Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hosted a discussion entitled “The digital public sphere – do we need a new Enlightenment?” at Schloss Bellevue on Wednesday, 10 July. The event took place as part of the Forum Bellevue on the Transformation of Society in cooperation with the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS.
Following an introductory address by the Federal President, Maria Ressa, the Philippine Noble Peace Prize laureate and journalist, and Meredith Whittaker, a US American AI researcher and President of the Signal Foundation, discussed the topic at hand. The journalist Helene Bubrowski chaired the conversation.
The focus was on the ways in which technological innovations, for instance in the sphere of artificial intelligence, and the development of social media have an impact on the culture of political debate and on public opinion. What information can still be regarded as a reliable basis for public debate in the face of disinformation and deep fakes? How can we argue constructively in the digital sphere? How can we counter the loss of trust which populist forces are using to discredit democracy?
The discussion, to which the Federal President and the invited guests contributed, also focused on how technological development can be shaped in line with our democratic values. What objectives and ethical principles should we be guided by in order to create an enlightened digital public sphere?
More information on the series and on previous events can be found at www.bundespraesident.de/forum-bellevue.
With the Forum Bellevue on the Transformation of Society, the Federal President wants to create space for discourse on the decisive questions arising in view of the social change unfolding in our liberal democracy. Together with the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, the Federal President thus regularly invites German and international guests from the fields of science, politics, business, culture and civil society to Schloss Bellevue. The aim is to find ways of turning concern about our future into a shared endeavour to prepare for the future.
