Explaining AI decisions using a combination of images and language: Leopoldina and Commerzbank Foundation honour Zeynep Akata with the 2025 “ZukunftsWissen” Award
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 24-Jul-2025 17:11 ET (24-Jul-2025 21:11 GMT/UTC)
When artificial intelligence (AI) analyses images, it can be difficult for humans to understand how the AI classifies the individual image elements. To understand, for example, why the AI diagnoses a discrepancy as a certain disease in medical images, it is helpful if the AI explains how it reached its conclusion. The computer scientist Zeynep Akata conducts research in the area of explainable AI and develops AI that combines visual, linguistic, and conceptual elements, and thus makes its decisions comprehensible to humans. In recognition of her achievements, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Commerzbank Foundation honour Akata with the “ZukunftsWissen” Award. The award, endowed with 50,000 euros, will be presented to her on Thursday, 25 September 2025 in Halle (Saale)/Germany at the Leopoldina Annual Assembly, which this year focuses on the topic of AI.
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