Ceiling view from ONB’s ceremonial hall
Retrospect
Talks and Presentations
This was a rather busy week with lots of gigs with different bands.
On Monday, WKO invited me to speak about “AI and Law” at a small conferenc bringing academics and local private practice closer together. We appreciated the guided tour in the ceremonial hall and the keynotes given by Claudia Wutscher and Andreas Rath. Andreas showed, inter alia, an app that composes popsongs on any topic in any genre within seconds- here’s one example on AI, Austria and the law. Investment of money: 0 €. Investment of time: 20 seconds.
Rosemarie Schön and Carmen Simon-Klinbacher reported on the event on LinkedIn (with more and better pictures).
Tuesday brought a highlight with a half day conference on #digitalpolicy. I had the pleasure to speak to and with guests such as state secretary Claudia Plakolm or deputy directo general Renate Nikolay. Thanks to Austria’s telekom provider A1 we could use a nice room in their headquarter and also their video system so that the full event (without a confidential on site debate at the end) is available on YouTube.
The conceptually underlying study I coauthored (this is, importantly, not a study of UNIVIE but by its three authors) found some interest at Der Standard. We argue that the current status quo of digital regulation in Austria is organised in vertical silos in different ministries and authorities and that this we need better communication and cooperation among authorities.
Two slides on our ideas:
On Wednesday and Thursday I lectured on the AI act within two lecture series at UNIVIE. The Thursday event is online - with an interesting second part on fact checking from the perspective of Austria’s News Agency APA, given by Florian Schmidt (The first minutes of his presentation are missing in the recording, unfortunately).
#arsboni
Elisabeth Paar spoke about her thought provoking, brilliantly written and fundamental PHD-thesis on AI in civil procedings.
Media
I gave an interview for profil on missing imprints of politicians and poltical parties and some of the upcoming gigs were mentioned such as one on media freedom in European Commission’s premises in Vienna, one on fake news in DORF.TV.
A book on the Austrian Doping Law was published recently, with a chapter on data protection I am responsible for.
Prospect
#arsboni
The upcoming week is dedicated to Universities and their reform.
On Friday, April 11, at 14.00 I will speak (again) with Dr. Kristin Eichhorn on problems in the Austrian and German academic employment laws and their negative consequences for staff and employers. Background for this the current reform proposal of the Law for non-tenured staff (“Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz”) that was presented by the Federal Government in March 2024.
On Wednesday, April 17, at 17.30 CET I will speak with the President of Bucerius Law School, Prof. Dr. Michael Grünberger on reform ideas in the German legal education system and their impact on students. A group of professors, deans, and other stakeholders presented an extensive list of reform proposals in a paper called “Hamburger Protokoll” recently - and this is what we will talk about.
#ai and police work
Join us on Friday, April 19, at a conference on the impact of the AI Act on modern police work. Experts from the “Bundeskriminalamt” will deal with AI applications in police work and with face recognition.
Eva Korenjak Lalovic, Lukas Faymann and Peter Hübelbauer from our department will speak about “their” projects and their perspective on the AI act there.
We offer free entry (with some coffee, tea etc. at the end), but please register if you plan to come (probably no stream will be available here).
Daisy
doesn’t always like shakehands.
© Felix Forgó
Have a wonderful week!
Kind regards
Nikolaus (Forgó)