Responsibility – following the Rana Plaza disaster
Since the collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory, occupational safety in Bangladesh has improved – according to the results of a Foundation-funded study. But what will remain if the politicians don't keep at it?
Many courts in the USA use software to assess the risk of recidivism of defendants. Should AI also be used in the German judicial system? An interdisciplinary research group is now seeking answers to the provocative issues raised in this context.
Thanks to increasingly sophisticated voice control, communication between man and machine is making great strides. Will the dialog with intelligent systems change our society?
The linguist Birgit Hellwig is researching the language acquisition of small children – on the example of Qaqet, an endangered language in Papua New Guinea.
The microbiologist Tobias Erb has reinvented photosynthesis in the laboratory. Might this one day lead to industrial application – with the beneficial side effect of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? The next steps will be exciting ...
A Pharmacy From the Rainforest: Remedies for the Mind
Fabien Schultz is searching for natural materials that can be used to treat mental health conditions. To this end, he is working with indigenous communities in Uganda and Tanzania – and with monkeys.
Wolfram Pernice is researching how computers based on neural networks could in future compute even faster and more efficiently – using light instead of electronics. And real nerves instead of optical fibres.
