DLD Munich 2024: Impressions of a First-Time Explorer

DLD is an invite-only innovation event bringing the tech, art, and business worlds together in different locations every year. In an era of excessive online and offline event alternatives, DLD cuts through the noise with its community-based approach.

What’s the advantage of a community-based event approach, you may ask? Things are more conversational and easygoing instead of salesy. For instance, no one messaged me via the app to sell me any software services during the three-day event for a change.

Session Summaries

Although it was my first DLD, I felt as if I was invited to a family reunion. Let’s take a look at the topics that created a buzz for the “family” during the Munich-based event:

• This year’s DLD Munich 24, under the motto “Dare to Know,” set an optimistic tone in times of disruptive technologies and crises. Around 1,300 participants and experts from science, technology, and arts came together despite the icy streets and cold and discussed solutions to global challenges from January 11 to 13.
• During the three-day event, AI integration was the hot topic, and experts discussed unexpected angles such as whether chatbots will replace rabbis, whether AI can create culture, how AI will transform music, and finally, how AI innovation, ethics and regulation can be balanced. Quantum and ESG/decarbonization topics were also hot.
• The event kicked off with DLD’s celebrated Steffi Czerny welcoming the attendees, referring to the current events: “We live in fragile times (due to wars, climate change, biodiversity loss, extremist moves, scarcity of energy and critical materials, inflation, geopolitical tensions).” She continued, “In a world full of questions, we need community, friends, trust, open minds, interdisciplinary exchange, and a culture of debate.” Czerny had significant notes about the importance of community, exchange, and technology; however, she had to stop at some point to tease the Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder as he was distracted with his phone, “Mr (Prime Minister) Söder; you should listen to me!”
• When it was Markus Söder’s turn, the audience was all ears due to the Bavarian Prime Minister’s bold statements: “Bavaria is the state of AI and quantum computing; we have 100 professors working on the topic,” he said, adding that Bavaria alone invests more than Spain, Italy, the UK, and Canada into AI and DeepTech. The Prime Minister then compared Bavaria to Berlin, the start-up capital of Germany, claiming that Bavaria has more technology, better finance, mountains, and prettier-looking people compared to Berlin, which is a statement I can’t endorse fully. According to the PM, Berlin is like NYC, whereas Bavaria is like California. Have your pick!
• Contrary to the dominant masculine energy of the Minister President, a female empowerment panel featuring Kinga Statislawska, Reyhan Çepik, Nela Duke Ekpenyong, Tijen Onaran, and Sina Afra took place in the next room. The panelists discussed how the ecosystem can foster mentorship and collaborate in the female entrepreneurship scene. According to Kinga, many women start their career journey enthusiastically, but the ecosystem loses them due to lacking role models and support. “Mentorship is a way to keep them in venture funds, and having male allies is key,” suggested Kinga before it was Reyhan Cepik’s turn. According to Reyhan, AI can support women entrepreneurs as the entry barrier to entrepreneurship is still low with AI, and AI is also helpful in changing career paths. Tijen Onaran, on the other hand, recommended intense networking to future female entrepreneurs.

• The next panel had an unmistakable message: “Don’t invest in AI; invest in your children (instead).” The panelists argued that AI needs to be managed by better people and AI would “go rogue” only because of the coders, and therefore, we need better coders. The panelists highlighted that AI experts shouldn’t only focus on business but ethics, too. “Education is broken, and AI can fix that; it can help leverage underprivileged communities to close the info and opportunity gap,” said Neeru Khosla of CK-12 Foundation and demonstrated the use of AI in their work to reach out to underprivileged kids, creating custom learning opportunities and styles for them.
• Chess master Tunde Onakoya shared the story of “Chess in Slums,” the chess-learning initiative in underprivileged communities, before destroying ten attendees in a simultaneous chess match. According to Onakoya, discovering chess empowered him and gave him a sense of belonging, which he now spreads in economically disadvantaged areas via “Chess in Slums.”

