“The perspective of autonomy serves as a key approach to the differentiation of a future society and makes it possible to update the discourse figures of modernity under digital conditions. The concept of autonomy itself serves us as an object of reflection for the exploration of current, technological changes.”
“Autonomy has become a key concept in the political discourse of digitalization: at the strategic level, it expresses a growing discomfort with dependencies and also reflects geopolitical frictions. At the same time, the proliferation of a multitude of autonomous systems generates complex regulatory dimensions for states, some of which run at cross-purposes with the strategic autonomy narrative. The tensions and intersections between autonomy and autonomous systems are the focus of our interdisciplinary research.”
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gramelsberger
Co-Speaker
gramelsberger.humtec.rwth-aachen.deTheaterplatz 14
D-52062 Aachen
“For the virtualized society, an increasing "natural" environmentality of autonomous machines is emerging, which will challenge the autonomy of humans. The growing actoriality of machines requires interdisciplinary reflection on the possibilities and limits of the interaction of autonomous machines with autonomous humans.”
Prof. Dr. Frank Thomas Piller
Co-Speaker
piller@time.rwth-aachen.deKackertstraße 7, 3. Etage
D-52072 Aachen
"An AI will never be able to perform creative tasks" -- this old hope of many people has been overtaken by technological progress (e.g. Transformer Language Models). When autonomous machines take over tasks that until recently we saw in the domain of humans, current rules for the design of the division of labor are being challenged. For me as an economist, this raises the question: What degree of autonomy do we ascribe to these "decision-making machines", and what degree do they deprive themselves of?