The University of Klagenfurt will host not one but two major events for researchers in the field of artificial intelligence in early July: A total of 43 doctoral students will work on new approaches at the Summer School run by the Cluster of Excellence ‘BilAI’. At the same time, the university will also serve as venue for AIRoV 2025 AI & Vision, the joint symposium of the Austrian Society for Artificial Intelligence (ASAI) and the Austrian Association for Pattern Recognition (OAGM).

The capabilities of artificial intelligence systems are limited at present. This is partly due to the fact that there are two strands of research in AI development that have traditionally been pursued in parallel. The Cluster of Excellence entitled ‘Bilateral Artificial Intelligence’ aims to combine the strengths of both methods in bilateral artificial intelligence in order to significantly expand the performance capabilities of AI systems. Martin Gebser, Professor at the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity at the University of Klagenfurt, provides an example: “Puzzles such as Sudoku or logic puzzles require two things: Visual and linguistic skills must be combined with reasoning techniques. Humans are capable of performing these tasks equally well. Artificial intelligence is not yet up to the task. Challenges like these vary greatly for AI systems, which is why we need specific approaches.” ‘Bilateral AI’ now seeks to combine both capabilities. As Martin Gebser goes on to explain: “Although ChatGPT appears to have unlimited knowledge, researchers have recently shown that it is still no match for chess programmes that are around 50 years old.”

The young researchers participating in the BilAI Summer School will deepen their insights into modern techniques of symbolic and sub-symbolic AI as part of the programme. At the same time, they will collaborate in groups and thus make progress on specific challenges.