North Rhine-Westphalia is celebrating its 80th anniversary this weekend. At North Rhine-Westphalia Day in Münster, the focus will not only be on the state’s history and traditions, but also on how NRW is shaping its future. Marking the anniversary, Minister President Hendrik Wüst highlights the innovative spirit, openness to change and ability to bring together different strengths that continue to characterize North Rhine-Westphalia today. He explained the role that artificial intelligence can play in this context in an interview with the Lamarr Institute during AI26 – The Lamarr Conference in Bonn.
Innovation as the Foundation of Prosperity
“Innovation is the driver of prosperity and social security. And the next major driver of innovation is artificial intelligence,” says Wüst in the interview. North Rhine-Westphalia has strong foundations to build on: it has a strong research and higher education landscape, industrial expertise, digital infrastructure, and a diverse business community. However, the economic impact of AI will depend crucially on how successfully these strengths are translated into new applications, products, and companies. As a result, the transfer of research into practice is gaining importance: How are scientific findings transformed into concrete applications, innovations, and new value creation?
North Rhine-Westphalia’s strength lies in its network
Whether scientific strength actually leads to innovation also depends on how closely research, business, and society collaborate. The Lamarr Institute operates at this intersection, linking AI research with concrete real-world challenges. North Rhine-Westphalia, in particular, offers a strong environment for this, combining academia, industry, and small and medium-sized enterprises, including in manufacturing and logistics, healthcare, and robotics. Eighty years after its founding, the state once again faces the task of bringing its existing strengths together to shape technological change and create new value.