The revolution has begun: artificial intelligence is changing everything

Good morning, dear reader,

there is a crisis again today. Like actually every day. We had only just put the Corona crisis behind us when we fell into the energy and inflation crisis because of the guy in the Kremlin and realized with shock that the Bundeswehr is also in a crisis. Climate crisis is anyway, education crisis ditto. The banking crisis is back, too, and the refugee crisis is swelling again. Not to forget the crisis of democracy (populists!) and the environmental crisis (species extinction!). Because of the high cocoa prices, confectionery manufacturers are now warning of the chocolate crisis before Easter. It comes really thick.

“Good morning dear sorrows, are you all here yet?” my buddy Jürgen warbled 36 years ago, but today it’s really all a lot worse: Wherever you look or click, there is a crisis everywhere. We at t-online also write about crises every day; sometimes we smell one even there, where perhaps there is none. More and more people are deterred by the constant alarm in politics, business and the media, they flee into private life, close the news apps and zap away when the news starts. “News Fatigue”, the “news fatigue” is already being researched at universities. People don’t want to hear the constant bad news anymore.

So let’s look at things a little differently today. Not with blinkers and not by tinting dark things pink. Let’s write about crises, but not about their bad sides. But about them Opportunities, who are in crisis. “Crisis is a productive state. You just have to take away the taste of catastrophe”, has Max Frisch said. He had to know, after all he suffered from personal crises for years. In fact, a look at history shows that crises can also trigger a lot of good things. Because they make us reconsider certainties and push new things forward. Any examples? Here you go:

• The plague epidemic in the 14th century killed a third of the European population. But it also shook the narrow-minded religious worldview and paved the way for the Renaissance. Humanism, Reformation, literacy, maritime trade: We still benefit from the achievements of that time today.
• The First World War shredded peace and 17 million people in Europe. New weapons led to serious injuries, which is why physicians devised new methods of treatment: blood banks and plastic surgery emerged. Scientists researched under high pressure and brought their inventions to market after the war, including the first antibiotics, the jet engine and the television. In the 1920s, every third Nobel Prize winner came from Germany, a country that lost the war.
• The oil price shock of the 1970s plunged the global economy into a deep crisis. At the same time, it was the birth of alternative technologies, from bio-diesel to solar thermal energy and the expansion of wind power.

Crises are bad, but they can also develop creative powers. They accelerate innovation because people are forced to improvise at high pressure. Also the Corona-Crisis changed the world, and by that I don’t mean working from home and video conferencing. What a tremendous boost digitalization experienced during the months of stalemate, when millions of people sat at home and brooded in front of computers for months, is now revealing the rocketing rise of the artificial intelligence (TO).

Well, that’s not aesthetically perfect yet, but it will be in a few months. And if all of this seems scary to you, let me add that AI can of course not only paint strange little pictures, but also do a lot of useful things. She can already describe protein structures more precisely than anyone and design combinations against pathogens. As early as 10 or 15 years from now, we as patients will probably be receiving individually manufactured medicines, precisely tailored to our symptoms and free from side effects. AI can calculate traffic flows and help to save a lot of CO2. She can calculate weather phenomena and warn of hurricanes. She can translate texts into any language, which is useful not only on vacation, but also in diplomacy and science. It can sift through vast amounts of data in seconds, helping us draw new conclusions and become smarter. Also in the fight against all the crises.

As so often in life, innovations often seem threatening at first, but they also have many good sides. And it is not to be expected that the machines will eventually subdue us humans. “Artificial intelligence can only be as good as the people,” says the Dresden AI researcher Richard Socher, whom I met in New York a few days ago. He built a search engine that works with AI without siphoning off user data. This could be a better Google. In the coming weeks he wants to bring it to the German market, a few days ago he did Olaf Scholz and its ministers tells what Germany should do in order not to be left behind by digital developments. Introduce computer science as a compulsory subject in schools, for example, and facilitate investments in start-ups to attract venture capitalists. After all, it is not written anywhere that digital companies can only come from America and China.

We are experiencing a revolution, and Germany has a good chance of benefiting enormously from it. To do this, however, we have to be quick and seize the opportunity instead of ducking away in fear. It would be nice if tomorrow’s Google were invented by a Saxon.

Speaking of the federal government: After a good year in office, nerves in the traffic light government are on edge. After almost 20 hours of negotiations, the SPD, Greens and FDP adjourned yesterday afternoon because the chancellor had to travel to Rotterdam with several ministers for German-Dutch government consultations. This morning the Chancellor’s Office is going into extra time in an attempt to clear up the controversial issues.