Joachim Nagel: Opportunities and risks of digitalisation in geopolitically difficult times

Speech by Dr Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, at the Presentation of the TARGION Science Award, Frankfurt am Main, 27 September 2024.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Check against delivery 

1 Words of welcome

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you very much for the warm reception – and I, too, would like to welcome you here at Villa Bonn in Frankfurt. Frankfurt is Germany's data centre capital. Around two-thirds of the computing power available in German data centres is concentrated in the Rhine-Main area.[1] Frankfurt is also home to the northern hemisphere's largest internet node. In April, it set a new world record for data throughput, namely 17 terabits per second. [3] 17 terabits. In the analogue world, that equates to around 3.9 billion pages of A4 text. Or a pile of paper 420 kilometres high – about 1,637 times as high as Frankfurt's Trade Fair Tower. Approximately as much information flows through this internet node every second!

It is consequently difficult to think of any other location in Germany more suitable for presenting a digitalisation prize. Without data centres, there is no further digitalisation and no artificial intelligence (AI).

The TARGION Science Award has, for almost two decades, been awarded for outstanding research work. It is presented to scientists who, through innovative studies of practical relevance, contribute to digitalisation in their respective fields.

This year, the award goes to Professor Ekaterina Jussupow for her dissertation on the use of artificial intelligence in medicine. Medicine, in particular, is an area in which AI will help bring about major progress. Are we ready to place more trust in AI in medical questions than in a doctor's recommendation? And how will doctors handle the issue?