18.05.2021

Inaugural Meeting of the German AI Standardisation and Conformity Coordination Group

At the invitation of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the inaugural meeting of the AI Standardisation and Conformity Coordination Group took place last week. With immediate effect, Alexander Rabe, Managing Director of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, brought the voice of the Internet industry to this 21-member committee.

The members of the coordination group are leading figures from politics, industry, academia, civil society and standardisation organisations. Included among the members are Prof. Wolfgang Wahlster, Steering Committee Platform Learning Systems, Prof. Stefan Wrobel, Director of the Fraunhofer IAIS Institute, Dr. Tina Kluewer, Chair of the German Federal Association for Artificial Intelligence, Jutta Gurkmann, Member of the Executive Board of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV) and Joachim BĂĽhler, Managing Director of the German Technical Inspection Association (VdTĂśV).

The role of the coordination group is to propose and initiate concrete and effective recommendations regarding the need for standardisation for politics, industry and academia.

Focal topics of the coordination group include support for the European regulatory framework on AI, cooperation with relevant actors in the field of standardisation in Germany and Europe, ideas for the agile development of norms and standards on the basis of AI, strategic content support for the updating of the AI standardisation roadmap, the development of competences and the need for (further) training in dealing with AI (professional and academic).

Background:

For approximately one year now, the German Institute for Standardisation (DIN) and the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (DKE) have been working together on the standardisation roadmap alongside the coordinators of the German federal government’s AI strategy as well as around 300 experts from industry, academia, relevant authorities and civil society. At last year’s Digital Summit, initial results to pave the way for reliable and trustworthy AI systems and applications via standards were already presented. Germany is the first country in the world to have undertaken such a comprehensive analysis of the current status and need for norms and standards for AI.

As part of the coordination group, eco is now once again making its active contribution to the expansion of Germany as an AI location.

Inaugural Meeting of the German AI Standardisation and Conformity Coordination Group 4