On Thursday, June 27, IPAI opened its first own building including a public visitor center in the run-up to this year’s Heilbronn AI Festival. The latter is intended to bring the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) closer to the interested public, to create meeting points with the new technology and to be a place for outstanding AI formats and events. “The IPAI SPACES mark another important milestone in the development of the IPAI on the way to becoming an international ecosystem for applied AI innovations,” emphasized Prof. Reinhold Geilsdörfer, Managing Director of the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, in his speech at yesterday’s opening ceremony.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE TWO – THE IPAI SPACES
The IPAI SPACES are the AI innovation ecosystem’s first dedicated building and a central component of IPAI’s expanded offering portfolio. There is plenty of space on four floors and over 6,000 square meters for the AI transformation activities of IPAI member companies. “New event spaces, workshop and collaboration areas, digital and hybrid meeting rooms, a podcast and streaming studio and the IPAI LAB – our specially created living lab space – will enable our growing community of member and partner companies to further accelerate their transformation in the field of AI together in the future,” says Moritz Gräter, CEO of IPAI.
THE VISITOR CENTER AS AN AI LIVING ROOM
The public visitor center for AI, called IPAI LIVING ROOM, is now open to everyone to come into contact with artificial intelligence on more than 1,000 square meters and to learn more about IPAI and the IPAI CAMPUS, which will be built from 2025. Under the central guideline “Encounter, Understand, Inspire”, insights into the complex world of AI are offered. In addition to its own café, spacious lounge areas ensure a high quality of stay and enable visitors to explore the visitor center independently, while the Education Space and the appliedAI studio provide interesting learning spaces.
Diverse event formats, demonstrators and interactive exhibitions are intended to arouse enthusiasm and trigger fascination. This is also the case with the installation by German projection artist Betty Mü, who takes an artistic look at the emerging IPAI CAMPUS and draws analogies between AI and seemingly fantastic evolutionary processes in nature.
“The IPAI in Heilbronn is an important part of our successful AI ecosystem in Baden-Württemberg. A unique real-world laboratory in the field of AI that ultimately makes a significant contribution to bringing AI solutions to market. The IPAI should also be a place of dialogue where we can address the opportunities and challenges of AI. With the opening of the state-funded visitor center in the IPAI SPACES, we are creating a ‘dialogue platform for AI’ and reaching another milestone in the implementation of this European lighthouse project. With training courses, the IPAI also contributes to the qualification of important AI specialists,” emphasized Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
IPAI CAMPUS AS A CENTRAL ELEMENT
“The new visitor center will create an attractive point of contact for our citizens to engage with AI in a playful way. The interactive model of the IPAI CAMPUS shows the great vision behind IPAI. You get exclusive insights into the planning progress, which arouses anticipation, especially from Heilbronn’s point of view,” says Martin Diepgen, First Mayor of the City of Heilbronn, describing a central element in the IPAI LIVING ROOM, which will show the construction progress of the AI quarter live in the future and offer insights into its usage, mobility and sustainability concept.
Further information about the public AI visitor center, opening hours, exhibitions and guided tours can be found at ip.ai/visitorcenter.
About IPAI
Baden-Württemberg is setting out to play at the forefront of the world league of artificial intelligence (AI). The IPAI is a center for AI with international format, with funding from the state of Baden-Württemberg of up to 50 million euros. The IPAI is intended to map the entire AI value chain – from the qualification of specialists and research to the development, application and commercialization of ethically responsible AI. In the future, a wide variety of companies, start-ups, research and science as well as actors from the public sector will come together in an innovation-promoting ecosystem that is unique in Europe. Based on the IPAI foundations of sustainability, digital responsibility and European sovereignty, research, AI development and entrepreneurial use cases are brought together in close exchange with established partners and networks.
IPAI has been operating on rented space in the Wohlgelegen Future Park since September 2022. With the commissioning and move into its first own building, the IPAI SPACES, IPAI is entering the second stage of development. In addition, an approximately 23-hectare international AI campus is being built in the north of Heilbronn as a European hotspot for artificial intelligence.
Contact Person IPAI
Jan Denia, Head of Marketing & Communications
press@ip.ai