The CSCP to Bring Sustainability to the Artificial Intelligence Debate @ZukunftDigital Fittingly titled “AI made in Germany”, the German Federal Government presented its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in late 2018. With AI as one of the cornerstones of digitalisation, one major task will be the integration of the AI strategy into existing digitalisation strategies. As part of the Mittelstand-Digital Competence Centre eStandards, the CSCP is contributing its expertise. Triggered by the new Federal AI Strategy, Mittelstand-Digital has initiated a Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, in order to best serve SMEs with all their AI-related projects and needs. The Working Group consists of representatives of each Competence Centre, so new insights are distributed throughout the country as well as across focus topics. The CSCP’s Thomas Wagner participated in the Working Groups first meetings this year as a representative to the Competence Centre eStandards, whose Co-working Space Wuppertal is hosted at the CSCP. He sees the integration of sustainability into AI-thinking as essential: “In the working group, experts from research and innovation on Artificial Intelligence from the strongest German institutions come together. We see that developments around AI in Germany are moving fast and interesting solutions are being developed. Digitalisation in general, and AI in particular, can benefit the people and the planet significantly, if done right. At the Competence Centre eStandards, we inform SMEs extensively about the potentials that they can realise when thinking sustainability and digitalisation together.” He hopes that this message also resonates within the Working Group: “together, we can design AI in such a way that it develops sustainably and enables sustainable development, contributing to a good life for all. The potential that AI holds towards that end are enormous, but only if we actively design AI solutions with this purpose.” It will be exciting to see how the new working group influences the Competence Centres’ work on AI, what kind of practice projects will result from the new initiative and which best practices they can identify for SMEs across Germany. Mittelstand-Digital is an initiative by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the largest of its kind, to make small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) fit for digitalisation. Through 25 Competence Centres, Mittelstand-Digital informs small and medium-sized enterprises about the opportunities and challenges of digitalisation. They help local small retailers as well as larger production companies with expert knowledge, demonstration centres, and networks to facilitate the exchange of experiences and practical examples, free of charge, and disseminate best practices to inspire and instruct other SMEs. The CSCP is a partner in the Competence Centre eStandards, where we emphasize the importance of sustainability in the process of digitalization. For further information, please contact Thomas Wagner. Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash