The European Management Institute e.V. (EMI) at Hof University of Applied Sciences celebrated its 20th birthday with a festive event on the premises of the Institute for Information Systems (iisys). Founded in 2004 by professors from Hof University of Applied Sciences and companies, the institute has since promoted science and research, training and further education and is also committed to international cooperation. The celebratory event focused on the topic of artificial intelligence.
After the welcoming address by the EMI Institute’s Executive Board, Prof. Dr. Friedwart Lender and Prof. Dr. Stefan Wengler, the festive event was officially opened in front of around 70 invited guests by University President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Lehmann officially opened the event. In his welcoming address, he emphasized the importance of the topic of AI for solving essential problems facing humanity. In many areas, we are already on the way to developing completely new solution tools in a very short time with the help of technology.
“As a university, we want to be an important factor between basic research and practical application in industry.”
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Lehmann
Research is very present at universities today
Prof. Dr. Tobias Plessing, Director of the Institute for Hydrogen and Energy Technology (iwe) and Federal Chairman of the Association of University Teachers, then spoke about the success of Hof University of Applied Sciences, which has developed from a university of applied sciences into a driver of applied research, innovation and transfer within three decades.
At the beginning of their history, i.e. from 1971, the universities of applied sciences were better vocational schools. It was purely about practical applicability and pure qualification for the labor market. Since the 1990s, however, there has been third-party funding, which has also massively advanced the research area at today’s universities.”
Prof. Dr. Tobias Plessing, Federal Chairman of the Association of University Teachers
And he continues: “Today, we teach how to ask the right questions and answer them through research, and in doing so we work in close cooperation with industry, for whom we are also real problem solvers in many cases,” says Prof. Plessing.
Research is now an integral part of everyday university life, which clearly distinguishes today’s university from the old “university of applied sciences”.
University as a model for success
The figures alone are impressive: whereas the Bavarian universities had 900 lecturers and 17,000 students at the start in the 1970s, these figures have now grown to 3,000 lecturers and 120,000 students. Universities are also a success story nationwide: “Out of 3 million students in Germany, 1.2 million are now studying at universities,” explained Prof. Tobias Plessing. Ultimately, however, there is hardly any other federal state like Bavaria where the establishment of the educational institution of higher education has been so successful.
AI will overtake humanity – but not soon!
In his keynote speech, Dr. Eldar Sultanow, author and IT expert for artificial intelligence and digital humanity, addressed the topic of “AI instead of knockout – seizing opportunities, mastering challenges”. Sultanow is considered a computer science guru and has over 20 years of experience in software development. He came to his specialty as a child and teenager through the science fiction series “Starship Enterprise”. “It was this series that first made a guy like me socially acceptable,” he remarked ironically at the beginning.
Ultimately, much of what was considered pure dreams of the future in the last century has now been realized – from precise weather forecasts to accurate navigation when jogging or lane departure warning systems when driving. Nevertheless, a “strong AI”, i.e. one with its own consciousness, is still a long way off. “It is assumed that AI will only reach human capabilities within the next 30 to 40 years and then surpass them a few years later,” says Sultanow. Currently, AI is only able to recognize and react to a variety of human emotions. “However, these are mathematical algorithms for image and speech recognition and not real AI emotions. Machine learning only imitates human abilities in individual areas,” Sultanow clarified.
Endless possibilities – for better or for worse
Nevertheless, generated images, speech and videos are becoming increasingly realistic and are already almost indistinguishable from reality, according to the AI expert. This naturally opens many doors to the manipulation of people, even if it is AI that can detect such things. Nevertheless, the possibilities of technology for the advancement and problem-solving of humanity are enormous:
“AI saves human and animal lives. It recognizes poachers in the savannah in Africa at an early stage, AI plants seeds in areas that are difficult to access by controlling drones or it detects bark beetle infestations from the air. It can recognize animals with distinctive characteristics such as whales, giraffes or turtles in fractions of a second and help to protect them. In many areas, artificial intelligence is also an effective weapon against climate change or the overexploitation of global fish stocks,” said Sultanow, pointing out many positive applications that will be massively expanded in the future. For example, cancer drugs could now even be developed on the basis of artificial intelligence, as millions and millions of therapy data could be available and fed into the system.
Deeper relationships between humans and machines
Finally, studies have already shown another development: “In the future, there will also be deeper relationships between humans and machines. People already tend to develop emotional relationships with things – when it comes to their beloved car, for example. As it can be assumed that AI will continue to improve its own empathy towards the environment, this will increase considerably. The technology is already being used in autism therapy, where AI already exceeds the empathy factor of professional psychotherapists,” explained Sultanow. The conclusion of his presentation was ultimately optimistic:
Of course: the potential for AI to replace humans is – in some areas – enormous. But ultimately it is like everywhere else: where there is light, there is also shadow. But AI is only a tool, it has no intention of its own. Only then could it theoretically become dangerous and humans would not have fulfilled their responsibility. But until then, we can do incredibly good things with AI!”
Dr. Eldar Sultanow
The event was rounded off with an exchange of experiences at a get-together.
About the EMI:
The European Management Institute e.V. (Emi) at Hof University of Applied Sciences supports cooperation projects between the regional economy and Hof University of Applied Sciences and organizes their collaboration. It also promotes joint research projects between business and science and their publication. The institute also presents annual awards to outstanding students (Master’s Prize, Best Logistics Prize) and supports scientific projects with funding. Finally, the institute organizes specialist conferences and congresses to improve international cooperation between science and practice.
