The nationwide excellence competition is now entering its decisive phase and I am very pleased that TU Darmstadt has succeeded in retaining Professor Dr. Binnig, an outstanding researcher for the highly relevant further development of 'sensible' Artificial Intelligence,” said Science Minister Timon Gremmels. “Professor Binnig is not only significantly involved in the Cluster of Excellence to be applied for, but also in the strategy of TU Darmstadt. Keeping him at the location is of great importance for the success of TU Darmstadt and Hessian research in the field of AI as a whole. The development of a new generation of AI-centred database systems that are self-optimising and can also be easily operated by non-IT experts is a highly interesting project with great added value. This applies to specialised science as well as to business and society.”

Current Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems lack the ability to think logically, have difficulties in dealing with new situations, need to be continuously adapted and require extensive resources. The planned Cluster of Excellence “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence”, led by TU Darmstadt in collaboration with the universities of Frankfurt, Bonn and Würzburg, aims to develop the next generation of AI, “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence (RAI)” : AI systems that learn with a “reasonable” amount of resources based on “reasonable” data quality and “reasonable” data protection.

They are equipped with common sense and the ability to deal with new situations and contexts and are based on training paradigms that enable continuous improvement, interaction and adaptation. In this context, Professor Binnig's team aims to develop a new generation of AI-centred database systems that adapt automatically on the basis of pre-trained AI models and can also be easily operated by non-IT experts.

Professor Dr. Tanja Brühl, President of TU Darmstadt, added: “I would like to congratulate Carsten Binnig on being awarded a LOEWE Top Professorship. With his excellent research on data management, Carsten Binnig is not only significantly shaping the field of Artificial Intelligence at TU Darmstadt, he is also one of the visionary and committed shapers of the dynamic and growing Hessian AI ecosystem. As a founding member of the Hessian Centre for Artificial Intelligence hessian.AI and head of the research area Systemic AI for Decision Support at the Darmstadt laboratory of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence DFKI, he makes a decisive contribution to thinking ahead about the future of AI and effectively advancing innovative solutions with partners in science and application. I am convinced that with this ambition he will also implement the measures planned as part of the LOEWE Top Professorship and sustainably change and simplify the access and usability of databases. With his internationally recognised and outstanding expertise, Carsten Binnig is one of the leading figures in our Cluster of Excellence project ‚Reasonable AI‘ (RAI). We are therefore extremely pleased that a highly esteemed colleague will remain at TU Darmstadt thanks to the support of the State of Hesse.”

Since 2017 at TUDa

Professor Dr. Carsten Binnig has been Professor of Data Management at TU Darmstadt since 2017 and heads the Data and AI Systems lab. After completing his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, he was initially a postdoc at ETH Zurich before moving to Brown University in the USA after several years in the industry. He is a founding member of the Hessian Centre for Artificial Intelligence hessian.AI and head of the research area Systemic AI for Decision Support at the Darmstadt site of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence DFKI.