Scenario: Pioneers network at the gala dinner of the DLD conference – Munich

Immanuel Kant was a man with fixed routines. He is said to have taken a walk every evening with such precise regularity that the people of Königsberg used this as a reliable way to measure time. However, he was not known for his punctuality, but rather as one of the most important philosophers, Kant is considered a pioneer of the Enlightenment. His writings stimulated new ways of thinking and the Latin proverb “Sapere aude,” “Have courage to use your own understanding,” became Kant’s motto since his letter of 1784.

Almost a quarter of a millennium later, under the motto “Dare to know!” Burda’s “Digital Life Design” (DLD) conference series took place in Munich, including a festive gala dinner with invited guests, namely the thought leaders of the present who are shaping the future. They come from California, Oxford, New York or Helsinki, from McKinsey, Harvard or from Garching from the TU Munich. On Thursday evening in the foyer of the Israelite Community on Jakobsplatz, they pull out their smartphones to show generated QR codes on the displays for scanning, with which they actually want to exchange their contact details, only to, a little disappointed, then dig printed business cards out of their pockets . There is hardly any reception behind the heavy armored glass.

“At DLD you get a good feel for where the digital future is going in the next few years”

Between tech pioneers like Ewa Dürr, head of product strategy at Google and responsible for the development of cloud-based AI for Europe, and board members like Claudia Nema (Telekom) and Katharina Herrmann (Hubert-Burda-Media), Ludwig Prince of Bavaria also mingles with the people . “At DLD you get a good feel for where the digital future is going in the next few years,” he says. “The fact that people from all over the world come to Munich and things like this take place here is important for Bavaria.”

So what are the most important inventions and innovations? “In the future we will have a mixed reality. There will be natural perception combined with virtual reality,” says Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. Lisa Gina Pfabe from the DLD team warns: “AI is already as commonplace as electricity. We now have to think about how we deal with the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, i.e. the regulation of AI in Europe. Data protection is different in the USA dealt with.” And American investor and businessman Morgan Howard says: “The biggest challenge with AI, which is becoming more and more powerful, is ethics. How can we teach it the rules of the game?”

So it’s good that decision-makers are present. The evening almost feels like a cabinet meeting of the state government, because a few ministers have come. Judith Gerlach has held her position as Bavarian Minister of Health since last November; before that, she was responsible for digital affairs. What innovations does she see for Bavaria? “Artificial intelligence can relieve the administrative burden, and we are currently trying to make progress there,” she says, revealing how she herself uses AI in her everyday work. For example, to get inspiration for her speeches, she uses the AI ​​chatbot Chat-GPT. Gerlach takes a quick selfie before the doors to the Hubert Burda Hall open.

Open detailed view

The 32 round tables are decorated with floral arrangements of white roses, green swan silk plants and blue thistles and set with glass plates and small bowls filled with hummus. Bringing people from business, science and politics to one table is the core of the conference, and Steffi Czerny does this with experience and style. Together with Israeli high-tech guru Yossi Vardi, Czerny founded the DLD conference eighteen years ago. In 2022, the dinner after the first day of the conference took place in the Royal Hall of the Residenz, and in 2023 in the Bayerischer Hof. There were 16 lectures this year before the gala dinner, ten of which had AI in the title.

Open detailed view

“I promise that the speech was not written with artificial intelligence, but with human intelligence,” says Culture Minister Markus Blume in his speech before the main course (sea bass with artichoke on white tomato foam). Sitting at the table with the former Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) is a man who founded a start-up that is working on an app that lets an AI do the annoying paperwork like tax returns. “I want to give people the weekend back,” says Peter Meier with a broad smile. Two women from Nigeria sit to the left of Meier. “We are trying to build bridges between Europe and Africa – and to make the connections so that they are sustainable and long-lasting,” says Inya Lawal from the Ascend Studios Foundation.

It is clear to everyone present that AI has long since penetrated every area of ​​life, from art to health, as a Munich dentist asserts, to God. One of the evening’s most enduring guests is the American tech pioneer Henry Monzon. He has been managing director of the software company Vernaio since last fall and regularly commutes between California and Munich. His forecast for the development of AI? “The train just left.”