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Kretschmann counters CDU demands: No new university for AI in sight!
Prime Minister Kretschmann discusses future plans and the founding of a university in Baden-Württemberg in a political exchange with the CDU.
Kretschmann counters CDU demands: No new university for AI in sight!
The incumbent Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann recently expressed optimism about the challenges facing Baden-Württemberg. This positive commitment came against the background of the political debate about a possible tenth university in the country. CDU politician Manuel Hagel, who brought such an idea into play, calls for the establishment of an institution with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI). However, Kretschmann, who has held the prime minister's office for 14 years, clearly rejected the demands and emphasized that if he had recognized the need for a new university, he would have already established it. “We want to further strengthen the existing universities,” said the Green politician. In this context, he also highlighted the establishment of a renowned research institute for chip design in Heilbronn and made it clear that the existing resources are not just about quantity, but above all about quality and that they should be rated as excellent. Context reports that Kretschmann is strategically approaching the recruitment of skilled workers in the USA.
There are signs of a shift in the political arena. The CDU is currently 11 percentage points ahead of the Greens in polls. Given this situation, the Green Party is planning a strategy to catch up in the coming months. Oliver Hildenbrand, former state chairman of the Green Party, appealed to members at a recent party conference to roll up their sleeves and initiate a new departure for Baden-Württemberg. Hildenbrand emphasized that it is now time to communicate the successes of the last 14 years and work on the unity of the party. Voice reports that Hildenbrand and Hagel have cooperated in the past during the 2021 coalition negotiations.
The role of artificial intelligence
The discussion about artificial intelligence is also becoming increasingly important in the higher education sector. Since the end of 2021, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has been promoting the integration of AI into higher education. The aim is to develop study programs and establish intelligent assistance systems and AI-based learning and examination systems. This funding initiative continues to be supported by a federal-state initiative that deals with educational policy strategies to promote AI. This is done, among other things, through projects such as the AI Campus and Cyber Valley, which aim to improve research and training conditions in the areas of machine learning and robotics. The education server makes it clear that the debate about AI in higher education is also animated by various studies and publications.
In this context, the relevance of facilities such as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) as well as digital learning platforms and chatbots such as ChatGPT, which have become increasingly important in recent years, will be discussed. However, the use of such technologies also presents challenges, particularly in terms of the quality of the results and the information sources based on them. The academic debate about students' demands for intelligent tutoring systems is also an important element of this discussion.