#DigiWomenKA: Dr. Linda Nierling
Female role models are important. They point out possibilities, they help us to define our own goals and we can learn from their experiences. In our #DigiWomenKA blog series, Katharina Iyen meets one such role model from the Karlsruhe digital industry once a month to find out more about them. to experience. Today she talks to Dr. Linda Nierling, head of the Digital Technologies and Social Change research group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
I meet research group leader Linda Nierling in her office at ITAS in Karlstrasse. We make ourselves comfortable in her cozy rooftop office and begin our interview in the bright sunshine. Linda Nierling comes from Lower Saxony. She grew up in a rather rural region near Braunschweig, where she also graduated from high school. She then moved to Lüneburg to study environmental sciences. When asked, she says with a smile that she is the first member of her immediate family to have a doctorate. Very few people in her family have studied – her parents are not academics. Her father was a blacksmith before working in the oil industry. Her mother was a paralegal, but took on the role of housewife and mother in the family.
Nierling earned his doctorate in sociology and has always worked in an interdisciplinary manner, including at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis at KIT – the ITAS. She spent six months in northern Sweden researching the influence of technology on working environments as well as digitalization and work. Nierling has been working at the institute for a long time, but has also gained experience at other locations. Her stations have taken her to Zurich, Sweden and Graz. During her studies, she spent a semester abroad at ETH Zurich and then started her first job at ITAS. She still works there today. “Being in the same place for so long is rather atypical for a scientific career,” she laughs.
In her latest career move, she took over as head of the Digital Technologies and Social Change research group. Nierling is at home in technology assessment and therefore works at the interface between science and policy advice. She works in scientific research projects, but also advises the EU Parliament on digital issues. For example, she coordinated a study on assistance technologies for people with disabilities and researched digital disinformation using the case study of deep fakes.
“Technical barriers are above all social barriers,” she explains to me. And adds: “This is particularly evident in the field of digital accessibility. We need better inclusion in the labor market and a reduction in barriers in digital processes. Every type of disability has different requirements. However, inclusion in the labor market often fails not because of the existing technical solutions, but rather because of the will to employ people and create good conditions for them.”
Linda Nierling is currently working on how AI can be designed so that people in the world of work can benefit from it. The interface between digital technology and the people who use it is always exciting for her. The need to adopt an overarching perspective in such socio-digital arrangements is also evident in the field of AI and assistive technologies. “While there is a lot of talk about discrimination through artificial intelligence, the focus in the general debate is often on issues such as racism or gender discrimination. People with disabilities are too often not sufficiently considered in this discourse, even though there is a long tradition of discrimination here,” she emphasizes.
She wants to explore the opportunities and risks of AI: “What are the dangers, but also the integration potential of artificial intelligence?” I ask more specifically what she would like to develop further. Nierling emphasizes that there is a great need for research, particularly with regard to the interactions between social effects and new technologies in the field of AI.
“With developments such as generative AI, artificial intelligence is becoming relevant for almost every professional group, from CEOs to social workers and teachers, as can currently be seen at Chat GPT,” explains Nierling. In order to bring everyone along, the question arises as to what will happen when artificial intelligence increasingly permeates everyday life. “AI literacy” is an important keyword here. Put simply, the term describes how well we can speak and understand the language of AI. However, it also includes the individual and organizational handling of the associated risks and consequences.
The project “Digital Germany | Monitoring the digital literacy of the population”writes about this“Artificial intelligence is part of more and more technologies. However, users’ (and designers’) understanding of artificial intelligence is limited . Misunderstandings ariseand the users recognize do not always realize that they are interacting with artificial intelligence. In a world in which artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important, we need to think about what skills people need . Artificial intelligence is changing the way people communicate, work and live with each other and with machines.”
It is about skills that enable users to critically evaluate artificial intelligence technologies, communicate and collaborate with them effectively and use artificial intelligence as a tool online, at home and at work. “At its core, AI Literacy is about understanding AI systems, using them wisely and evaluating the impact they have on our lives and our society,” explains Nierling.
