Programme

Please note that content and timings are still subject to change.

Sunday, 25 May

Pre-opening

Eno: An ever-changing portrait of a musical visionary

Eno: An ever-changing portrait of a musical visionary. The Austrian premiere of the groundbreaking documentary about Brian Eno by Gary Hustwit, screened at the Filmmuseum Vienna.

Monday, 26 May

AI and society

Shaping our digital future

Coffee

AI and democracy

Lawrence Lessig

Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School

Moshe Y. Vardi

University Professor and the George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University

Lunch

AI meets society

Hosted by:

Sabine T. Köszegi

Professor of Labour Science and Organisation at the Institute of Management Sciences at TU Wien

Ricardo Baeza-Yates

Full Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Katja Bühler

Scientific Director, Head of Biomedical Image Informatics Group at VRVis

Toby Walsh

Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW Sydney

AI and eco-social regeneration

Hosted by:

Christoph Thun-Hohenstein

Cultural Manager, Curator, and Author, former Director General for International Cultural Relations at the Austrian Foreign Ministry

Mark Coeckelbergh

Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at University of Vienna

Johann Dorn

Data scientist at GeoSphere Austria, Founder of OnipaBooks, Member of Masakhane

Martine Jarlgaard

Impact Innovator, Venture Builder, and Technology Pioneer

Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff

Head of the Institute for Information Systems & Society at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna)

The session discusses the potential for how AI can contribute to eco-social regeneration. It does this against the background of the Global Risks Report 2025, published at the World Economic Forum, which lists the four most severe global risks from a 10-year perspective as extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, critical change to Earth systems, and natural resource shortages.

The session focuses on the special potential of generative AI, with particular attention to DeepSeek and comparable new Chinese open-source large language models whose code is freely available for use and modification. The aim of the session is to discuss approaches on how key points of Digital Humanism can be consistently intertwined with the requirements of genAI-supported eco-social regeneration (“Regenerative Digital Humanism”). Particular attention should be paid to opportunities and risks for the EU and Europe.

Coffee

AI’s technical trajectory

Hosted by:

Carles Sierra

Research Professor of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC)

Michael Bronstein

Scientific Director AI of AITHYRA Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Edward A. Lee

Professor of the Graduate School in EECS

Ute Schmid

Full Professor of Cognitive Systems at the University of Bamberg, Director of the Bamberg Center of AI (BaCAI), Member of bidt's Board of Directors and bidt's Executive Commitee

Artistic Intelligence and AI

Hosted by:

Paul Feigelfeld

Professor for Digitality and Cultural Mediation at Mozarteum University

Claudia Larcher

Artist, Filmmaker, and AI researcher

Martina Menegon

Artist, Researcher, Curator, Educator

Klaus Speidel

Philosopher, Curator and Art Critic

The session will discuss future-oriented interfaces between artistic and artificial intelligence. New Chinese open-source large language models such as DeepSeek are opening up a new AI race between China and the USA and increasing the pressure on tech companies to make decisive progress towards artificial superintelligence (ASI) in the foreseeable future. For artists, DeepSeek and similar Chinese offerings offer the advantage over US models that they allow their code to be freely available for use and modification. Against this background, the session will, on the one hand, discuss how artistic approaches can help to grasp the full scope of current and foreseeable AI developments and to analyse which specific socio-political measures appear urgently necessary from the perspective of Digital Humanism and what the EU and Europe can do about it. On the other hand, the session will highlight the inspirational potential of these technological leaps for the future development of the arts.

Tuesday, 27 May

Platforms and power

Platform power

Hosted by:

Christiane Wendehorst

President of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Yi Zeng

Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Coffee

Platforms as new institutions

Hosted by:

Michael Stampfer

Managing Director of the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF)

Annabelle Gawer

Professor in Digital Economy & Director, Centre of Digital Economy (CoDE), Surrey Business School, University of Surrey

Ben Snaith

Senior Researcher at the Open Data Institute (ODI)

Philipp Staab

Professor of Sociology at Humboldt University in Berlin and Co-Director at the Einstein Center Digital Future

Digital Collective Action: the use and limitations of governance analogs

Hosted by:

David Passarelli

Director of UN University’s Center for Policy Research

Julia Black

Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford and President of the British Academy

Daria Gritsenko

Associate Professor in Digital Social Science at the Center for Social Data Science at the University of Helsinki

Julia Morse

Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Adil Sulieman

Policy Officer, Information Society Division, African Union Commission

Lunch

Governing AI

Dame Wendy Hall

Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice President and is Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton

Marc Rotenberg

President and Founder of the Center for AI and Digital Policy

Public service media and AI

Hosted by:

Klaus Unterberger

Head of the ORF Public Value Competence Centre

Madiana Asseraf

Head of Corporate Development & Strategic Initiatives at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

Stefan Kollinger

Chief Innovation Officer at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF)

Matthias Pfeffer

Founding Director at the Council for European Public Space

Counteract. Cooperate. Create.

AI is crucial. For many reasons. For everyone.

However, the public sphere of our society depends on trusted information and reliable sources. Despite the enormous rise of social media, traditional media, particularly Public Service Media, still are relevant gate keepers for all of us.

How can they handle the disruptions of digital transformation? Will media be able to counteract the flood of fake news, hate speech and propaganda, the spread of filter bubbles, the misuse of personal data? How can they keep pace with digital technology? And most importantly: How are they using AI in a distinctive way to support democracy and citizenship?

