TUM São Paulo: German-Latin American Webinar on AI & human rights – majority in favor of artificial intelligence laws

News, TUM Global, TUM São Paulo |

At the start of the winter semester, the TUM liaison office in São Paulo organized a webinar on artificial intelligence and human rights in Latin America for the first time. German and Latin American scientists examined the topic in relation to specific cases and from different perspectives.

Screenshot of the Zoom call with all participants
The organizing team and the speakers of the webinar were pleased about the great interest of the students. Photo: Screenshot TUM São Paulo

The TUM liaison office in São Paulo organized the webinar together with the Heidelberg Center for Latin America (HCLA) based in Santiago de Chile specifically for Latin American students and scientists. With 44 enrollments and over 30 participants, the event was well attended – almost equally from Germany, Brazil, and Chile.

Distinguished panel

The German side was represented by Prof. Christian Djeffal from the Bavarian School of Public Policy and Prof. Christian Heinze from the University of Heidelberg. Case studies from Chile and Brazil – especially in connection with the Brazilian data protection law – were brought to the event by Prof. Lionel Rossi from the Universidad de Chile and Prof. Laura Schertel from the Universidade de Brasilia. After the short presentations of the speakers, it went straight into the almost hour-long debate, in which the connected audience dealt intensively with the presentations and the speakers.

Strong support for artificial intelligence legislation

The attendees were mostly interested in AI and what impact it can have on, for example, human rights. In a poll taken during the event, one hundred percent of the participants said they thought AI laws were necessary in their country.

Future events together with HCLA

This very successful first joint event of HCLA and TUM São Paulo showed the complementarity of the two universities and especially their research areas, so that further events in this series are planned for 2022. If you have any interesting suggestions for topics, TUM São Paulo liaison officer Sören Metz would be delighted to hear from you.