Insights into the Land of AI: Report from a Delegation Visit to the USA

The mobile phones beep, all of them. It is like on a German “warning day”, only this is not a drill. The screen says: “TORNADO WARNING. Take shelter now in a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building.” We improvise a circle of chairs in front of a vending machine and talk in the hallway until the storm has passed.

We are in Pittsburgh, the second destination of the trip. It is a visit to the Rust Belt, the American Ruhr area. This is familiar to me: Already during the flight the day before, gigantic steelworks greeted us on the banks of the Monongahela River. The city also shows what I know from the Ruhr area – areas in transition, repurposed industrial buildings, but also areas in decay and drug addicts in the city center. Pittsburgh is one of the cities that has already taken many steps on its way of post-industrial transition and wants to combine the old strength in industrial production with new knowledge-based approaches. Again and again, we hear in Pittsburgh how important the role of universities is in this context.

Hence, it’s good that we are here – on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), about eight kilometers east of downtown Pittsburgh. Here we engage in conversation with various scientists. For me, it is particularly interesting to see how AI is dealt with didactically and infrastructurally, but also how teaching development is approached in general.

For example, there is the Center for Teaching and Learning of CMU, the Eberly Center with its 23 employees. Through the center, the CMU awards funding to teachers so that they can try out AI-oriented teaching scenarios in small projects. Its special feature: It is attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of the projects on the basis of small accompanying research projects.

In this way both, a rapid introduction of AI in teaching is promoted and the challenge that the exact benefit of AI in teaching is still unclear is met as well. Evidence-based development of teaching: this is something that the CMU has visibly set as a goal.

We are at Bakery Square, in the far east of the city, in the buildings of a former large bakery. In the past, cookies were made here, today it is about high technology. The site has been refurbished for the tech industry to house startups, tech corporations, and also scientific institutions in close proximity to each other. The passing road bears the informal nickname “AI Avenue”.

For example, Google is located at Bakery Square with a department specializing in AI. Not far away is the headquarter of Duolingo, which was founded by alumni of the CMU. Later, elsewhere in the city, we visit the company Bosch, which maintains a research group in Pittsburgh and cooperates closely with the universities of Pittsburgh for this purpose.

The goal of the city administration is to establish Pittsburgh among the top 5 AI cities in the USA. At Bakery Square, we learn about the AI Strike Team in this context. Here, politics, science, and business work together to jointly develop initiatives to strengthen AI. The Strike Team has dealt with the question of hyperscaler locations in the near vicinity, access to computing power for startups, incentive systems for the use of AI in companies, and not least with bundling private investment funds to support startups. The “storytelling” about Pennsylvania as a state that is moving from “Steel to AI” is also part of the fields of action.

Overall, this is something that stands out on our trip: There are many close connections between universities and the business world. Tech corporations relatively willingly give money for research projects, sometimes also in combination with state funding according to a “50:50” model. On the other hand, universities like CMU seem to follow a liberal tech transfer policy, in which it is quite common for employees and students to start a company. Professors can spend up to 20% of their time on extra-university projects. Even if a lot is already changing in Germany, it seems to me that there is still a difference to German universities at this point.

That was quick: The visits are over, my suit hangs in the hotel wardrobe, and all other delegation members are on their way home. But I take a detour because I won’t be coming back to the USA soon again.

I am in Boston and have cycled a few kilometers out of the city on a rental bike; slightly uphill against the wind, quite exhausting. But now I am sitting in the evening sun under tall trees, a large columned front behind me, a well-kept lawn in front of me, and behind it a slender church. A grey squirrel scurries up and down the tree. I am in the famous courtyard of Harvard University.

Here, a lot comes together: a top American university, academic tradition, but also the most prominent example of resistance against current political interventions in academic freedom. A conversation partner on our trip had told us: “I have never been so proud to be a Harvard graduate. The attitude of the university inspires me in this difficult time.” Throughout our trip, we noticed time and again that universities in the U.S. are under pressure.

So, looking back: Are the USA politically lost? It doesn’t look like it, Harvard and others are standing against it. Will everything be the way it was again? Certainly not, not even here at Harvard, despite all the tradition. Maybe politics will change again, but AI will also have lasting consequences here.

What have I taken away from the visit? It has sharpened my understanding that the American government has a strongly innovation-friendly attitude towards AI, in which politics and tech companies are working together towards worldwide AI dominance. Politics and the economy are investing heavily in corresponding research. Teaching is also changing, with American universities facing similar challenges to German ones. Although this also exists in Germany, I was impressed by the joy of trying new things, evidence-based approaches, and the approaches to professionalising the support staff. And it is not to be overlooked that the USA is very closely seeking the collaboration of local politics, companies, and science, which is also moving a lot locally.

But I would say: Nothing that we cannot also do if we become more determined in some areas. The work at home is looming on the horizon again. On the agenda is the proposal for an “AI Center of Expertise.nrw”. That seems like a good next step now.