Functions and consequences of artificial intelligence
in the science and higher education organization
Innovation analysis and transfer development
PODCAST
The writer and computer scientist Michael Wildenhain explores the intellectual history of AI. Image: Annette Hauschild
How ideas became machines
From Faust to Frankenschein to ChatGPT: a brief history of artificial intelligence
Broadcast: 22 December 2025, 8:15 p.m.
Updated: 22 December 2025, 9:16 p.m.
Contributors: Michael Wildenhain, Phillipp Krüger, and Marcel Schütz
-
An inspiring historical walk between fact and fiction
-
Literary-artistic and technological paths of AI up to the present day
-
Texts, minds (and spirits), programs – an unconventional approach
In this episode of KInote, the focus is on Michael Wildenhain’s book A Short History of AI—and thus on the content of a narrative that approaches artificial intelligence from its historical models and trajectories. Is artificial intelligence becoming more similar to humans—or even superior to them? Fascination with and fear of automata, robots, and artificial intelligence have accompanied humanity for a long time. The award-winning author Michael Wildenhain traces this history in exemplary fashion and explores the question of whether AI could one day be more than a technical tool—and whether it might even develop its own consciousness.
At the latest with the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022, the debate has gained new intensity. Using key historical milestones, Wildenhain describes the development and interpretation of AI: from literary predecessors such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to early programming pioneers Herbert A. Simon, Allen Newell, and Alan Turing, and on to philosophical interpreters such as Gottlob Frege and John Rogers Searle. In this way, a dense narrative of AI emerges that interweaves the history of technology, ideas, and culture. Wildenhain discusses in depth in what sense AI systems—measured against human standards—can be considered intelligent, where their limits lie, and whether increasing complexity could indeed lead to an independent consciousness that might one day even surpass humans.
A brief journey through the short history of AI is undertaken together with the author at the microphone by Phillipp Krüger and Marcel Schütz from KIWIT.
The current podcast episode with Michael Wildenhain is available on YouTube and Spotify.
Broadcast archive
Friday, August 9, 2025, 8:15 PM
Ghost from the machine: Will artificial intelligence achieve consciousness?
Guest: Christoph von der Malsburg ( article )
Friday, December 5th, 8:15 PM
On communication with machines and the pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence
Guest: Sascha Dickel
( Article )
Listen in: The science podcast from the KIWIT research group
Michael Wildenhain was born in Berlin in 1958, where he still lives today. After studying philosophy and computer science, he became involved in the squatters' movement – material that, among other things, inspired his first literary publications: for example, *k.* , * Prinzenbad* , and *Die kalte Haut der Stadt *. He has received numerous awards for his literary work, including the Alfred Döblin Prize, the Ernst Willner Prize, a fellowship at the Villa Massimo, and a London fellowship from the German Literature Fund . Wildenhain has published several novels. *Das Lächeln der Alligatoren* was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and received the Brandenburg Art Prize . *Das Singen der Sirenen* was published in 2017 and was nominated for the German Book Prize. His new novel, * Das Ende vom Lied *, will be published in 2026. (Visit the Klett-Cotta publishing house website )
In this and the next episodes of our podcast, we are accompanied by the Viennese
Composer Walter Baco at the piano – with some previously unreleased pieces. Many thanks! Walter Baco can also be found on YouTube , Spotify , and with his album Contemplation . (Photo: Wolfgang Kauer)
Listen to the piece Minutes of Eternity by Walter Baco here.