Dr. Axel Walz, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition
It should be considered as an axiomatic principle that the digital transformation and increasing use of AI requires the incorporation of ethical principles into AI driven, automated processes. The focus of the presentation therefore is to demonstrate and analyze different legal means how to make sure that ethical principles are indeed taken into account by the developers of AI systems. Different solutions shall be considered in this regard, including standard approaches based on national and international legislation as well as contractual regulation, certification and technical standardization.
Axel is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich. His research focuses on European Civil Law, European and International Economic and Competition Law, Intellectual Property Law, Legal issues of digitalization, Civil Procedure Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Axel is a member of the Max Planck Institute’s data economy research group and has contributed to the IEEE’s Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems. Prior to his academic career, Axel has gathered extensive experience in private practice. After having worked in the EU & Competition department of the law firm SJ Berwin for three years in Munich and London and one year in the IP department of Gleiss Lutz in Stuttgart, Axel held a position as legal counsel and group leader in the IP department of BMW AG from 2009 until 2011, before rejoining SJ Berwin’s IP & Commercial department where he was appointed to partnership in 2014. In private practice, Axel’s work focused in particular on dispute resolution matters (litigation as well as arbitration) in the field of IP and competition law as well as on drafting and negotiating commercial contracts and agreements relative to distribution, licensing and merchandising, R&D, contract manufacturing, service, co-existence as well as technology transfer agreements.