In this session, international experts will discuss the role and relevance as well as the contributions of European Public Service Media creating AI for the common good.

Coffee

Cybersecurity in new times

Hosted by:

Misha Glenny

Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM)

Martina Lindorfer

Associate Professor at TU Wien and key researcher at SBA Research

Matteo Maffei

Key researcher at SBA Research and Professor at TU Wien

Rafal Rohozinski

Founder of SecDev Group and CEO of Zeropoint Security

Social media and AI: What’s on the research agenda?

Fariba Karimi

Full Professor of Social Data Science at the Faculty of Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering at TU Graz

Brigitte Krenn

Deputy Director of the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI)

Sophie Lecheler

Professor of Communication at the University of Vienna

DigHum networks in academia

Laura Koesten

Assistant Professor at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI)

Klaus Staudacher

Researcher at the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt)

Wednesday, 28 May

Disruptive innovation

Innovation in the AI age

Hosted by:

Carina Zehetmaier

Ambassador at Women in AI Austria

Michael A. Cusumano

Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of Management (former Deputy Dean)

Coffee

Reimagining AI through social innovation

Hosted by:

Katja Mayer

Senior Scientist at the Centre for Social Innovation ZSI

Reema Patel

Co-founder of the Ada Lovelace Institute

Mirko Tobias Schäfer

Co-founder and the Sciences Lead of the Data School at Utrecht University

Social innovation fosters new ideas, practices, and collaborations to address societal challenges and enhance collective well-being. In AI, this goes beyond developing technologies—it also involves shaping processes, institutions, and ethical and legal frameworks. This session explores how AI can both support and benefit from social innovation across four angles: public interest AI, participation and openness, sustainability and evaluation. This panel is co-organised with the Center for Social Innovation ZSI Vienna.

Funding a digital future worth living

Hosted by:

Martin Giesswein

WU Executive Academy and DigitalCity.Wien

Günter Klambauer

Professor at the Institute for Machine Learning at JKU Linz

Michael Stampfer

Managing Director of the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF)

Karin Tausz

Managing Director of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

Lunch

From social media to AI: Lessons learned

Hosted by:

Noshir Contractor

Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University

Chris Bail

Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University

Sunimal Mendis

Assistant Professor in Intellectual Property Law at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) of the Tilburg University

Max Schrems

Lawyer, author and speaker, Honorary Chairman at NOYB

The EU Digital Humanism Initiative (EUDHIT)

Hosted by:

Erich Prem

Chief RTI Strategy Advisor and CEO of eutema GmbH

Ivonne A. Herrera

Senior Scientist at NTNU Social Research

Carlos Montalvo

Senior Research Scientist at the TNO VECTOR Centre for Societal Innovation and Strategy

Clara Neppel

Senior Director at IEEE

Coffee

Implementing Digital Humanism in practice

Hosted by:

Georg Krause

CEO of msg Plaut

Martin Giesswein

WU Executive Academy and DigitalCity.Wien

Clara Neppel

Senior Director at IEEE

Natalia Postek

Expert for people with disabilities and inclusion in the Dachverband Wiener Sozialeinrichtungen

Carina Zehetmaier

Ambassador at Women in AI Austria

Join for an engaging panel discussion on the practical implementation of Digital Humanism. The distinguished guests are the winners of the “Digital Humanism in Practice” award, presented in January 2025. The discussion will feature three categories of awardees: individuals who have made significant contributions to the implementation of Digital Humanism, projects that have excellently embodied its principles, and organisations that have made a noteworthy contribution to its realisation. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from leading experts in the field!

Teaching Digital Humanism

Hosted by:

Gerti Kappel

Full Professor at the Institute of Information Systems Engineering and Dean of the Faculty of Informatics at TU Wien

Anna Bon

Researcher and Lecturer in Digital Transformation and Global Development at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Marta Sabou

Professor for Information Systems and Business Engineering at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna)

Alexander Schmölz

Professor of Digital Humanism at the University of applied Sciences BFI Vienna and Managing Director of the Austrian Institute for Vocational Training Research

Dorothea Winter

Research Associate & Advisor to the Rector at the University of the Humanist Association Berlin-Brandenburg

AI and democracy: From values to action

Hosted by:

Astrid Mager

Senior Academy Scientist at the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)

Teki Akuetteh

Founder and Executive Director of the Africa Digital Rights Hub LBG

Siddhi Gupta

Inclusive AI Lab and Assistant Professor, Creative Education at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology

Sebastian Kneidinger

Policy Advisor at epicenter.works

Michael Veale

Associate Professor in digital rights and regulation at the Faculty of Laws, University College London

In times of political polarisation and increasing global competition, this workshop explores how to embed democratic principles in AI development. Through brief inputs and interactive discussions, participants will identify strategies for equitable data infrastructures, participatory governance, and community-led AI—turning values into action for a more inclusive and accountable AI ecosystem.

The workshop is co-organised with the Commission Democracies in Digital Societies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences ÖAW.

Digital Humanism industry evening

Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)
DigitalCity.Wien
Vienna Business Agency
AI Austria and Women in AI

Please register a separate free pass for this event.

Speakers

Want to know more about our keynote speakers and panelists? View the full speaker profiles.

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Registration

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