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LEIPZIG SHUTDOWN
Goethe didn’t predict the shutdown. He supplied the characters.
Leipzig University, one of Germany’s oldest universities, with over 30,000 students, was dreaming of KIRZL, an artificial intelligence computing centre. I was dreaming of adding an E. Ethical AI [KI in German]. Then reality struck. In German, we say it has “zugeschlagen.” It sounds like a door slamming shut. This time, it was the network.
After a cyberattack, the university took its IT services offline. In our lecture, we found a workaround: a private phone. The future of computing was briefly dependent on somebody’s mobile data allowance.
Goethe would have enjoyed this. Or charged us for the rights. Faust negotiates the contract. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice calls technical support. Gretchen asks the awkward question: “So, how do you feel about responsibility?” Three roles for the digital age. Apparently, nobody applied for the third.
I wrote about Pause AI, about Patching the Planet, intelligence services taking a sandwich break, local data and the dream of an ethical AI computing centre. In German. Naturally. Some things need a language that can put Datenschutz and Weltuntergang into the same sentence without changing its expression.
Read the German article. Ask your AI to translate it.
Translate from Goethe. Get Faust. Get Zauberlehrling. Get Gretchen.
You may receive more than a translation. Possibly a pact. Check the terms.
If your AI needs a verification email from the University of Leipzig, you may have to wait.
That is how the pause works.
