Marion Markert

In the news: I did not make it to the hairdresser before, but thank you to Christian Feld and Tagesschau for still featuring me on the German evening news for the start of the AI Act general-purpose AI model rules. We discussed a number of things; the quote that ended up on TV is about copyright transparency rules on how they might enable follow-on damage claims by rights holders. It is a bit hard, however, to do justice to a highly complex regulatory regime in 15 second statements :-) So, here's my more extended take: 1) I am quite happy about: – the prohibitions (Article 5) – AI literacy (Article 4) – general transparency (Article 50) – the GPAI rules (Articles 51-56) See: https://lnkd.in/enjKwNT2 2) I have more mixed feelings about the high-risk rules, particularly due to unresolved interactions with sectoral regulations, the GDPR, and tort law. See: https://lnkd.in/e6UAd_ai 3) The simplification process will hopefully be a good point to clean this up without gutting the core parts of the Act (see 1)). 4) The concept of "systemic risk" remains an epic fail due to the unnecessary restriction to the "most advanced" models. Hallucinations – a key problem with Generative AI – are likely not covered, for example. Paper on this forthcoming. 5) Regulation is, of course, not generally bad for innovation. Empirical studies show that it very much depends on the type of regulation, and that legal regimes can actually foster innovation. Europe's problems with AI advancement have little to do with the AI Act and a lot with lack of VC financing, access to a absolute top-notch talent, and the general risk mentality among significant parts of the population and incumbent entrepreneurs. See: https://lnkd.in/e43tuk7J; https://lnkd.in/emQEvHFJ; https://lnkd.in/emvfVY59 6) Now: off to the mountains for some decent digital detox. Enjoy your summer! European New School of Digital Studies Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

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Europe has the talent — now it’s time to bet on ourselves. When Sandra Navidi and I met in Davos during World Economic Forum, one question kept coming back: What will it take for Europe to build global tech champions? We continued that conversation on ntvNachrichten’s BIZ & beyond podcast with Ulrich Reitz. From building Europe’s first venture studio, finleap, in Berlin to now leading early-stage investing at Motive Ventures in New York, that vantage point shapes how I see Europe’s path forward. Here’s what I believe: ▪️ Europe has great ideas — but we lack the structures, speed, and capital to scale them. ▪️Especially in later stages, we hesitate to go all in — and when capital finally comes, it’s often not European. ▪️We should learn from the U.S. — but not everything that shines is gold. ▪️Our real strengths, like quality of life and global talent, are already here. ▪️Capital matters. But culture decides. If we want to build global champions, we need belief. Belief that we can build big — and the urgency to work for it. That mindset is one of the few things Europe should take from the U.S. In short: If Europe wants to become a true tech force, the time to act is now. And it starts by betting on ourselves. A big thank you to Sandra and Ulrich for an insightful, thought-provoking discussion. And about that headline calling me “Tech-Wunderkind” — it made me smile. Feels good to be young again 😄 🎧 Listen via the link in the comments (German only). #Capital #Entrepreneurship #Europe #Leadership #Fintech

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AI is powering the next wave of innovation made in Germany! 🔧 🇩🇪 And Circus Group is living proof of it! During my visit to their Munich HQ, Christopher Stefan Meister and I had the chance to meet with founder Nikolas Bullwinkel and Director of AI Niklas von Weihe. Diving into the role that local, open source AI can play in solving challenges in the food industry – like the shortage of hospitality workers – Circus Group is harnessing the full potential of open source AI. Based on Meta’s Llama they run specifically trained models fully offline. 💻 No cloud. 🔒 No external servers. ✅ Just local, secure, high-performance AI and robotics – right where they are needed. This setup ensures: 🛡️ Data privacy ⚡ Real-time response 🤝 Trust and autonomy For their clients, this offers fewer staff shortages and smooth daily operations. For the industry, it’s a bold example of what open source innovation can look like in the food and hospitality sector: It isn’t just a concept, it’s a competitive edge in every industry. Let’s build more of it! #OpenSourceAI #MadeInGermany #Llama #HospitalityTech

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It’s great to see the potential of #AI realized for actual business cases. The Virtual Content Creator, developed by Otto Group one.O and now live for OTTO, is a powerful example for this. The tool enables OTTO to create photorealistic model images in high-resolution and within minutes – revolutionizing the way we create product images, increasing quality and diversity of the content at the same time. This brings substantial advantages in #ecommerce: 🌐Efficiency & Cost Savings: We automate content creation and save valuable resources.  🌐Scalability: We can quickly and easily produce a vast amount of content.  🌐Flexibility: We adapt our content to new trends and customer needs, time-to-market can be reduced. The Virtual Content Creator can be a game-changer in e-commerce, and I'm proud that we're at the forefront of innovation here. As technology further improves, model image production will also be followed by AI-supported video production. But I’d like to point out we also consider ethical aspects in the content creation. Otto Group one.O has developed a “Second Instance”, a feedback system for virtual content creation that checks AI results against ethical, scientifically verified criteria, and corrects stereotypes. I see this as essential for building trust between human and AI. The development of the VCC also highlights another strength of the Otto Group: There is significant innovative power, efficiency and opportunities for scalability through our diverse companies and service providers that collaborate across company-borders.  Congratulations to everyone for a very successful launch of the VCC!

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