Von Insellösungen zu Netzwerken: KI-Souveränität kooperativ denken - U:FF 2026

From Isolated Solutions to Networks: Rethinking AI Sovereignty Cooperatively: A presentation by Sarah Becker and Ludwig Lorenz at the University:Future Festival 2026. Digital sovereignty is often misunderstood as a purely technical challenge. But what good are local AI applications and isolated solutions if students prefer to use proprietary models? From a student perspective, this presentation will show which values ​​and requirements are paramount in the use of AI in higher education and how fragmented approaches foster mistrust, inequality, and dependence on Big Tech. But what infrastructural conditions are necessary for digital sovereignty to be more than just a political ideal? And how can universities create shared structures without relinquishing their institutional autonomy? As a proposed solution, a federated model from a practical project in Thuringia will be presented, which networks distributed servers via a common architecture and enables the cooperative use of resources. It becomes clear: Sovereignty in the field of AI requires cooperation among universities, not isolated solutions. [The final sentence appears to be a separate, unrelated thought and is omitted.] /// The sixth edition of the University:Future Festival took place from June 22-24, 2026, under the motto "Under Pressure!" The hybrid festival was held in person in Berlin, Braunschweig, Essen, Graz, Hamburg, and Nuremberg. The University:Future Festival (U:FF) is the largest event dedicated to the (digital) future of academic education. Topics included AI, future skills, didactics, and strategic processes. Participants enjoyed a diverse program with approximately 280 presentations from around 550 speakers! The University:Future Festival is a collaboration between the Higher Education Forum on Digitalization, the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education, and the Stifterverband (Donors' Association for German Science). The partner stages were organized by the Emerging Tech Lab and the Media Lab of the Project House at TU Braunschweig, ORCA.nrw, Graz University of Technology, Ohm University and UTN Nuremberg, and the University of Hamburg in conjunction with OERCamp. More information is available at https://festival.hfd.digital/de/