Knowledge City HN? Not yet.

Journalist Annika Heffter was born in Gemmingen and is 33 years old. After stops all over the world, she returned home in 2018. She completed her traineeship at Heilbronner Stimme and then worked as an editor. She now works for the AFP news agency in Berlin. A farewell interview about Heilbronn, the local police and the future of journalism with AI.

Annika, what is your view of Heilbronn?

A lot has changed here. On the positive side. I spent my school years in the region, when Heilbronn was moderately attractive: the Neckarmeile and the Bildungscampus didn't exist yet, there was a lot of industry and hardly any greenery. Instead, there was an expressway and industrial wasteland in the middle of the city, where the Neckarbogen is now. A river that you couldn't walk along. Today, Heilbronn is a much more liveable city. The former Buga site has become great, the Neckar has been brought back into the cityscape and attempts are being made to create a climate-friendly and car-free district. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite worked yet to banish the cars so beloved by many Heilbronn residents from the city center. But the general urban development change is positive.

Is Heilbronn also a city of knowledge?

No, Heilbronn is not yet a city of knowledge and, in my view, not a university city either. Both of these terms always thrive on diversity, on different disciplines, cultures and conceptual worlds. In short: Heilbronn needs courses in the humanities. I often get the impression that the education campus has been set up as a rather rigid, sterile structure to train specialists in the fields of technology, business and IT, who will then stay and fuel economic growth. The focus is on making the region even stronger and more attractive economically - studying as a path to self-knowledge and self-realization and the students themselves do not seem to play a role in this. What is missing is art, culture, a relaxed atmosphere and esprit. Humanities students would greatly enrich the city because there would then be a more diverse mix of students.

But there are around 9,000 students, which is a lot for a city of this size.

Yes, unfortunately this number of students is not always noticeable in the city. This is very obvious at the educational campus: it is in the middle of the city and yet there is hardly any life there outside of lectures, study meetings and evening specialist presentations. This is of course also due to the strict rules: you can't just sit on the grass and relax, have a barbecue with fellow students or drink a beer. As far as I know, this is even forbidden. When I studied in three different countries, there were always cheap bars and student cafes on the respective campus, which I miss in Heilbronn. If the focus is not on the people but on the image of the educational campus as a clean, well-kept place, then that is fatal for a lively student life. In this phase of life, when you are usually between 20 and 30 years old, you should be allowed to experiment and be chaotic sometimes, change your course of study, party, fall in love. To allow this experimentation with oneself and a little chaos - perhaps even on the freshly mown lawn on the educational campus - requires, above all, trust in the students. In my view, this is lacking for no reason at all.

What significance does the 42 have for Heilbronn?

The 42 is a microcosm where exactly that works: Having fun together, trying out new ways of working, experiencing community, developing - and performing at the same time. There is enormous openness and curiosity. I believe this is also one of the reasons why 42 seeks to engage with urban society through formats such as the AI Salon or the AI Festival. Important debates can take place at these events and the technology can be tried out and better understood. This is important because, in addition to its great potential, AI also harbors risks for us as a society. We need to engage much more with experts and play an active role in shaping developments. There is already a lot of discussion about ethical issues and data protection, because AI will have a massive impact on how we live together in almost all areas of life. We need to be better prepared for this.

AI: Will ChatGPT and co. replace traditional journalism?

AI cannot completely replace humans. Unlike machines, we can see, taste, hear, feel and smell. Journalists can experience what a situation felt like and present this in an interesting way in a report, for example. And AI is anything but infallible. In future, our task will be more than ever to verify news, reliably identify and weed out fake news and deepfakes, produce quality journalism and bring people closer to the wider world with all its sunny and dark sides.