Spring brings so many nuances of green
and white.
Job Offer
Firs things first: We are hiring. #Joinus. Please apply and/or share. I even did a video to convince you - we would love to hear from you!
Retrospect
Media
I was busy in publicly discussing two main topics this week.
Nature
On Monday, a joint article written primarily by my friend and role model Barbara Prainsack (and me), was published in Nature Medicine. Nature, by the way, is the journal with the very strange embargo policy I was mentioning last week (First sentence: “We strongly discourage authors and potential authors from direct solicitation of media coverage of material they have submitted to Nature and the Nature Portfolio journals.”).
The main argument Barbara and me are making in the text, in my reading, is that the risk based approach chosen by the AI-act doesn’t suffice. The text is, ironically, behind a paywall, but if you don’t have access to the full text (UNIVIE provides paid full access for its staff), let me know, I will send you a copy.
We got quite some media coverage with this, including UNIVIE, APA-Science, Der Standard, VOL, News, Salzburger Nachrichten, Horizont etc.
This reminds me - again - of the marvelous start in Vienna I had thanks to Barbara: In 2018, Barbara and me were holding our inaugural lecture together
and since then we have been collaborating intensly, in particular in a research platform I am very proud of, in another Nature-text and in a whitepaper on data solidarity.
The next, really strange legal problem with publishing houses getting awake too late is already here, btw: Isn’t that cute - a publisher trying to hinder me to feed (sometimes my own) texts into an LLM? Let me do contract law 101 here: Who are the contractual partners, what are the essentialia negotii of the contract and what does § 42h section 1 and section 5 Austrian Copyright Law say on the matter?
I started the debate - very briefly, just out of curiosity to see what would happen - on LinkedIn.
Media Privilege
On Wednesday I published a short opinion article on the interplay between Austrian data protection and media law.
This received feedback in traditional media, including Falter, ORF, Der Standard and ORF-ZIB II. The interview with the newly appointed president of Austria’s supreme court on the matter is also very interesting.
The issue also triggered a very interesting debate on Social media, with contributions from, for example, Anna Thalhammer,
Martin Thür
and Anna Wallner.
Reform of University Laws
A proposal for reform of the current laws was presented in the Parliament on Wednesday. This is relevant for (my) work in OEAWI as it suggests, inter alia, a limitation period of 10 years for plagiarism. KronenZeitung has an article, ZIB II a report with an interview of OEAWI’s managing director Sabine Chai on this.
#arsboni
Sonja Wehsely spoke about double regulation by the Medical Devide Regulation and the AIA (in English),
Dr. Lukas Feiler and Dr. Arthur Stadler put specificities of Austrian Platform Regulation in context
and Martha Suda introduced us into her impressive career and her tasks as a delegate for Wirtschaftskammer Österreich in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Café Bräunerhof
One of the most traditional/outdated/special Cafés in Vienna, accepting payments per Cash only (of course) and trying thei best to keep tourists (and other customers) away. I spent an hour there between two meetings with 2 eggs in a jar, a chives bread and a coffee. You should go there, especially in the morning.
Prospect
Katy
We have a planned review in one of our projects on Monday - KATY. KATY is about an AI-Empowered Personalised Medicine System to Improve Cancer Treatments. More info here:
We are well prepared, but a review always feels like an exam, so please wish us luck.
#arsboni
I will in particular learn more about legal research and legal writing (in times of AI) next week.
On Wednesday, 27th of March, at 16.30, Rebecca McMenamin will teach me on legal writing and research in New Zealand (in English).
And Jan Sramek from Jan Sramek Verlag will join me in the laundry to speak about citation rules, legal research standards and the Austrian law book market.
Digital-Policy
We are going to have a very interesting conference on April 9th. Renate Nikolay will give the (first) keynote. It’s not 100 % sure yet, but it’s very likely that we will have another very interesting keynote speaker at this event - and you are the first to hear about this. Entry is free (and coffee included), but please register.
I promise to give an #arsboni hoodie for free to the first person sending me the right guess who the second keynote speaker will be. You need to send me this (via e-mail, simple reply-mail should work), before I announce the news, obviously. Tip: It’s an Austrian woman.
Daisy
loves to play ball
and to frolic around in spring.
Have a wonderful week!
Kind regards
Nikolaus (Forgó)