Outlook: In 2023, it will be these people who matter

Ulrike Malmendier: The new way

She is the newcomer to the expert council of “business wise men” – and one who could bring a lot of dynamism to the committee in 2023.

And for two reasons.

First, politically: The current members of the Council often say that they are not politically committed.

In practice, however, certain preferences can still be identified in many people.

Everyone except Malmendier.

Council Chairwoman Monika Schnitzer, for example, keeps talking about how taxes can be used to take money from the rich.

On the one hand, Schnitzer was not elected chairman until Malmendier and Martin Werding, who was supported by the employers, had entered the council;

they broke a stalemate.

On the other hand, when it comes to tax issues, the 49-year-old Malmendier emphasizes the solidity of state budgets rather than redistribution.

So your vote could sometimes make the difference.

And that's where the second dynamic comes in: the respected researcher, who works at the University of California at Berkeley, wants to move the Council closer to politics, following the American model.

If that succeeds, Malmendier will become even more influential together with her colleagues.

Sam Altman: The Tech Pioneer

Although Sam Altman enjoys a reputation like Donnerhall in Silicon Valley, he has not yet been well known to the general public.

That could change in the new year.

The technology industry is currently saying that 2023 could be the year of artificial intelligence (AI).

If that's the case, Altman could play a key role in it.

To justify these forecasts, reference is often made to the euphoria surrounding ChatGPT, software released at the end of November by the Californian company Open AI led by Altman.

It is a so-called chatbot that answers all kinds of inquiries and does so in such a convincing and human-like manner that digital assistants like Alexa look old in comparison.

He can think up film scripts, write programming codes and explain economic theories.

Altman was one of the co-founders of Open AI in 2015, alongside Tesla boss Elon Musk, but he no longer plays a role there today.

Open AI was started with the aim of developing AI that brings benefits to mankind and was initially a not-for-profit organization.

In 2019, it became a company with the intention of making a profit, in which the software company Microsoft invested billions.

ChatGPT still makes a lot of mistakes, as Altman himself admits.

He says, "ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but does some things well enough to create a misleading impression of awesomeness." His company is working on an advanced version called GPT-4, which is rumored to be released in 2023.