The Berlin Summer School of Artificial Intelligence and Society 2026 on "Responsible design of AI-driven autonomous systems" takes place September 14–17, 2026, at Technische Universität Berlin. The 3.5-day program brings together early-career researchers from across the sciences to address foundational questions in the responsible development of autonomous AI systems.

The program focuses on core challenges at the intersection of autonomous systems, trustworthy machine learning, and robotics, as well as their deployment in critical domains such as healthcare and scientific infrastructures. Technical approaches – including robustness, verifiability, explainability, security, and data governance – are examined alongside ethical, societal, and governance perspectives on the design of autonomous systems.
Program
The Summer School offers a range of formats: keynote speeches by leading researchers, in-depth lectures on current research topics, practice-oriented hands-on sessions, an excursion, and a poster session. Dedicated time for networking and interdisciplinary exchange is built into the program throughout.

Keynote Speakers
The program includes keynote lectures by three distinguished researchers:

Prof. Dr. Iyad Rahwan, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Prof. Dr. Judith Simon, Universität Hamburg / Deutscher Ethikrat
Prof. Dr. Marc Toussaint, Technische Universität Berlin

Participation
The Summer School is designed for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from the Weizenbaum Institute, the Learning and Intelligent Systems research lab, and the network of German Centers of Excellence for AI (BIFOLD, DFKI, Lamarr, MCML, ScaDSAI, and TUEAI), as well as researchers from other universities and institutions. Final-year Master's students are also cordially invited. Participants are expected to attend the full program. There is no participation fee; travel and accommodation costs are the responsibility of participants. Registration is mandatory.

Venue: BIFOLD, Technische Universität Berlin, Franklinstr. 28-29, 10587 Berlin, Germany
Organizers: BIFOLD Graduate School, Learning and Intelligent Systems, and the Weizenbaum Institute

Contact: Dr. Tina Schwabe, gs@bifold.tu-berlin.de