Björn Ommer receives the German AI Award

The German AI Award is one of the foremost prizes for artificial intelligence in Germany. It was founded to promote innovative research and development achievements in AI and highlight their importance for the future of Germany and Europe. the German AI Award is one of the foremost prizes for artificial intelligence in Germany. It was founded to promote innovative research and development achievements in AI and highlight their importance for the future of Germany and Europe.

Professor Ommer, who holds the Chair of Artificial Intelligence for Computer Vision and Digital Humanities / the Arts at LMU, has won the main prize. This award in the category “Innovation” is given for groundbreaking achievements in the research and development of artificial intelligence. The jury singled out the image generation system developed by Ommer and his team for praise. Called Stable Diffusion, this system has democratized generative AI by becoming so compact and powerful as to remove the need for expensive large-capacity computers and being accessible to all through its open-source software.

Björn Ommer’s main research interest is in the field of computer vision – that is, the development of algorithms that enable machines to understand visual data at the semantic level. His focus on deep learning and machine learning has driven significant progress in image processing, pattern recognition, and image generation. With Stable Diffusion, Ommer has created a deep-learning model for AI-supported image generation that produces realistic or artistic pictures out of text descriptions.

His work has found applications in domains such as medicine, where it is used, for example, in the automated analysis of medical image data. It is also used in the automotive industry in applications relating to autonomous driving systems. And in the world of art, Ommer’s work has opened up new possibilities through AI-supported image generation.

Ommer’s chair at LMU has an interdisciplinary outlook that encompasses the technical and artistic sides of AI. This approach allows AI to be utilized not only for technical innovations, but also in the humanities and social sciences and for creative work. Just a few weeks ago, Ommer was nominated for the German Future Prize awarded by the President of Germany.