Presentation and Discussion Series at the SAP/TUM Lab in Garching
AI has great potential to transform business and society due to its capabilities to “intelligently” process data and generate output, the production of which used to require human mental capacities. However, to better assess AI’s potential, we must move beyond simplistic characterizations of AI as a human-like “agent” who is “grounded” in some reality and “actually understands.” Instead, we examine AI’s unique relationship with language and meaning.
For humans, data exists within a rich experiential framework—a horizon encompassing understanding, empathy, expectation, and imagination that gives language use its meaning and significance. This raises fundamental questions: To what extent can computational processes operating on statistical patterns replace these experiential dimensions? What forms of meaning can such computations generate? How might AI influence human cognition, emotional responses, and behavior, and what implications does this hold for society? These questions connect to philosophical inquiries that span millennia.
The presentation and discussion series brings together students from the highest-ranked university in the European Union, employees of its largest software company (TUM and SAP), and others at the forefront of business AI. As a basis for our discussions, we study the concepts of the digital, data, text, information, model, digitization, and computation and their relation to seemingly radically different concepts of interpretation, understanding, emotions, and other lived experiences. We discuss conceptual, scientific, economic, and societal developments underpinning the development of digital technology, the design and implementation of AI, the impact of AI on work and society, and the ethical challenges of using AI.