(de-news.net) – Business representatives in Germany have emphasized the need for regulatory clarity with regard to artificial intelligence (AI), as well as educational modernization, advocating AI’s potential to enhance learning and economic competitiveness. In parallel, religious and political voices call for strong ethical constraints, particularly regarding military applications and in the face of societal risks.
Ralf Wintergerst, president of Bitkom, has advocated for a systematic integration of artificial intelligence with the principle of the common good, arguing that AI systems should be designed and deployed in ways that ultimately benefit individuals and, by extension, society as a whole. In his framing, the technological progress associated with AI must be accompanied by a normative commitment to responsible application, with particular emphasis on the need to fully exploit existing opportunities while simultaneously establishing clear boundaries wherever fundamental rights, safety concerns, or human dignity may be compromised. He pointed to already observable areas of application, including early disease detection and educational support systems, where AI is producing tangible societal benefits. Against this backdrop, he additionally called for a pragmatic and innovation-oriented approach to AI development within Germany and across Europe, maintaining that only through the domestic creation, training, and implementation of AI systems—aligned with shared societal values and institutional frameworks—can the technology be effectively shaped in service of the public interest.
The German Employers’ Association (BDA), representing employers at both federal and state levels, has likewise urged the establishment of precise, stable, and reliable regulatory conditions governing the use of artificial intelligence in education. In its position paper, the organization stresses that educational authorities should not only clarify legal frameworks but also render them practically applicable, ensuring that schools and other institutions receive clear operational guidance for the safe and responsible deployment of AI technologies.
Meanwhile, BDA President Rainer Dulger warned that continued adherence to outdated institutional structures risks constraining innovation within classrooms, highlighting the potential of AI to individualize learning processes and simultaneously reduce the workload of teaching staff—an opportunity, he argued, that remains insufficiently utilized in current practice. He further underscored the strategic significance of AI for Germany’s long-term economic competitiveness, calling for a more receptive institutional culture that enables integration of the technology into everyday educational practice. This, in his view, requires strengthened digital infrastructure, legally unambiguous rules on liability and data protection, mandatory AI competencies for both educators and learners, and assessment and examination systems recalibrated to reflect AI-mediated learning environments.
Minister backs ethical European AI after Papal warning
In his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV had on Monday called for exceptionally stringent ethical constraints on the development and application of artificial intelligence, offering a pointed critique of what he described as a prevailing “culture of power” driving the rapid expansion of the technology. Within this theological and ethical framework, he warned that AI systems, if left insufficiently regulated, could contribute to the normalization of armed conflict and intensification of technological warfare. Accordingly, he argued that the use of AI in military contexts must be subject to the strictest ethical limitations in order to safeguard human dignity, uphold the sanctity of life, and prevent the emergence of a destabilizing new arms race grounded in autonomous or semi-autonomous systems.
The encyclical was subsequently welcomed by Federal Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who endorsed its central assertion that artificial intelligence cannot be regarded as morally neutral. He expressed support for the development of ethically grounded European AI systems as an essential prerequisite for democratic self-determination in the digital age, positioning such development as a matter of strategic and normative importance. While the papal document also acknowledged that AI has the potential to improve living conditions and deliver broad social benefits, it simultaneously cautioned that its advancement is increasingly shaped by private actors and associated with significant societal risks, including growing polarization, cyberbullying, and the dissemination of sexualized content.
Audio: TTSFree
