Course Schedule

Course Schedule

Veranstaltungen von Dipl.-Ing. M.A. Detlef Schwarting

Lehrveranstaltungen

Management - Managing Strategic Supply (Seminar)

Inhalt: Context By far the largest cost item at most companies and public institutions is in purchasing and procurement. The relative importance of the area managed by the CPO (Chief Procurement Officer) has increased even further with the shortening of value chains and increasing outsourcing in many industries. Very often, he is responsible not only for purchasing from external suppliers (External Supply) but also for internal procurement from the company's own subsidiaries or sister companies (Internal Supply). The function has changed dramatically in recent decades, from the support function often derisively referred to as the "ordering office" to a strategic area with board rank and overarching scope for action. Time and again, it has been shown that buyers and managers in purchasing can make considerable contributions not only to reducing costs, but also to improving revenues. With the shift in roles, the requirements profile for specialist and management personnel in purchasing has also changed. Classic skills of negotiating with suppliers, conducting tenders and processing orders are moving into the background, while strategic, cross-functional and communication skills are of increasing importance. Furthermore, digitalization is also playing an increasingly prominent role in purchasing and procurement.

Artificial Intelligence – Understanding opportunities and limitations across disciplines (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Detlef Schwarting

Inhalt: AI (Artificial Intelligence) has become ubiquitous in the discourses on technological, economic, and societal development either as a savior or as a threat, both in the media and in various disciplines of science. In general, it can be stated that AI, in addition to having undeniable benefits and opportunities for humanity in the health care sector, in industrial processes and as a supporting tool in many situations of human life, also presents several existing or potential risks that are equally not yet holistically understood. In principle, an all-encompassing investigation would be called for that weighs benefits against risks and assesses them with a view to future developments. In fact, many discussions on the topic pick out individual aspects of the technology or individual applications and derive normative judgments. The assumptions made and their origins are often not clear. Many studies approach the topic from a mono-disciplinary perspective. It is the objective of this seminar of overcoming this by taking a cross-disciplinary view on AI’s functionality, opportunities, limitations, and shortcomings as a basis for further normative conclusions which will be detailed on a follow-on seminar. Some of the key questions that will be discussed in this seminar: • How does what computer scientists call "artificial intelligence" come into being? What are the mechanisms of action, how does cognition and judgment of AI come about? • What is natural intelligence, what does the intelligence theory of psychology tell us about it, and what clues does this provide for the understanding the limitations of artificial intelligence? • What is creativity and can AI ever be creative (in the human sense)? • What insights arise from the centuries-long discussions of the philosophy of mind, especially on the body-soul problem and on human consciousness for the classification of artificial intelligence? • Can human consciousness be "naturalized"? • What does science know about the functioning of the human brain and especially about the emergence of consciousness? • Does AI have free will and is the hypothesis that the human brain is determined plausible? • What is autonomy and is AI truly autonomous? • Can AI assume responsibility? • How does AI affect individuality of humans? • Does it affect human dignity? How?