The Technische Universität München (TUM) has long been researching Artificial Intelligence, how it can be applied, but also what its social impact is. Now, this research is getting a huge financial boost from Silicon Valley.

Facebook is supporting the new Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence with 6.5 million euros over the next five years. Press spokesman for the TUM, Ulrich Marsch, told SPIEGEL that Facebook had approached the TU and asked scientists if they could imagine working together. "Then the contract negotiations have started, in February it should start."

Only last year, the TUM announced that the foundation of Lidl and Kaufland founder Dieter Schwarz donated her 20 endowed professorships for life. For every external donor, the TUM points out that this could influence research and teaching.

"Only without action"

Also with the Facebook donation TU speaker Marsch said: "we do such things here only without influence." The company from California will thus have no influence on research projects or scientists.

Again and again, universities are financed by business enterprises and foundations. However, the autonomy of research is not always taken into account. For example, several years ago, the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation secured extensive rights of participation, especially in the appointment of professors at the University of Mainz.

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Third-party funds and endowed professorships "It goes without saying that fair working conditions are not researched"

The Humboldt University in Berlin and the Technical University of Berlin received two professorships from Deutsche Bank in 2006. It later emerged that the bank had much say in teaching, research and staff. When that came up five years later, the cooperation ended.

Good for the image

Christian Kreiß, a professor of business administration in Aalen, has long criticized the fact that companies are increasingly influencing research. In the current case, Facebook is polishing up its image with the donation to the TU Munich, he warned.

According to Kreiß, observers could think: "TU Munich is serious, then Facebook must be somehow serious, so everything with the data abuse is not so bad, otherwise they would not even dare to install an ethics institute, otherwise that would come to light Good for the Facebook business. "

University spokesman Marsch said the TUM does not have to pre-deliver any research to Facebook. "But of course we will publish what we are researching." This may give Facebook interesting insights into its own business in terms of ethical issues in artificial intelligence.

Marsch acknowledged, however, that it was also conceivable that the TU Munich together with Facebook - but also with other companies such as Kuka, Siemens or Bosch - organize joint conferences or workshops or publish "Working Papers". How exactly this cooperation looks like is still open.

New chairs or professorships are initially not planned. The institute will first of all work with the professors who are already at the TUM, said Marsch. Then you'll see who else you can hire.