Lengoo CEO and co-founder Christopher Kränzler was one of three industry representatives invited by the Office of the German Chancellor to talk about Artificial Intelligence at a two-day, off-site retreat for all members of the Federal Cabinet.* The event was held at Schloss Meseberg on 29-30 August 2023, and was accompanied by the publication of a 10-point plan for fostering economic growth in Germany and increasing the efficiency of the public sector, two areas in which AI has a potentially massive role to play.
Chris was joined by other invited guests Aleph Alpha CEO Jonas Andrulis and Professor Katharina Zweig of the Technical University of Kaiserslautern to discuss the potential of AI, and by SAP CEO Christian Klein and Professor Christiane Wendehorst of the University of Vienna, who focused on the importance of data resources and data security.
The goal for the session that Chris was involved in was for the Cabinet to get the latest information about using AI, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), from the start-up community and from academics, with the goal of improving efficiency in the public sector and for driving growth in private industry.
Chris emphasized the importance of putting the power of training customized LLMs into the hands of the customer and then deploying the resulting system exclusively for that customer. This allows users not only to be much more confident about the security of their data but also to have much greater transparency into how the AI system generates output. Chris then demonstrated to the gathered ministers four of the use cases that are integrated into Flow, Lengoo’s browser-based AI assistant, and that are made possible by HALOS®, Lengoo’s platform for creating and administering secure customized LLMs.
Translation
This is where the LLM journey started for Lengoo: using customized neural networks to provide translations of text and documents to and from 50 of the world’s most spoken languages. Chris showed the gathering the process of translating a PDF file of the agreement that formed the current coalition government from the original German into English and Chinese while retaining the formatting of the original file.
Text Summarization
Using part of that same PDF file, Chris showed how a Large Language Model can scan a long text and provide a synopsis that allows the user to decide where to invest valuable reading time.
Transcription
Using a video of the historic speech of four of the ministers at the onset of the war in Ukraine, Chris showed the automatic creation of a transcript of the spoken contents of the video, and then showed how the transcript could be instantly translated into another language.
Ask
Finally, Chris was able to demonstrate how a Large Languge Model can learn from the contents of an uploaded document, in this case concerning measures passed by the government to secure more affordable energy, and then formulate answers to a user's questions about that content.
Having a seat at the table, even in this small way, as the federal ministers of Germany gathered to consider policies to guide the nation forward, and having the ear of the government, even for those few minutes, was, of course, a tremendous and humbling honor. It was a day that Chris will never forget.
We at Lengoo are deeply gratified to have our thought leadership in AI recognized by the Office of the Chancellor, and we stand ready to help Germany, Europe, and our customers around the globe thrive in the age of responsible and secure use of Artificial Intelligence.
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*The entire cabinet was present, from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, to Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Food and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth Lisa Paus, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, Minister for Digital and Transport Volker Wissing, Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Steffi Lemke, Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze, Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building Klara Geywitz, and Minister for Special Tasks Wolfgang Schmidt.