The Enigma machine on display in the basement of the Frankfurt Museum for Communication is more than 100 years old.

According to the text next to the exhibit, no one in Germany was interested in the encryption machine for a decade.

Conventional technologies were sufficient, the inventor was told at the time.

Falk Heunemann

Business editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Now the Enigma in the museum is a reminder of how difficult it is for technical innovations in Germany.

Whether this was exactly the reason why the podium of the first Frankfurt Congress for Artificial Intelligence (AI) was positioned in the basement of the museum and the participants and speakers could see the Enigma could not be found out.

It is important for Marcel Isbert to emphasize that the Frankfurt Communications Museum was deliberately chosen as the venue.

According to the co-organizer of the UAI congress, artificial intelligence is no longer just about a technology.

But also about communicating their benefits and importance to the public.

Far behind Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria

Theoretically, the Rhine-Main region has the potential to become a leading location for artificial intelligence in Germany, was heard several times during the congress.

There are many tech start-ups here, and corporations such as Merck, Biontech or banks are also dealing with the technology, explains Eric Menges of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main location marketing agency.

More than 150 young entrepreneurs from 40 start-ups from the region take part in the congress itself to exchange information on the state of the art and on application examples.

A Lufthansa manager explains, for example, how artificial intelligence is used to evaluate customer feedback.

A representative of Deutsche Börse describes how the technology is used to combat money laundering.

A Google Clouds programmer explains,

In practice, however, the region is currently lagging behind.

The federal government’s AI map, for example, lists more than 200 AI projects each in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, and more than 100 in Berlin. Only 51 are listed for the whole of Hesse, fewer than for Lower Saxony or Rhineland-Palatinate.

"Unfortunately, Hessen is not well positioned," says congress organizer Isbert, who also works for the Frankfurt AI company Statworx.

The solution from his point of view: The region needs its own AI center, similar to the Techquartier for financial technology or the HOLM for logistics.

Isbert and Statworx founder Sebastian Heinz explain that this center should not only promote founders, but also talk to the public and companies about artificial intelligence.

Models AI Garage and AI Campus

The regional industry is closely following what has already happened in other federal states in order to network artificial intelligence companies.

Baden-Württemberg, for example, founded and financed the “KI Garage” two years ago.

Among other things, it is about communicating the benefits of artificial intelligence to established companies, as AI garage boss Michael Feygelmann explained at the congress.

And at the same time wondering why comparatively little has been done in this area in Frankfurt so far.

Since 2021, Berlin has designed an 800 square meter AI campus as a coworking office for founders, representatives from corporations, small and medium-sized companies as well as researchers and investors.

And in Heilbronn there is a Fraunhofer research center for cognitive service systems.

Both of these are only rudimentary in the Rhine-Main region.

The state of Hesse has been funding the establishment of a Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence since about this year.

The focus of this "Hessian.AI" is Darmstadt.

The city of Frankfurt, in turn, founded the network association "AI Frankfurt Rhein-Main" in 2019.

However, its board member Stefan Jäger, full-time speaker in the mayor's office, has to admit that the UAI Congress is the first major event in which the association has participated since it was founded.

However, the industry meeting was organized by Statworx and Station Frankfurt, a private company that promotes the start-up scene and also organizes the annual start-up safari.

Darmstadt and Frankfurt urgently need to cooperate more closely, says Statworx boss Sebastian Heinz.

"If you want to remain competitive in the long run, you have to give up the island mentality."