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Digitalisation

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  Artificial intelligence in scientific research: ‘you need a certain basic scepticism’

  Blog 06/03/2025

  Artificial intelligence as a research assistant? It’s definitely an interesting option. After all, as in other fields, AI could take a lot of work off scientists’ hands – for example, when it comes to research or summarising findings. Oeko-Institut has therefore initiated its first projects on this topic.

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  Beyond artificial safety

  Blog 04/08/2025

  While we translate texts, generate images or simply search for answers with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI), very few of us consider whether AI is actually safe. This is likely due to the lack of discussion or efforts to address safety issues. Dr Heidy Khlaaf, Chief AI Scientist at the AI Now Institute, has been working on AI-related safety issues for a good many years. There is still a complete disregard of AI’s susceptibility to error, she says.

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  6,270 cars, 2,646 bikes, 1,199 pedestrians Traffic counting – what’s it for?

  Blog 03/13/2025

  On a chilly January day in Berlin, 6,270 cars drive past on Köpenicker Strasse – along with an additional 2,518 heavy vehicles such as trucks or buses and 2,646 bikes. During the course of this Wednesday, 1,199 pedestrians are also out and about in the street. How do we know?

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  Transcript of the Podcast: Sustainability through digitalisation?

  Blog 03/08/2023

  The Podcast with Carl-Otto Gensch for reading.

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  How environmentally friendly are books?

  Blog 10/13/2020

  The search engine of a large online bookseller finds 695 books matching the search term “Greta Thunberg”. Reading about her climate activism is wonderful, but does she approve, we wonder? After all, the printing of all those pages is itself a source of CO2 emissions. We mark the Leipzig Book Fair by asking which factors influence the ecological footprint of books and e-book readers. The answer will help readers to decide how climate-friendly they can make their reading. Carl-Otto Gensch of the Oeko-Institut has done a few calculations.

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  The carbon footprint of our digital lifestyles

  Blog 04/24/2020

  Oeko-Institut is reputed for knowing the answers to many relevant environmental questions concerning the future. Senior researcher Jens Gröger is currently working on the topic of "sustainable digitization" and has done the maths.

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  re:publica Accra was a seminal moment

  Blog 10/18/2019

  The Ghanaian digital sector is growing and offers a wealth of opportunities for participation and innovation. We talked to William Edem Senyo of Impact Hub Accra about the importance of digital media in Ghana and re:publica Accra.

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  Governance in The Smart City: Sketches of A Research Programme in Legal Theory

  01/11/2019

  [Translate to English:] A contribution by Dr Peter Gailhofer in the newly published anthology "The Globalisation of Urban Governance".