• Martin Puchner’s (Harvard University) speech, “Can AI create culture?” was one of the event’s highlights. According to Puchner, through AI, we are not dealing with a new agent but a new tool. Many claim that as AI only imitates art and culture, AI is assimilating them. However, Puchner strongly believes this is the wrong way to view things. “In a profound way, all art is made from other art. Art available to the public is quite curated and selective. AI is also selective and therefore creates new art versions,” stated Puchner, adding that conversational interface will be the key to understanding and predicting the AI tool’s future impact. “Philosophers all developed a specific way of conversation, a methodology. They perfected the art of conversation, and their students wrote down these dialogues. AI is simply a new type of conversation,” continued Puchner, concluding that we must be skilled prompt writers to enable unique AI-enhanced creation.
• Another conversation at the intersection of art and technology occurred during Sasha Stiles and Hans Ulrich Obrist’s “Poetry in the Age of AI” talk. According to Sasha, major fashion houses like Gucci are interested in blockchain and AI to create poetry and explore language. Different verticals are using technology to discover new ways of working and to generate flagship products and services.
• During various AI regulation talks, one message was clear: experts require a regulatory body for standardization.
• The “future of financial services” session featured Marion Höllinger (Hypovereinsbank/Unicredit), the first woman CEO to lead a German bank, Miriam Wohlfahrt (Banxware), the serial Fintech entrepreneur, and Georg Steiger (BillEase), the Philippines-based Fintech founder. The session started with an expected question: “What will the bank’s future look like? Are banks there yet?” According to Marion Höllinger, banks are closing: “Banks are adapting to digital and to the client’s needs and the economy, enabled by the technology. they are evolving.” Höllinger explained that smart banking follows the needs of the client. “Although digital services are needed in today’s world’ clients still need personal advisory,” states Höllinger. When it was Miriam Wohlfahrt’s turn, Miriam noted that banks were generalists, and now they go into a more niche and would need to cooperate with FinTechs to offer services they can’t on their own. According to Miria, the bank of the future is the center of an ecosystem with many partners, and banks should increase their product portfolios via fintech to reach this stage. As both Banxware and BillEase manage lending risks, the panel evolved into a solvency procedure deep dive. As expected, Banxware uses complex data and ML for prediction to check a customer is solvent, serving customers underserved by banks. Things are not as easy in emerging markets, though. Georg Steiger explained that whereas in a traditional setting, you look at past behavior, in emerging markets, Fintechs need to use alternative data, including telco, mobile contracts, etc., as they are serving underserved customers and therefore, their conclusions are more intent-based rather than solvency-predictions.

• The business guide to AI session by Phil Robinson of Bloomberg explored creating an AI-focused brand and its potential value. He recommends integrating Gen AI into an existing brand, aligning it with the core values. However, this integration should be considered differently, including the core message and audience.

Robinson’s research revealed how valuable AI brands became in a short amount of time, competing household brands:

• During the event, Martin Junghans of IBM demonstrated how IBM tries to balance governance during AI integration projects. According to Junghans, AI use cases should focus on safety, trustworthiness, and ethics. Junghans also believes that regulation can be an opportunity, even in the case of AI development; “Don’t take regulation as a burden. It can also be an engineering principle.”
• According to Ramona Liberoff (PACE), the circular economy problem is, in essence, a marketing challenge. “Almost no money is spent on marketing and communications in the circular economy side,” said Liberoff, adding that we should use mental models first to find renewable solutions.

Various consecutive sessions on technology, art, and culture could get intense for the audience, especially after lunch. The solution on the second day was a five-minute conga line initiated by Yossi Vardi of DLD, shaking things off, followed by a recommendation session where volunteering attendees recommended their favorite books, restaurants, and travel routes to each other.

DLD Conclusions

• It’s clear that AI will cause many industries and applications to enter a new age. What is less apparent is that it shapes cultures and personal encounters as we speak. It is changing literature, art, the spoken word, and culture. Not creating or disrupting the existing culture but rather contributing to it.
• Regardless of the AI and DeepTech buzz, most business leaders merely watch the developments, hoping to catch the train at a convenient stop. However, they should keep in mind that the train is moving faster than usual and there are not many stops.
• AI can remedy our problems, but what problems will it likely create? AI is flawed because its creators are flawed, and as long as we don’t educate and regulate, the gap will grow deeper.
• Gen AI is great as a writing supplement but is not ready to become a standalone author yet due to the lack of improvisation and repeated patterns. Writers should learn to mold it rather than rely on it.
• ClimateTech is focusing too much on tech, but we have sufficient tech to solve the problem; we need more PR and education at this stage.ClimateTech is focusing too much on tech, but we have sufficient tech to solve the problem; we need more PR and education at this stage.

All session recordings can now be watched online via Youtube.