Smart Cities, Human Questions: Recap of the 2024 Berlin Summer School on AI and Society

By: Maria Ott

From 9 to 13 September 2024, the Collaborative Summer School of Artificial Intelligence and Society brought together early-career researchers from across Europe to tackle a big question: How can AI make cities smarter—and fairer? Jointly organized by the Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence (SCIoI), the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD), and the Weizenbaum Institute, and hosted at SCIoI the week explored the intersection of technology, sustainability, and urban life.

For SCIoI, which studies the principles of intelligence in both natural and artificial systems, the topic of cities was a natural fit. “Cities are complex, adaptive systems with human behaviour at their core,” says SCIoI Executive Board member Jörg Raisch, who opened the event alongside BIFOLD Director Volker Markl. “Understanding how intelligence works, whether in people, machines, or collectives, helps us design solutions that actually work in the real world.”

From traffic flow to ethical dilemmas

Participants jumped straight into a week of keynotes, workshops, and collaborative projects designed to test ideas against real urban challenges. Psychologist and neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes (SCIoI/Charité) compared human and machine intelligence in solving complex, dynamic problems. SCIoI researcher Asieh Daneshi led a hands-on workshop on optimising urban cleanliness through smart resource allocation, while SCIoI member Dafna Burema guided participants through real-world cases of responsible and irresponsible AI deployment.

Far from being a purely technical event, the Summer School invited critical perspectives on the limits and unintended consequences of AI. In the words of participant Rudi Poepsel Lemaitre (BIFOLD): “This summer school helped us step out of the technical bubble. We confronted real problems instead of creating solutions for unrealistic ones.”

Field trips, group work, and the human factor

The week wasn’t all lectures. A guided tour of Berlin’s Urban Tech Republic at the former Tegel Airport gave participants a close-up look at the city’s smart district planning. In small interdisciplinary teams, they worked on practical scenarios for urban AI applications, presenting their findings at the end of the week.

For participant Yannick Fernholz (Weizenbaum Institute), the combination of structured learning and informal exchange was a highlight: “The keynote speakers gave us so much to discuss. The group work was intense, but it was also great to collaborate with people from so many backgrounds. I met a lot of friendly, motivated people.”

Why it matters beyond academia

To an outsider, a “summer school” might sound like a specialist workshop. In reality, it’s a concentrated week of research, experimentation, and networking that shapes careers and drives fresh ideas into the academic and public sphere. By connecting doctoral students from technical, social, and environmental sciences, the Berlin Summer School created a testing ground for ideas that could influence how cities integrate technology in the coming decades.

For SCIoI, the value lay in bridging disciplines while keeping the human element central. Whether it was designing AI systems for cleaner streets, debating fairness in algorithmic decision-making, or simply listening to the concerns of peers from different fields, the event showed that intelligence—natural or artificial—works best when it is collaborative.

As one participant summed it up: “I learned different perspectives and met great people. The summer school really exceeded my expectations.”

Photo credits: Bifold/Kevin Fuchs

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