways. So we have to show this side of the coin as well. The ethics of science is always a focus for the Leopoldina, and I can personally back every presentation given at this conference. Müller: In the Leopoldina, we are always working together, not against each other. It’ s a constructive cooperation where we try to study a phenomenon in its scientific and social depth and come to a shared position.
The technical development of AI is progressing very rapidly at the moment. Is an organisation like the Leopoldina agile enough to react to these processes? Müller: The question is whether a policy institution or an academy has to proceed at the same speed as the tech companies? It‘ s all about reflection and fundamental ideas. And those don‘ t get better if they are fast. Lengauer: The Leopoldina is definitely caught between the poles of depth of analysis and speed of reaction. This became particularly clear during the pandemic, when the Leopoldina presented an agile format comprehensively for the first time, called“ ad hoc statements”. However, this was also due to the incredible acute pressure caused by the pandemic. Despite all the warnings and the scenarios of threat, I don’ t believe that we are under the same kind of time pressure when it comes to AI today.
But for example, the European AI regulation was almost ready to go when
Leopoldina Members Thomas Lengauer ML( left) and Klaus-Robert Müller ML( right) have taken on the scientific coordination of the Annual Assembly 2025. The mathematician and bioinformatician and the physicist and computer scientist are members of the Informatics section. Thomas Lengauer, Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics Saarbrücken / Germany since 2018, is organising the Annual Assembly for the third time. Klaus-Robert Müller, Co-Director of the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data( BIFOLD)/ Germany since 2020, is taking on this role for the first time.
ChatGPT came out. And then it had to be revised again to apply to the new technologies. Müller: For me, it‘ s similar to the field of cybersecurity. If someone claimed to have solved the cybersecurity issue once and for all, they would be laughed at. It‘ s a process, you always have to adapt to new circumstances.
The new American administration has made it unmistakably clear that it does not want to set any barriers to AI. Müller: It‘ s always a bit tempting to pit the academic viewpoint against the industry viewpoint. But there are many people in the industry who also have ethical principles and want their products to be safe.
Professor Müller, you are working on brain-computer interfaces. Will we soon be able to connect our intelligence directly to an AI? Müller: Definitely not. We are still working non-invasively and we won’ t be plugging anything in anytime soon. One
Images: Christof Rieken | Leopoldna, BIFOLD
of our developments was, for example, to monitor the mental workload of pilots or car drivers via EEG, which has ulitmately led to these warning lights in cars that tell you to take a break. Related to invasive implants, surveys have been carried out among patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis( ALS) to see whether they could imagine using implants for communication. And they tell us that the brain is the last functional organ that they have – so please don‘ t mess with it!
How is your collaboration and the cooperation with the Leopoldina going in preparation for the annual conference? Lengauer: We are well on track. The two of us discuss the event regularly and react quickly to problems, and we have great support from the Leopoldina. The meeting is ready to go!
■ THE INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED BY CHRISTOPH DRÖSSER
Annual Assembly