🎤 Michael Lachner, CEO of Aqarios and one of the first relAI alumni, is developing solutions that combine quantum computing, AI, and advanced optimization algorithms to solve complex challenges in industry and business. In his interview with DAAD, he talks about his vision for the future of quantum computing in industry and Germany’s role as a leader in this transformation.
The interview in a 📸 snapshot:
🔹 Companies should start preparing today to leverage quantum computing and avoid missing the next major technological leap.
🔹 Germany has strong potential to play a leading role in the global AI and quantum landscape – driven by top-tier research, growing investment, and innovative start-ups.
🔹 Lachner values the academic excellence and networking opportunities provided by relAI and Zuse Schools across Germany.
📢 We are excited to announce that the call for applications to the MSc program 2026 of our Konrad Zuse School of Excellence in Reliable AI (relAI) is now open!
The innovative relAI MSc program is an addition to the MSc program at TUM or LMU, offering a cross-sectional training for successful education in AI. It provides a coherent, yet flexible and personalized training by enhancing scientific knowledge, professional development courses, and industrial exposure.
Funded applicants will receive a scholarship of up to 992 EUR (depending on independent income). They are further supported by travel grants, e.g., for home travel.
We highly encourage you to apply if you have:
an excellent bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, engineering, natural sciences or other data science/machine learning/AI related disciplines;
Please help us in spreading the word, especially to excellent international candidates.
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relAI research will be featured at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), which will take place this year at the Riocentro Convention and Event Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from April 23rd to 27th, 2026. ICLR is one of the leading conferences with significant impact and reputation in machine learning and artificial intelligence research.
relAI Publications at ICLR
Seventeen publications from relAI will be presented at the conference, fifteen of them in the main track.
We are happy to announce that Barbara Plankhas joined relAI as a Fellow!
Barbara is Full Professor for AI and Computational Linguistics at LMU Munich, where she holds the Chair in AI & Computational Linguistics and co-directs the Center for Information and Language Processing (CIS). She also serves as Head of the Munich AI & NLP lab (MaiNLP) and visiting Professorship at the IT University of Copenhagen
Her research on robustness, domain shift, and human label variation aligns well with relAI’s Algorithmic Decision Making research area. This work explores how AI systems learn and make decisions in the face of uncertainty and disagreement. Additionally, her emphasis on interpretability, reasoning, and trustworthy evaluation provides essential foundations for developing reliable, fair, and transparent algorithmic decision systems.
At relAI, Barbara will contribute by participating in seminars, workshops, and panels, as well as offering career advice.
A warm welcome! 🤝
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🎉 relAI is proud to announce that the International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) has named relAI Fellow Falk Schwendicke as the recipient of the 2026 IADR Distinguished Scientist William H. Bowen Research in Dental Caries Award 🦷 .
IADR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing dental, oral, and craniofacial research for global health and well-being. This esteemed IADR award recognizes exceptional and innovative contributions to our understanding of caries etiology and the prevention of dental caries. It is one of the 17 IADR Distinguished Scientist Awards and is considered one of the highest honors bestowed by the organization.
Falk Schwendicke’s Research Achievements
His early work focused on minimally invasive and evidence-based caries management, particularly regarding selective carious tissue removal and its economic evaluation. This research has laid the groundwork for contemporary treatment guidelines. His recent studies have increasingly emphasized the integration of emerging technologies to overcome challenges in caries detection and management. Notably, he has been a pioneer in employing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) applications for radiographic analysis, diagnostic support, and predictive modeling.
A significant achievement in his career was leading a randomized controlled trial that evaluated AI-assisted caries detection. This study set new standards for clinical research in the field and informed subsequent cost-effectiveness analyses. Schwendicke also participates in numerous editorial and review roles and has presented at the IADR General Session and various scientific meetings. He has authored over 500 peer-reviewed publications and 30 book chapters and is ranked among the top 1% of most-cited dental researchers worldwide, according to the Stanford global ranking.
