Night View from University of Macau Campus to Macau
Retrospect
Macao/Macau
The moment I am writing this, I am still in Macao (or in Portugese: Macau). I learned so much in the few days, not only during the really excellent conference on similarities and differences in Chinese and Euopean AI regulation, but also during spare time and coffee break conversations; for example, that one can study law in English, Chinese or Portugese here.
I haven’t left campus yet since my arrival, due to the intense programme, the bus route to the city and lack of interest for gambling (by the way: Macau public officials are not allowed to gamble in the casinos). The weather is warm (22 C), humidity very high and air quality low so that air condition is everywhere - already in February. Many people, including students, wear masks.
The University campus is located on mainland China - and not in Macau. It was built - completly from scratch - approximately ten years ago. China has leased the land to the Government of Macau. The - huge - site is encircled by a wall, a river and several canals so that you can’t simply leave it on foot. It’s probably the only green and spatious place in the world’s most densely populated area. Most students haven’t returned yet after Chinese New Year’s celebrations so that it’s very spatious and very empty at the moment. Due to the omnipresent, but clearly disappearing Portugese roots in the area, the different Asian influences (China, Hong Kong, Macau), the Casino lights at night and my jetlag, I feel very much like in a combination of The Truman Show and Lost in Translation.
The wall, illuminated and with some Chinese flags and appartment buildings behind
The aula has huge videowalls, one of them showing the research output - measured by publications per year - of individual researchers who are presented with full name and a portrait.
The original has the full name and a portrait photo that is not blurred.
On campus, all amenities are at hand - restaurants, convenience stores, perfect sports facilities etc.
But no bars.
Most students and also staff live on campus. Eduroam - probably the most important success of academic IT ever invented - works perfectly, but not for sites such as chat.openai.com - access is blocked (but can be circumvented via VPN). It’s somehow unclear whether it’s the University or OpenAI that des the access blocking. I decided better not to investigate this (and write about it) further.
I found this robot placed next to the guard at the lecture hall (and there are many guards …), I don’t know whether it’s doing anything.
Rostam J. Neuwirth and Xingzhong YU were the kindest hosts one can imagine - and organised this mind opeing event beautifully together with Iris Eisenberger. Students were remarkably interested and active and straight forward and fluent in English so that they shaped the debate significantly. (Academic) China is monitoring very closely what the EU is doing and is working on another Chinese law on AI that is planned for 2025.
Some further covereage of the conference (and pictures) can be found on LinkedIn here, here, here and here.
Prospect
Court of Audit Conference
Unfortunately, I need to return to Vienna before the weekend. But I have a very good reason to travel early which is that I am speaking at the yearly internal conferece of the Austrian Court of Audit on Monday morning. The venue is the the big festival hall of UNIVIE so that it will be a home match - at least geographically.
My topic is the legal framework of AI.
Better Administration
On Tuesday, February 27, the initiative for better administration is giving a pressconference at Presseclub Concordia. We will speak about recent developments, including corruption, rule of law, unbundling of politics and administration and freedom of information. I will cover the last mentioned aspect. We will also present six questions that we ask all parties represented in the Austrian Parliament prior to the elections in autum.
#arsboni
Inflation is high and food prices are still clearly above EU average in Austriay. This triggers questions whether the lack of price transparency is part of the problem and would require - legally and politcally - public interventions in the domain. Mario Zechner is the inventor of one of the private initiatives to deal with the issue and we will talk - again - on what such private initiatives can and can not do - in substitution of missing public initiatives.
Martin Selmayr
The dates and other organisational details for our joint seminar are set and registration is open. This is a unique opportunity to see the EU (commission) and its lawmaking from an insider’s perspective.
AI Advisory Board
The newly founded AI Advisory Board is scheduled to meet for the first time next week. I am one of its members. The legislative process leading to this new institution ist documented on the Parliament’s website.
© https://www.digitalaustria.gv.at/Themen/KI/AI-Advisory-Board.html
Daisy
Daisy has no Jetlag but still insists that having a nap is always a good idea.
© Birgit Forgó-Feldner
Have a wonderful week!
Kind regards
Nikolaus (Forgó)