New Interdisciplinary Research Project: Review of the Kick-Off Event of the "Digitalization Discourses" Project

With a kick-off event on September 22, 2023, the project "DigitalisationDiscourses – DiDi" led by Prof. Dr. Margrit Seckelmann started at the Institute of Legal Informatics (IRI) in cooperation with the University of Vienna.
Participants from different projects and countries had the opportunity to get to know each other and exchange ideas. Under the headline "Projects & Friends", the participants presented concluded and ongoing work as well as new ideas that emerged from the participating research projects. Talk on the legal handling of phenomena of digitalization - such as automated decision-making and artificial intelligence - were complemented by contributions from philosophy, sociology and computer science. From the broad range of research topics addressed, potential connections emerged, particularly in questions of transparency and explainability of algorithmic systems, as well as stakeholder and public participation.

Prof. Seckelmann reflects on the event: "The kick-off meeting demonstrated how important and inspiring it is to have discourses about digitization – DigitalisierungsDiskurse – across disciplinary boundaries. Artificial intelligence and big data in particular are both drivers and products of advancing digitization. The research topics selected and the committed researchers provide an excellent basis for further collaboration and for raising awareness among the interested public for these exciting questions of the digital society."

A detailed report including summaries of the talks given can be found on the project website.

About the project

The overall project "DigitalisierungsDiskurse – DiDi" illuminates relevant topics related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) from the perspective of philosophy, social sciences, law and computer science.

Events for interested students at the Faculty of Law

If you already want to deal with the legal challenges of digitalisation during your studies, we can recommend taking a look at the following events and complementary courses:

• Focus Area 7 - IT Law and Intellectual Property Law
• Bachelor's programme in Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law (LL.B.)
• Master's Programme in Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law (LL.M.)