The current issue of the longread magazine “SZ Langstrecke” (04/2023) focuses on artificial intelligence. Dr. Roland A. Stürz, Head of the bidt Think Tank, had the honour of presenting facts and figures from the new bidt study in the Panorama Lounge of the SZ Tower on 29 November 2023. He explained that the publication of ChatGPT about a year ago led to a relatively rapid spread of the use of generative AI in the population and in German workplaces. The subsequent panel discussion focussed on the overall social perspective on generative AI, such as fears among the population, changes in the world of work, shifts in skills and ethical pitfalls.
Jannis Brühl, Head of the SZ digital team, and Carmen Heger, Head of Data Science at SZ, outlined specific examples from the newspaper’s everyday work. “We don’t let the machines write for us, but we like to experiment,” emphasised Brühl. For example, the writing of SEO texts can be taken over by AI, which saves a lot of time. Martin Langeder, Head of Editorial “SZ Langstrecke” and Christian Tönsmann, Head of Art Direction, SZ, gave insights into the use of AI programmes for image generation such as Midjourney or DALL-E and explained that human expertise is still in demand.
Dr. Roland A. Stürz also emphasised that there will be shifts in skills, as generative AI is also penetrating the field of knowledge workers, unlike previous waves of automation. “Human skills will become even more important in the future: creativity, intuition, empathy and the ability to deal with generative AI, write prompts and control skills with AI,” the scientist emphasised.
In the long term – it was agreed – the impact of generative AI on society and the economy will depend crucially on where and how generative AI is used and how it is regulated.
