I am an AI researcher, book author, speaker, world record holding cyclist, and animal ethicist.
Currently, I am working as an Independend Research Group Leader at the University of Stuttgart. Previously, I worked for the Cluster of Excellence “Machine Learning” at the University of Tuebingen. I was a visiting scholar at Stanford University as well as UC San Diego. As a lecturer, I teach at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, among others. I am the author of four nonfiction books as well as 80 scientific papers. My most important works are relevant to the field of machine behavior, AI ethics, as well as AI safety.
As a speaker and interview partner, I have had appearances at various scientific conferences, companies, as well as public events like re:publica, Berlin Science Week, Future Mobility Summit, science slams, and many others. My research was taken up in national as well as international media such as Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, Forbes, Spiegel, Zeit, FAZ, and many others. Moreover, I am a member of several working groups on AI governance.
I’ve been a competitive cyclist for nearly 20 years. I competed in national as well as international championships. In addition to race wins on the road and in mountain bike marathons, I like ultra bike marathons. In 2020, I did a 500-kilometer non-stop ride for a good cause. In 2021, I achieved the 12-hour altitude world record.
Further sporting achievements comprise free soloing mountains like the Girenspitz (“Toblerone”), Höfats, Himmelhorn, and others, in part by I ascended previously unclimbed routes.
For several years, I did undercover investigations on factory farms. My footage led to award-winning media reports and documentaries airing at major German TV broadcasters. I wrote a book about the practices inside factory farming and the societal as well as ecological ramifications thereof, using the insights I gained as well as my scientific background in animal ethics.