14.04.2025

Recap: UNC-IZEW Conference in March 2025

An interdisciplinary delegation from different departments of the University of Tübingen visited the UNC-Chapel Hill to work together on issues at the intersection between AI and regulation

At the end of March, an interdisciplinary delegation from different departments of the University of Tübingen visited the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to work together on the timely and important issues of the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and regulation and come together at a jointly organized conference under the headline “Towards a Transatlantic Roadmap for AI Regulation”.
The conference was organized by researchers Prof. Tori Ekstrand, Prof. Amanda Reid from UNC-Chapel Hill and Jana Hecktor and Lisa Koeritz from the IZEW at University of Tübingen with funds of the joint seed for research and emerging technologies (LINK?) by both universities.
The delegation from University Tübingen consisted of Jessica Heesen and Andreas Baur of the IZEW as well as Prof. Tanja Thomas from the Institute of Media Studies, Prof. Bernd Heinrich as well as Tommaso Fia from the Faculty of Law and guest researcher Hüseyin Ates from Social Sciences University of Ankara.

From the outset, there were not only conversations about how to define and concretize these two broad terms, but also what positive and negative effects both phenomena (may) have: Can AI be used to improve society? And what changes, if it is strictly regulated? 
Does it help us to move into the right directions or are we hindering process and all the important benefits AI can bring to the table? What are the differences in thinking about, working with or regulating AI between the US and the European Union?
It was a truly enriching combination of heterogenous disciplines willing to talk about shared interests and engaged researchers of all levels – from students of the masters seminar on “Digital Media & Society: AI Law and Data Privacy”, to PhD- and Postdoc candidates as well as professors from the University of Tübingen and the University of North Carolina.
We’re very glad that we were able to include an engaging and insightful keynote talk from Reggie Townsend, Vice President of Data Ethics as SAS, as part of the conference program, titled “Responsible innovation begins with responsible innovators”, where he shared his perspective on the topic of “Responsible AI”.
Our aim throughout the whole event was to not only discuss the emerging questions, challenges and possibilities as well as the possible outlook of a roadmap toward a transatlantic perspective on AI and regulation, but also to lay the foundation for the following collaborative work. We therefore also focused on how to build upon the questions, problems as well as came up with next approaches during the discussions. The group plans to continue this work in the upcoming months based on the understanding and discussion built within those two days. 

For a longer report on the conference and for more information on the scientific partnership and cooperation between UNC and the Ethic Center, take a look here: https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/258278