Since 2020, she has headed the interdisciplinary research group “Digital Technologies and Social Change” at ITAS. With the perspective of technology assessment, the group analyzes and evaluates developments in the field of digital technologies with regard to their interactions with social change processes – both theoretically and empirically. It also supervises doctoral students in the doctoral program Accessibility through AI-based Assistive Technologies (KATE). The aim of the program is to improve the autonomy and participation of people with special needs and to investigate the consequences and ethical, legal, social and societal effects of AI systems.
It is becoming increasingly clear that it is primarily the transformative dimensions of digitalization that are the focus of Nierling’s research. The driving force is the question of how digitalization should be shaped so that it is oriented towards the well-being of all. The sociologist emphasizes that no conclusive definition of “well-being” has yet been found in the digitalized world. Ultimately, this remains a question of social negotiation processes.
Her research focuses on the same open questions. This also applies to the “Real-World Laboratory for Robotic Artificial Intelligence“. Here, a large group of potential users, beneficiaries and disadvantaged people of AI technologies of all ages come into close contact with researchers from KIT’s technology assessment and computer science departments. They work together to develop application scenarios in real-life experiments. These transdisciplinary approaches help to analyze the respective possibilities, limits and risks of robotic AI technologies depending on the context. “Ultimately, this project shows above all the challenge of giving direction to the digital transformation. Many different interests come together here and there are very different perspectives on how AI technologies should be further developed in concrete terms and to what extent they should be embedded in social contexts,” says Nierling.
In 1997, a Dutch TA researcher described the still-quoted leitmotif “Better technologies (in a better society)” for the transdisciplinary further development of technologies. On closer inspection, however, the question of what constitutes “better technologies” and what constitutes a “better society” is rather complex and strongly dependent on the socio-digital settings in which the respective evaluation takes place. Looking at possible futures and visions in particular can play an important guiding role in this process.
Even though I could go on asking Nierling about her research forever, I am also interested in the person behind the researcher. I wonder what her path has been like, what challenges she has had to overcome and what particular successes she has achieved. “For me, it’s always nice when the results are visible and recognized at the end of a project. Be it from the scientific community or in the respective contexts for which they are relevant,” she explains after a moment’s reflection. For her, the highlights of her work at the institute include feeding her research results into the legislation of the EU Parliament, bringing together the international TA community for a conference on the topic of digitalization at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, but also the opportunity to make a statement on the news.
Her doctorate and ultimately her permanent position at the Institute were important steps in her career. This is understandable, as permanent positions are a rarity in the research sector. Academics have been criticizing the Academic Fixed-Term Contracts Act for years because it legitimizes fixed-term contracts. They also vented their frustration on social media under the hashtag #IchbinHanna.
For our joint photos, we go on a tour of the atrium and end up on the balcony of the ITAS – in bright sunshine. The castle tower stretches out in the background, but we can’t get it on our selfie despite some effort. Nevertheless, this is the perfect setting to find out a little more about what living and working in Karlsruhe feels like for Nierling. “When I started here, we were just 40 people – now we’re around 120. There’s always a lot going on at the institute and I like the dynamic.” She has lived in Karlsruhe since 2005 and particularly appreciates the positive development of ITAS since then. “It was never boring working here,” she sums up enthusiastically.
She also has a lot to gain from the city in her private life. Her previous stations, such as Zurich or Lüneburg, initially seemed more interesting and picturesque to her. The summers were often a little too warm for her, but she now appreciates the beautiful surroundings, such as the nearby Black Forest. She is also enthusiastic about the wide range of offers for families: “Children’s concerts and theater for families – there is a really nice cultural program here.” What a wonderful end to an exciting and inspiring conversation. I leave ITAS full of impressions on a typical Karlsruhe summer’s day – a little hot, but with a beautiful blue sky.