Already for a little more than a year, the KI Wissen project has been working on how existing knowledge can be integrated into and extracted from AI systems. The goal of KI Wissen is to create hybrid AI systems, that integrate modern data-driven and traditional knowledge-based methods. KI Wissen is the youngest of the four projects of the KI Familie and thus also builds on the results of the other three projects – KI Absicherung, KI Delta Learning and KI Data Tooling. On February 22, the first results of KI Wissen were now presented at a first Open Project Day. The aim of the Open Project Day was to engage in an open exchange and to promote further cooperation with the other three KI Familie projects.

The all-day virtual event started with two welcoming remarks by Corina Apachite from Continental as the host and Ernst Stöckl-Pukall from the German Federal Ministry of Economics Affairs and Climate Action as the funding partner. Afterwards Ulrich Kreßel from Mercedes-Benz highlighted in his presentation the novel collaboration framework of “family projects” and the impact of the VDA Leitinitiative. Project coordinator Jörg Dietrich then gave a general introduction to the challenges, goals and methods of KI Wissen, followed by the four subproject leaders Ludger van Elst (standing in for Jörg Reichardt), Antje Loyal, Gerhard Schunk and Edmilson Freitas. After this introductory part, the new approaches developed in KI Wissen were presented in three forums, each dealing with a use case from the project: Pedestrian Detection under Occlusion, Complex Lane Change and Controlled Rule Exception. All three forums had the same structure: First the use case was explained in more detail, then five selected concepts were presented in short elevator pitches, followed by an open poll in which the audience could decide, which two approaches would be presented in more detail. This interactive format allowed the audience's interest to be specifically incorporated into the flow of the event, ensuring an insightful and interesting event for visitors. After the presentations, the concepts presented were discussed by a panel of experts, consisting of colleagues from the other KI Familie projects. This also generated important information and ideas for the presenters for their further work on the concepts and highlighted opportunities for increased collaboration between the projects.

The six presentations selected in total in the three use case forums spanned the entire range of the ways knowledge is used in KI Wissen: integration, extraction and conformity checks. Furthermore, the talks also covered the different kinds of knowledge that need to be considered in automated driving functions: mathematical and physical knowledge, normative and expert knowledge, and world knowledge.

The Open Project Day was concluded by an industry panel moderated by Christoph Stiller with Robert Thiel from Continental, Ulrich Kreßel from Mercedes-Benz, Jörg Schrepfer from Valeo and Thorsten Bagdonat from Volkswagen discussing the relevance of the hybrid KI Wissen approach for industrialization.

Overall, the event consisted of numerous presentations and discussions that provided in-depth insights into the work of the first year of KI Wissen. The approximately 150 participants were thus given an overview of the project as such, the initial results and the further work.