The transformative potential of generative AI lies at the heart of this captivating DLD25 presentation by leading AI researcher Björn Ommer of LMU Munich.
He opens his talk with a look at the transatlantic shipping industry of the early 20th centry. “They were swept away, not by an iceberg, not by a recession or war”, Ommer points out, but by the jet engine. Why? Because the companies defined their business to narrowly, Ommer argues. “They thought of themselves as being in the transatlantic shipping business, when they could have thought of themselves as being transportation companies.”
The lesson he sees for today’s companies is to embrace AI as a foundational and enabling technology, “much like electricity or the personal computer.”
The effect, Ommer predicts, will be profound because AI will become “ever deeper integrated in our everyday life”.
Generative AI removes barriers by enabling computers to understand human language. “The computer becomes much more accessible”, Ommer says. “It understands what we want, what we know, what we don’t know.”
But that is only the beginning, the LMU researcher believes. “We are probably in the field of generative AI where the car manufacturing industry was 100 years ago”, Ommer says. “This is just a starting point.”
Given the importance of artificial intelligence to the economy, Germany needs to “build up the critical expertise” for AI development, Ommer says, praising the Bavarian government for building an AI foundation model and strengthening the local AI ecosystem through its BAIOSPHERE network.
