DAAD hosts first dinner talk in 2023 on the topic: Security and Artificial Intelligence

It is a fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is bringing about a paradigm shift in how we see and move in the world. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly a topic of public discussion, sometimes even with concern: Will computers replace us? Are artificial brains better doctors, engineers, or even artists? Can ChatGPT, a machine learning system (trained by humans) with supervised and reinforced learning methods, pass the most difficult university exams?

These questions and issues were discussed during a dinner talk organized by the DAAD Regional Office with Professor Joachim Posegga, Chair of IT Security at the University of Passau in Germany, at the Panafric Hotel in Nairobi on March 29.

Professor Posegga, who conducted a fact-finding mission to Kenya for his university, has extensive experience in both industry and academia and is particularly dedicated to the security issues that may arise from the increased use of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives… “Before 2000,” he explained, “IT was a digital ecosystem; after the millennium, it increasingly included people (as well as the risk of identity fraud); and since the 2010s, it’s increasingly connected to the physical world, which is more vulnerable as a result.”

About 40 DAAD alumni and guests from Kenyan universities, private industry, and government agencies—and some online attendees—showed up for the first Dinnertalk in 2023 in a hybrid format and agreed that digital security is all about reducing complexity and making the system manageable for humans. “Can you really call it artificial intelligence,” asked one attendee, “or should we rather talk about artificial capabilities?” Well, yes: as long as a kilo of feathers weighs the same as two kilos of bricks for ChatGPT, human intelligence will remain indispensable.

Dinner Talks are a DAAD event format in which German scientists give a specialised lecture over dinner and offer insights into the country’s scientific environment. A discussion and scientific exchange then follow.