Big Bang AI Festival: ‘Doing is like wanting, only more extreme’

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AI is a huge opportunity, said Digital Minister Wildberger at the "Big Bang AI" festival. Germany must "flip the switch in its head" at a time when President Trump has pushed ahead with his "AI Action Plan". "I'm not going to go into all the details, but what I took away with me was, you really have to give the Americans credit for this, their enthusiasm for technology, their enthusiasm for innovation," said Wildberger, who spoke to the Trump administration about AI in July. If Europe and Germany took a leaf out of their book, a lot would already have been achieved. Germany urgently needs to catch up.

Criticism of regulation

While AI innovations are tried out quickly and implemented on a large scale in the USA, many German founders have the impression that regulations and testing procedures are the main focus. Wildberger acknowledged deficits here. He held out the prospect of several projects that would benefit start-ups. Among other things, a "24-hour company formation process" is to be introduced that runs completely digitally – from notarization to registration, as already anchored in the coalition agreement. Wildberger also wants to streamline administrative processes and make them more efficient with the help of generative AI. Initial pilot projects have been launched, but the aim is to use it across the board.

AI is a paradigm shift that opens up both economic opportunities and social challenges. "Of course, this also has implications for job prospects. But I don't want to scare anyone now, because the worst of all answers is not to participate," summarized Wildberger, who emphasized that he takes people's concerns "very seriously". He said it was particularly important to him to develop an AI based on European values. In this way, Europe could not only remain competitive, but ideally also become a global role model.

One of his government's key projects is also the massive expansion of the computing infrastructure. In addition to traditional data centres, the German government also wants to bring a "gigafactory" for computing power to Europe. This should make both AI training data and so-called inference applications (practical use of AI models) available to start-ups and companies. The government must ensure that research and development does not migrate to the USA.

"More crisis" is not really possible. It is high time now. "The talks I'm having in Brussels, which I'm also holding in my cabinet, including with the prime ministers, make me really hopeful" because everyone has the same view. Now it's time for implementation. "There's a huge difference between wanting to and doing," says Wildberger. The young people know much better than he does: "Doing is like wanting, only more blatant. And that's what it's all about now. The EU has decided something that is now being implemented". The Minister also attaches particular importance to the medical sector. It cannot be the case "when we develop solutions in the medical sector, for example, that researchers fly to the USA to carry out research".

Steam engine, first aeroplane and AI

In another panel, Christoph Straub, CEO of Barmer, answered whether AI systems really help. However, he also assumed that this technology, like the steam engine or the first aeroplane, could come onto the market and explode or crash. The introductory phase of ChatGPT will also "cause damage". Making the technology more secure always lags behind its introduction. He referred to a case in the USA in which a patient reportedly replaced table salt (sodium chloride) with sodium bromide for several months to lower his blood pressure, following advice from ChatGPT. As a result, he developed bromine poisoning (bromism) with paranoid delusions and subsequently required psychiatric treatment. It is always important to question the results of ChatGPT and co.

"The concept of data protection is an obstacle"

Straub cited the vested interests of individual players as the "first obstacle" to digitalization in the healthcare sector. Politicians then took action. "In the meantime, I would say that the main obstacle we are struggling with is our perception of data protection". It is always a matter of "very sensitive data in the healthcare sector, which must be very well secured, and that is time-consuming". Straub earned laughs for criticizing the high level of security demanded for the ePA by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and data protection experts under the then Minister of Health Jens Spahn.

For the BSI and the then Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, "the highest military security level is just sufficient". According to the head of Barmer, this is a rather complex form of security. When asked by moderator Jens de Buhr from Dup Unternehmer Medien whether this was typically German, he replied: "I don't want to make any judgments at all. He had the opportunity to attend a small event with the new Federal Data Protection Commissioner, Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider. He was curious to see how she would react. This is a political decision and concerns the issue of how health data is handled. He is sad that the GDPR is not being interpreted in such a way "that it will really be quicker and easier to move forward".

Reform backlog

Straub also presented the health insurance companies' perspective – and painted a picture of a system that is suffering from a massive backlog of reforms. While hospitals are too often empty and structures remain inefficient, the costs of highly innovative drugs, so-called biologicals, are exploding, according to Straub. Individual therapies sometimes cost several hundred thousand euros per patient per year, for rare diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy even over two million per injection. "We have now regulated this somewhat, but not when the preparation comes onto the market," says Straub. What is needed are negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry and stricter price regulations – not at the level of individual health insurance funds, but throughout the entire system. High prices are only justified if a promise of a cure is fulfilled.

Taking concerns seriously

The virologist and Federal Drug Commissioner Prof. Dr. Hendrik Streeck set a different tone. As Addiction and Drugs Commissioner, he is responsible for the key areas of "synthetic opioids and crack cocaine, cannabis and media addiction". Media addiction is a growing challenge: one in four children already exhibits risky usage behaviour. "The average for young people is four hours of social media, two hours of gaming and two hours of streaming. That's eight hours a day. [...] There are some who spend an average of 16 or 20 hours a day on their cell phones," says Streeck. Pathologically, "if you neglect other things", this is also referred to as "phubbing". For example, when you no longer talk to your parents at the dinner table or do your homework or hobbies.

In the cannabis debate, Streeck explained that a clear distinction must be made between medicinal and recreational cannabis. Cannabis-induced psychoses occur regularly, especially in adolescents. At the same time, the truth is that 4.5 million adults in Germany regularly use cannabis. An objective debate is needed here.

As a reason for his focus on synthetic opioids, he cited the Europe-wide phenomenon of more and more unpredictable and potent opioids coming onto the market, of which pencil point sizes are lethal. "They are being added to normal seroin, but also to drugs that are ordered online," warned Streeck, referring to the high number of drug-related deaths – around 2200 people. In some cases, the Taliban and Europe's access to natural heroin are no longer able to keep up.

He is very concerned that it is no longer possible to keep track of what is coming onto the market. It would then not be possible to issue warnings or provide antidotes. Streeck is therefore working on an effective monitoring and early warning system, "so that we can ideally tell addiction support services, police officers, paramedics and also the addicts themselves in real time: 'Watch out for heroin [...] on the street that is laced with Nitazene, for example, which has 500 times the potency of heroin. He also emphasized that it is not only medical research with AI that is making progress, but also micro-laboratories in the drug sector.

(mack)