Prof. Dr. Lena Kästner
Elsewhere
outreach & science communication
June 2025
“Menschlichere Medizin durch KI? – Wie neue Technologien das Gesundheitswesen bewegen” [“More Humane Medicine with AI? – How New Technologies Affect Healthcare”] – workshop with healthcare professionals at University Hospital Regensburg
May 2025
“KI und Vertrauen” [“AI and Trust”] – interview for magazine Spiegel in the booklet “Starkes Land Bayern” (with C. Rückert)
May 2025
“Die KI und Wir …” [“AI und Us …”] – public evening event with scientific talks and panel discussion at Kloster Speinshart
April 2025
“Moderne KI: Superpower oder Komfortfalle?” [“Modern AI: Superpower or Comfort Trap?”] – invited lecture at the annual conference of Bavarian Ethics teachers (Fachleitertagung Ethik)
February 2025
“Regeln für Deepfakes in der Strafverfolgung” [“Rules for Deepfakes in Criminal Prosecution”] – interview for HI:TECH CAMPUS online magazine (with C. Rückert and N. Kühl)
December 2024
“Frauen in der KI” [“Women in AI”] – interview for Akademie für Neue Medien and Radio Plassenburg (with U. Schmid) (Youtube)
June 2024
“KI in der Hochschullehre: Stress, Spaß oder beides?” [“AI in higher education teaching: stress, fun, or both?”] – interview for Akademie für Neue Medien and Radio Plassenburg (with N. and A. Koschmider)
April 2024
“Philosophie und KI” [“Philosophy and AI”] – interview for Akademie für Neue Medien and Radio Plassenburg
March 2024
“Künstliche Intelligenz – Nachhaltige Lösungen für eine innovative Welt?” [“Artificial intelligence – Sustainable Solutions for an Innovative World?”] – penalist at IT Forum Oberfranken 2024
October 2023
“Künstliche Intelligenz durchdringt den Alltag” [“Artificial Intelligence
permeates everyday-life”] – interview on AI in society for O – Das Magazin von Oberfranken Offensiv e.V.
August 2023
“Die Maschine in Fesseln legen?” [“Shackle the machine?”] – interview on AI governance for XPLR Magazine
November 2022
“Wie können wir Künstliche Intelligenz verstehen? — Eine Herausforderung für Philosophie, Wissenschaft und Alltag” [“How to Understand Artificial Intelligence? — A Challenge for Philosophy, Science and Everyday Life”] – contribution to the public lecture series Bayreuther Stadtgespräche
December 2021
“Wie der Körper das Bewusstsein erschafft” [“How the body creates consciousness”] – invited discussant at 3sat TV-show scobel (watch online)
October 2021
“Wie werden wir jünger?” [“How do we become younger?”] – interdisciplinary penalist at the presidential symposium of the German Society for Pain Research (organized by Prof. Dr. med. N. Üҫeyler and PD Dr. med. habil. G. Goßrau)
April 2021
“Correlation Wagging its Eyebrows” – session at KI Camp 2021
December 2020
“Mehr Vertrauen durch mehr Verständnis” [“Increasing trust by increasing understandability”] – interview for Saarbrücker Zeitung about the research project Explainable Intelligent Systems (EIS) (printed December 22nd, in German)
April 2020
“Wie eine schlechte Leitung beim Skypen” [“Like having a bad connection on Skype”]
– interview for Saarbrücker Zeitung about the effect of wearing masks in public on cognition (printed April 27th, in German)
October 2019
“Erklärbare intelligente Systeme: Verstehen. Verantwortung. Vertrauen.” [Explainable intelligent systems: Understanding. Responsibility. Trust] – penalist at public roundtable discussion with policy-makers and scientists at Saarbrücken townhall
June 2019
talk “Mechanism Discovery: What Does it Take?” at HHU Düsseldorf
Some scientific explanations describe mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon to be explained. For instance, explanations of memory and learning frequently involve reference to hippocampal long-term potentiation as the implementing neural mechanism. But how do scientists discover such mechanisms? Not surprisingly, discovery comes in many different forms. In this talk, I shall systematically examine three aspects of mechanism discovery. I shall argue that (i) there are different kinds of experiments contributing to discovery in different ways, (ii) mechanisms responsible for a phenomenon may take different forms, and (iii) throughout the discovery process, ontic and epistemic constraints need to be balanced. (watch online)
November 2018
“Basiswissen Yoga Philosophie” [Yoga Philosophy Basics] – an introduction to ancient Indian philosophy for yoga teacher trainees (in German, pdf available upon request)
June 2018
talk “On the Mechanistic Triad” for Neural Mechanism Online webinar series (watch on youtube)
June 2017
philosophy workshop for high school students “‘Kognition’ im Wandel der Zeit” [“‘Cognition’ Through the Ages”], held at Berlin School of Mind and Brain (in German)
March 2017
philosophy workshop for high school students “Glauben, Wissen, Wahn” [Belief, Knowledge, Delusion], held at Berlin School of Mind and Brain (in German)
October 2016
philosophical portrait for SWIP Germany e.V. (in German)
August – December 2012
scientific journalist for tv-rub, main movie project: “Aus der Tiefe in die Teiche” [Mine de-watering in the Ruhr-area, in German] (watch online)
other pages
Universität Bayreuth
department homepage
For the Greater Good? Deepfakes in Criminal Prosecution
research project homepage
Explainable Intelligent Systems (EIS)
research project homepage
Philosophy & Computer Science (P&CS)
website of the P&CS Master’s program
Research Center for AI in Science & Society (RAIS2)
I am co-director of the research center at University of Bayreuth
Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsphilosophie (GWP)
I am elected vice president of the Germany Society for Philosophy of Science.
European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA)
I am an active member and past co-chair of the EPSA Women’s Caucus
SWIP Germany e.V.
I am Bayreuth’s ambassador for SWIP Germany
Universität des Saarlandes
department homepage
Berlin School of Mind and Brain
graduate school homepage
academia.edu
papers, drafts, abstracts, etc.
teaching YOGA
business yoga, substitution teaching, yoga for charity, health insurance certified courses