Sepp Hochreiter is a globally recognized pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence and one of the world's leading experts in the field. The head of the JKU’s Institute for Machine Learning and head of the JKU’s LIT AI Lab has paved the way for modern-day AI with his pioneering technology of long-short-time memory (LSTM). In recognition of his accomplishments, WELT recently presented Hochreiter with the German AI Award.

Hochreiter was presented with the highly prestigious AI Innovation Award in recognition of his work, including current research on his own language model which, according to preliminary tests, is even more advanced that the industry leader GPT4. To put it in perspective, GPT-4 is the successor system to GPT-3.5, on which the chatbot, ChatGPT, is based.

The soon-to-be former JKU Rector, Meinhard Lukas, is pleased about the award and remarked: "This is a tremendous honor for a very distinguished scientist and scholar. ChatGPT and similar systems are becoming increasingly important as information sources and steadily influencing public opinion. As a result, they will undoubtedly change democracy as we know it. Hochreiter is demonstrating just what kind of impact we, as Austrians and Europeans, can have when it comes to creating future technologies. This is encouraging because only by helping to shape things can we ensure European values are a part of advancements in artificial intelligence."

Stefan Koch, the new JKU Rector beginning October 1, also warmly congratulated Hochreiter. "AI is a key driver and component in the global digitalization we are currently experiencing as well as a focus of research here at the JKU. The award proves that the JKU is internationally well positioned in this regard, contributing significantly to the revolution. We couldn’t be any prouder! We intend to continue working on this pioneering technology with all of our efforts to ensure its applications serve the well-being and interests of people and the environment."

Univ. Prof. Sepp Hochreiter personally considers the award as an incentive: "While I am honored to receive the German AI Innovation Award in recognition of my research to date, the award is also an incentive for me and my team at the JKU to continue advancements in artificial intelligence in a sustainable way that will benefit everyone and our society."

Endowed with € 35,000 in prize money, the 5^th annual German AI Award (in the category of Innovation) was presented in Berlin on Thursday.

Under the leadership of Sepp Hochreiter, the JKU’s Institute for Machine Learning and the LIT AI Lab has been conducting cutting-edge research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe for years. At the JKU’s Linz Institute of Technology (LIT), AI is included in an interdisciplinary research cosmos in which research not only focuses on technology itself, but also on its social impact, such as AI and law, and human-robot interactions. In 2019, the JKU was one of Europe’s first universities to introduce an academic degree program "Artificial Intelligence", designed to educate the AI pioneers of tomorrow.

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