Students Take a Critical Look at AI

As part of the “Code for Democracy 2.0” event on November 5, RWU invited about 90 high school students to develop their own AI assistant for democracy-related issues.

Professor Dr. Marius Hofmeister opened the event with a keynote address on AI and democracy. Working in small groups, the students then independently explored topics relevant to their everyday school life. They developed chatbots that addressed issues related to disinformation, participatory decision-making, and social inclusion.

One student was thrilled: “It feels like a fun game. You get to create something and have the chance to learn from it.” Another student said that they “laughed a lot” while critically examining the sometimes strange answers generated by the AI during testing.

The District Media Center’s MakerMobil was also on site to help the students create their own card games based on the content they had developed. As a result, the event brought together technical creativity with democracy education and the question of how AI can be used responsibly.

The event was part of Code Week Baden-Württemberg and was organized by Veronika Weber-Schopp, project manager at MINT Discovery and contact person for the Code Week BW South Württemberg Regional Hub, together with Marius Hofmeister.