Wunderbar Together: Reconnecting the Transatlantic Digital Economy – The Role of Trust in AI

Wunderbar Together: Reconnecting the Transatlantic Digital Economy – The Role of Trust in AI

Date: 28th of October 2021

Start: 16:00 CEST

Registration: Click here

The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University (AICGS) and the Brandenburg Institute for Society and Security (BIGS) invite you to our upcoming public webinar “Reconnecting the Transatlantic Digital Economy—The Role of Trust in AI”. Artificial intelligence is a promising but also contested emerging technology for economic productivity, social interactions, and national security. Its significance is accentuated by the growing systemic competition that China, one of the world’s top AI innovators, presents to the United States and the European Union. Germany and the United States have considerable interest in harvesting AI’s potential and, at the same time, in preventing the development and use of AI systems that are contrary to liberal democratic values. More recently, the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council launched at the end of September offers one promising avenue for transatlantic cooperation on AI governance.

We are delighted to welcome as speakers for this event Stephen C. Anderson, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and Andreas Könen, Director-General for Cyber and Information Security in the German Federal Ministry of the Interior. They will discuss the respective U.S. and German government approaches to AI innovation, regulation, and governance, offer their perspectives on the commercial, values, and security implications of AI deployment, and examine the strategic implications of policy convergence and divergence in these areas for the transatlantic relationship.

This public webinar is part of the Wunderbar Together 2021 Initiative supported by the German Foreign Office.

Panelists:

Andreas Könen is the Director General of the department CI – Cyber and Information security at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI). Previously he was the Head of Directorate IT II – IT and cyber security; secure information technology and ÖS III Cyber security in the field of law enforcement and domestic intelligence at the German Federal Ministry of the interior. Before this he was the Vice President of the German “Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)”. Mr Könen, a graduate mathematician, joined the BSI in 2006, taking on the post as the head of the executive staff of the BSI Director General. In 2009 he became the head of the division “Security in Applications and Critical Infrastructures” and subsequently head of the department “Security Consulting and Coordination”. Prior to BSI, Mr Könen held various positions in the field of information technology within the German Federal Administration, including executive functions.

Stephen C. Anderson is the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. In this capacity, he leads development of international Internet, data, and privacy policies and related negotiations with foreign governments. Previously, Mr. Anderson was Director of the Office of Specialized and Technical Agencies in the State Department’s Bureau for International Organization Affairs. In that role, he was responsible for U.S. relations with over 40 specialized UN agencies, funds and programs, and was the lead U.S. negotiator of the successful U.S. effort to reform the Universal Postal Union’s remuneration system for the ecommerce era. In 2017, Mr. Anderson was the State Department Visiting Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. From 2014 to 2017, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo, Madagascar, where he helped restore full diplomatic relations after a 2009 coup. He served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan focused mainly on the management of provincial reconstruction teams. Mr. Anderson has also been posted to Mexico, Germany, Guatemala, Argentina, and Italy since joining the Foreign Service in 1994. He is the recipient of numerous State Department superior and meritorious honor awards.