In recent years, he has made significant contributions to AI-based hematological cytology. His focus on the interpretability of models trained on patient data to make predictions in a biomedical context 🩺 closely aligns with relAI's central themes of safety and responsibility. His innovative multiple instance learning models facilitate the investigation of relevant cells for disease prediction, while sparse autoencoders help correlate image features with diagnostic concepts. Additionally, his work on linking images and language enables direct comparisons between understandable human terms and cellular patterns within gigabyte-sized digital scans. At relAI, he will support students through lectures, mentoring, and participation in events.
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🎉 Congratulations!
relAI is thrilled to announce that Frauke Kreuter, relAI Fellow and member of the relAI Steering Committee, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Founded in 1848, this non-profit international organization promotes scientific freedom, responsibility, education, and collaboration to improve humanity, serving over 120,000 members.
Being elected as a Fellow is a prestigious honor that recognizes individuals whose contributions to advancing science and its applications in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and colleagues.
📖 The article presents the first exploratory case study evaluating the quality of simplified radiology reports generated by the large language model (LLM) ChatGPT. Radiologists rated the reports as generally high quality but also identified errors that could lead to harmful patient interpretations. The findings highlight both the potential and the limitations of early large language models in clinical communication: while simplified reports can enhance accessibility, medical expert supervision and domain-specific adaptation are vital to ensure patient safety.
💡 The study, first published as a preprint in December 2022, was among the earliest scientific assessments of ChatGPT's ability to simplify radiology reports for patients. Since then, a rapidly growing body of research has explored the role of large language models in medical text simplification.
His lab focuses on the fundamental question of how to develop a scalable approach to building intelligent humanoid robots while also providing formal safety guarantees for reliable deployment in our daily lives. This research direction aligns with relAI's goal of creating safe and secure AI made in Germany. Moreover, his work on ethics in robotics 🤖 complements relAI's mission by emphasizing the importance of ethical considerations in the development of reliable AI.
As a fellow, he will contribute to the relAI curriculum by delivering lectures to students and helping them gain practical experience through internships.
A warm welcome! 🤝
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On March 10, relAI students had the privilege of hosting Dr. Sebastian Hallensleben, Chief Trust Officer at the relAI Industry PartnerResaro, as an invited speaker at the relAI student seminar. This seminar serves as an important platform that fosters valuable research exchanges and networking opportunities for our students.
Dr. Hallensleben is an expert at the intersection of AI research, regulation, and industry. He plays a significant role in developing AI standards for Europe as the Chair of CEN-CENELEC JTC 21, where European AI standards are being crafted to support EU regulations. Additionally, he co-chairs the AI risk and accountability initiatives at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
About the Talk
In his talk, he shared valuable insights on the landscape of international AI standards and their development. The first half of the session focused on the EU AI Act, detailing how the currently developing landscape of harmonised standards will provide the technical basis for legal compliance. Moving from regulation to practice, he was joined by Linus Stach to demonstrate how Resaro interacts with this landscape in the development of their AI evaluation platform, navigating the complexity of accurately communicating technical metrics to a wide audience of stakeholders. The speakers then demonstrated their evaluation framework using a case study based on public crime statistics from Baden-Württemberg. They showed how the framework can be used to assess model performance dimensions (such as privacy, consistency and correctness), compare different models, and ensure compliant application. The seminar concluded with an extensive and detailed discussion on the practical challenges of defining and achieving AI reliability in real-world scenarios.
More about the Speaker
Sebastian is the initiator and Programme Chair of the Digital Trust Convention and is Principal Advisor Digital Trust at KI Park. As Chief Trust Officer at Resaro, he works towards drilling down to ground truths about capabilities of AI systems. - Previously, Sebastian Hallensleben headed Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence at VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies. He focuses in particular on operationalising AI ethics, on characterizing AI quality and on building privacy-preserving trust infrastructures for a more resilient digital space.
