By Søren Mølgaard and Lea Pasgaard, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Video: Line Nyrup Odgaard. Photos: Emil Kragborg Eriksen

"If artificial intelligence fails us, it’s not because the technology is inherently evil. It’s because we have failed to guide the technology responsibly."

This was the message from Rector Per Michael Johansen when AI:X Labs – AAU's large, interdisciplinary initiative – was officially inaugurated at AAU in Aalborg on 5 November.

In his welcome address, the rector stated that AAU must provide AI research that transforms the world in a positive way. A point that was echoed by keynote speaker Serge Belongie, a leading professor at the Pioneer Centre for AI where AAU is one of five contributing universities.

AI as the work tool of the future – without glorification

Serge Belongie argued that our tendency to see human characteristics in text-based AI has resulted in a personification and glorification of the large language-based AI tools that have moved into our smartphones. The professor called for us to consider AI as an ordinary technology that has come to be an integrated tool in our everyday lives – just like the technological breakthroughs of the past.

"AI is not going to take away your job, but someone who is skilled at using it might" he explained.

The professor believes that the use of AI necessitates a responsibility to protect our data and get a handle on the devil in details when it comes to integrating artificial intelligence in companies, the public sector and the home.

Collaboration and responsibility at the centre

Thomas Bak, Dean of AAU's Technical Faculty of IT and Design (TECH), also emphasized at the inauguration that AAU as a university has a responsibility to ensure that research on AI is developed with insight, care and with people in focus.

"AI:X Labs is intended as exactly the kind of place where research on AI meets research with AI. A place for experimentation, new ideas and collaboration across disciplines. It's the kind of place where at the end of the day a computer scientist and a designer can understand each other," said the dean.

The opening ceremony also featured a panel debate on the responsible use of AI – in research, in industry and in the labour market in general. Grit Munk, Head of Digitalisation Policy at the Danish Society of Engineers, Claus Falk, CEO of the company Danphone, and Professor Serge Belongie took part in the debate.

Finally, Caroline Stage Olsen (M), Minister for Digital Affairs declared AAU's AI:Labs open through video participation, after which attendees could explore the results and objectives of the AI laboratories thus far.

Watch the video from the opening of AI:X Labs below: