How artificial intelligence should save the climate News

This year's German AI Innovation Prize goes to Wolfram Burgard, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the Technical University of Nuremberg. "Wolfram Burgard is a prime example of those AI pioneers who are taking us further in Europe," said Chris Boos, himself founder of the AI company Arago and head of technology at the Swiss cybersecurity company Wisekey and president of the jury.

Burgard's scientific contributions are innovative, fundamental to the research of many others and, above all, suitable for practice. "He also brings the necessary personal courage and unwavering personal commitment that we so desperately need," said Boos.

Burgard is the founding chairman of the Department of Engineering at the TU Nuremberg, which bundles all engineering disciplines at the still young university. The scientist is known for his pioneering contributions to AI, robotics, machine learning, autonomous driving, autonomous intelligent systems and image processing. He is also the recipient of the Leibniz Prize.

The "German AI Prize 2022" is endowed with 35,000 euros and is one of the most prestigious prizes of its kind in Europe. WELT is now awarding the prize for the fourth time, recognizing groundbreaking achievements in the development and application of artificial intelligence.

Along with the innovation prize, WELT has awarded two other prizes. The Berlin start-up Ada Health won the undoped user award for outstanding performance in practical AI applications.

The company maintains an app in which users can enter their health problems. An artificial intelligence analyzes the information and provides information about possible diseases and their treatment.

Ada Health was able to win over the pharmaceutical group Bayer and Samsung in its financing round last year. Since the app was launched in 2016, more than 28 million health analyzes have been carried out. According to Ada, it has twelve million users in 150 countries.

This year, three young companies that use AI to promote the circular economy competed against each other for the AI start-up prize, which is worth 10,000 euros. The guests at the awards ceremony and the digital audience chose PlanerAI, which used AI to develop a platform for optimizing food order quantities.

Experts have been arguing for a long time about the contribution artificial intelligence can make to combating climate change. As early as 2019, a study by the University of Massachusetts came to the conclusion that the training of artificial intelligence is responsible for as much CO2 emissions as five cars emit in their entire life cycle.

"I don't believe that AI will kill the climate," said Kristian Kerting, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at the Department of Computer Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt. "Thanks to the insights and the possibilities that AI offers us in the first place, we will rather have the advantage when it comes to climate change."

Above all, AI consumes a lot of energy during training, but the result can then be reused relatively easily. "That's what I call a circular economy."

Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) also sees the advantages of the technology above all. “We need artificial intelligence with which we can process and use large amounts of data, for example to intelligently control energy consumption. You can help to achieve the 17 sustainability goals of the United Nations.

Nevertheless, one has to talk about how much energy AI consumes. The aim must be to keep consumption as low as possible. Germany must be involved in the development of the technology. "Our task is to create a true AI ecosystem in our country."

Science, business, politics and society would have to work closely together to achieve this. "The winners of the German AI Prize are the best example of how you can shape the future with courage, good ideas and imagination."

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